Full Moon: 8 tips to get great shots
Taking pictures of the full moon isn’t an easy task. You’ll need some good equipment to get a nice close-up. Here are some tips:
- You preferably need a fast zoom lens, like an f/2.8, but you can get away with a slower lens if you stabilise it correctly (see tripod)
- If you want a real close-up, you should have at least a 300mm but preferably a 500mm
- Shoot manual mode
- Set ISO at 100 for zero noise
- Preferably a camera with a full-frame sensor. Full-frame sensors do better at high ISO, and you’ll need it if you want to capture decent images in total darkness. The Sony A7s would be an excellent choice for this
- If you’re going to for that close-up, remember that nighttime exposure is not going to work as you’re effectively shooting sunlight bouncing off the surface of the full moon
- Set manual focus to infinity or just below
- Use focus peaking if you have it on your camera to check focus
- Use spot metering (spot on the moon) and use the in-camera metering for exposure
- try bracketing with apertures between F/5.6 and F/16 and see what works best depending on atmospheric conditions
- have your laptop, so you can quickly check your shots on a big screen, and redo them if necessary
- use a tripod, so you’re free to experiment with longer exposures
- if you want to avoid any possibility of camera shake, use a remote
Good luck on trying to get those full moon shots, and if it doesn’t work out, remember that another one like this will be along in about 40 years 🙂
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