Shooting the Moon!

[Tarheelvolvo]

Hey guys,

So I am down at the beach and noticed we have a full moon these days so I tried to capture it to no avail (looks like I took a photo of the sun in the afternoon). I am trying to capture the moon as well as it's reflection on the water but I can either get the moon or the reflection, not both without it looking washed out. Any help on shooting the moon would be great, thanks!!

[Kajuah]

In anything but pitch black it is best to HDR the moon. Shoot 3 different exposures of the moon on a tripod. Spot meter for the moon...ah nevermind you use an XTI....in that case just meter for center weighted...best to shoot the moon with about 200mm of focal length or as close as you can get, obviously.

Use a tripod and your lowest ISO setting you can get away with. infinity focus, aperture of about 8+.

[Tarheelvolvo]

Right, I did that for the moon itself and could capture it relatively well on a tripod at 1/60ith with pretty good clarity (left my card reader at home so i'm guessing by looking at the LCD on back). Took a few exposures at different shutter speeds (1/250, 1/200, etc..) but how do I capture the moon and then it's subsequent reflection on the water in one frame?

Tried f/11 for the total scene at ISO 100 but it was overexposed and washed out by the moon due to it's relative brightness compared with the reflection. The camera wanted to put the shutter speed at 30 seconds. Thoughts on how to capture the entire scene or do the "pro's" use a little automagic in photoshop to capture one exposure of the moon and then another of it's reflection?

[fx101]

It's called a graduated neutral density filter. You want one that will really darken the moon/sky but leave the water as it is. Try a soft (not hard) transition graduated ND filter combined with a 5 shot bracket (plus/minus 1 EV). Then combine the exposures in photoshop or photomatix and produce an HDR. If you want to capture the moon and reflections in ONE frame, you will need a really dark gradated ND filter. I don't recommend this though since the sky will just show up black. If you want the least number of shots, just do a three shot bracket then and create an HDR while using a graduated ND filter. Download a trial of photomatix and test your shots out. I think that after tone mapping you'll be pleased with how it turns out.

[another view]

I think what you're seeing in other shots is a moon added with either a double exposure or in Photoshop. It takes a fairly long focal length to get the moon to shop up as anything other than a white dot, and 200mm+ usually (not always, of course) isn't conducive to landscape photography.

The moon is so much brighter than anything else at the time that it comes over the horizon that it'll be next to impossible to do this as a "straight" shot. Also, it moves surprisingly fast. At 200mm, you'll need about 1/30 or faster to get a sharp image (with a tripod, of course). Haven't done it in awhile, 1/30 is probably close but 1/60 might be better, trying to remember... But, experiment with it.

[Tarheelvolvo]

fx101,

That's what I was thinking is a ND filter might help the situation. I have a polarizing filter that I left in the car before I went out to find a good spot to shoot and was kicking myself for that, but even that wouldn't have helped a terrible amount I believe. At any rate, I think you guys (and my own suspicions) are correct with the multiple shot theory as I had read then before I even went out. I'll play around with it and see what I come up with. Thanks for the help!

[another view]

A polarizer and a split ND will do two totally different things, of course - but both will cost some EV. These two filters together (or optionally doing the split ND effect in Photoshop) are pretty commonly used in landscape photography.

But the problem I see is that since they'll both cost you exposure value, the moon will be a blur - not from blown exposure (or less than before) but because it actually has enough time to move through the frame. And it'll likely be tiny. It's really interesting trying to juggle a bunch of different things happening to make the shot work, but I really don't have high hopes for this. However, I'm definitely not saying you shouldn't try it. Prove me wrong! Show us what you get!