Hi everyone!
I have always wanted to take pictures of the moon but can't seem to get it right. I have a Canon Rebel T5 and I use my EF 75-300mm lens. For the moon, I usually have the settings around 1/200 or 1/400, low aperture (normally f5.6 or around there), and low ISO (100 or 200).
My main issue is clarity. I have figured out how to get a pretty clear picture, but when I zoom in to my maximum 300mm, the moon is still pretty far away. When I want to crop the photo to get closer, the clarity and definition of the moon disappears.
Could you give me any advice on how to get a super close up picture with amazing clarity and definition? And what camera settings do you use to get a great moon picture?
Thanks so much in advance!
Camera setting depends on the size of the moon. A full moon has more light and will require as high as 1/2000 on my camera sometimes, and I've had partial moons go as low as 1/60. This pic doesn't look like I has enough light, so that might be why the quality is lower. Your ISO is good. The lower the iso the better the quality. It may just be your lens. You can crop a little, but not that much or it will degrade your clarity. When you see a super close up of craters, that's not cropping. They are actually zoomed it that far. My Nikon Coolpix P610 is a bridge camera, but it has a 60x zoom, which is the equivalent of about a 600 mm zoom or something.
This isn't using my total zoom. I can zoom in so that only about a third of the moon is in my frame, but it loses a little quality.
Hope that helps.
Looking at your image you need a liitle more light. Assuming your using a tripod i would drop the shutter to 1/125. The image below was shot on a 300mm lens at F8 1/125 iso 100. If you can use live view on max enlargement and manual focus to make sure your focus is spot on.
I'm guessing you already know to have your metering set on 'spot meter' so that the light it is reading is off the moon and not its surroundings. I often start (on tripod), with ISO100 and shutter at 100, with aperture as wide as the lens go. Then, I just use trial and error, but try to keep the shutter speed at no less than 1/60 as the moon does move. With my 28-300, I never go all the way out to 300 as the clarity drops off at the ends of the focal lengths. The good news is, once you have your main settings figured out, moon photography is pretty straightforward.
I've taken some nice moon shots but it was when I learned about spot metering last week that I felt I got a moon capture that is much closer to what I've been wanting. you can check the settings on my image.
The phase of the moon can make a big difference. When the moon is full, it is like taking earth-bound photos at high noon. You lose details because of there are no shadows. You will get the best feature definition by photographing at the first quarter and last quarter moons.
When I started photographing the moon I read the golden rule was 1/125 f11 ISO 100. This is the starting point and as everyone says different stages need different settings - you can play with the ISO and or shutter speed but you'll find you it only needs little adjustment. Have fun - a full moon tonight :) But oh so cloudy here!
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This isn't using my total zoom. I can zoom in so that only about a third of the moon is in my frame, but it loses a little quality.
Hope that helps.