Why is it so hard to take pictures at night? Mine always come out crappy and I usually just shrug it off as there are many things I have yet to learn anyway but the other day I saw the moon and it looked amazing. I took pictures of it and like always, they came out blurry and crappy. and now I regret not trying to learn earlier.
When you take night photos, you have to use a tripod.... or have a hard surface to put your camera on and a super steady hand.
Also if you have too high of an iso setting, there will be quite a bit of noise in the picture. This means you have to up the exposure time. The best advice I have is to put your camera in a manual mode (I'm not too sure on the menu settings on your camera). In the manual mode, you should be able to have more control over things like iso and exposure time, as opposed to being in an automatic mode. I hope this helps a little :)
Just expanding on what Debbie said, with your point and shot camera, turn off the flash for night photography. This will fool the camera into using a longer exposure time. A tripod is definitely a must here.
With moon photography though you need shorter exposure times, as the moon is (usually) much brighter than the sky (or whatever) surrounding it. If setting the exposure time is left up to the camera to decide it will usually use a longer time as the camera is trying to "correctly" expose the entire scene. This will result in a fuzzy moon. You need to try and trick the camera into using a shorter exposure time if it doesn't have any way of setting it manually. I can't suggest anyway of tricking the camera though sorry. Maybe others here have some experience with moon photos using a point and shoot and can suggest something.
and if you do not have a remote control consider using a time delay. Most digital cameras have them. I dont have a remote yet so when in manual mode I set a 2 second delay to reduce camera shake from me pushing the button
My photo instructor gave me a somewhat rule of thumb for shooting a full moon... ISO 100, F8 at 1/125 sec. Zoom in as far as you can get, and if you have digital zoom enabled, use that as well.... basically it will use an internal crop of the sensor to get the largest image of the moon. The higher the megapixels in your camera, the better the detail of the crop. A tripod is still a necessity, because at full zoom, any camera shake will still be seen even with image stabilization.
Tripod is essential for crisper pictures.....A lowish ISO, and may be evern mess around with shutterspeed. Tripod is the obvisous one for non blurry pictures or a steady surface as per what Debbie said. I've taken a few and got away with it...they come out so much better if do use one.
Turn OFF any image stabilisation when you're using a tripod. The camera/lens will 'look' for any shakes if it's turned on and will actually increase the blur of your shot.
Keep your ISO low to maintain the quality of your shot but increase the shutter speed big time. And yes, as everybody here is saying, you need a tripod (or something static to rest your camera on) when photographing the moon.
Wow - thanks everybody for the really helpful info (i love 365 people!)...and thanks Valeria for asking the question. Valeria - I have an inexpensive portable tri-pod (fits in my purse) that comes in handy in lots of situations. Something I'm probably going to try soon that's even better is one of those portable twisty things that can wrap around a pole when there is no flat surface around. (Sorry for the lack of lingo - i think if you look at the store you'll see the one I mean.)
Sorry if this is too late, but the correct way to shoot the moon is to use SPOT METERING on your camera. Set up on a tripod and use a long zoon lens. I use a 300mm. Set your aperture at f16, set the spot meter to the centre of the moon and adjust your shutter speed to properly expose. You should have a shutter speed of around 200-250th to capture properly. Understanding that if you use the evaluating meter, it will want to expose for the darkness around the moon and blow the moon out with a longer shutter speed.
I've been using this method for years.
Damn I forgot about that when I was trying to shoot the moon the other night Mark. Although, I was trying to shoot the whole scene so Im not sure that would have done what I was looking for.
Hey.. you giving away your support for free now? ROFL
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Also if you have too high of an iso setting, there will be quite a bit of noise in the picture. This means you have to up the exposure time. The best advice I have is to put your camera in a manual mode (I'm not too sure on the menu settings on your camera). In the manual mode, you should be able to have more control over things like iso and exposure time, as opposed to being in an automatic mode. I hope this helps a little :)
With moon photography though you need shorter exposure times, as the moon is (usually) much brighter than the sky (or whatever) surrounding it. If setting the exposure time is left up to the camera to decide it will usually use a longer time as the camera is trying to "correctly" expose the entire scene. This will result in a fuzzy moon. You need to try and trick the camera into using a shorter exposure time if it doesn't have any way of setting it manually. I can't suggest anyway of tricking the camera though sorry. Maybe others here have some experience with moon photos using a point and shoot and can suggest something.
Keep your ISO low to maintain the quality of your shot but increase the shutter speed big time. And yes, as everybody here is saying, you need a tripod (or something static to rest your camera on) when photographing the moon.
I've been using this method for years.
Hey.. you giving away your support for free now? ROFL