This thrills me

[opus]

Kelly,

You are using a Tripod aren't you, I don't remember reading if you are ?

Yes, I am. It may not be the sturdiest one in the world, though. It's a fairly big compact (the better to travel with, my dear)

You are turning the IS off on the lens if on a Tripod ?

Yes, I am.

Do you have anything like a filter on the end of the lens, if so, try removing it and see if it makes any difference at all ?
I have no filter on the end of the lens. This particular lens is a filter virgin. ;)

Getting there, certainly much better in black and white.
Thanks. I really don't know what I'm doing wrong, although I like posting with little to no ps work so that I can get as much advice as possible.

Are you shooting the images in RAW mode at all ?
No, not in RAW. I wouldn't get any more clarity in RAW, would I? I thought RAW would just give me more internal image options, not a sharper image.

If you are what is your post processing procedure ?
None, see above.

If not, why not, you can adjust things before coverting to TIFF files that way ?
I guess I want to get closer to being "better" before I use up that much disk space. All I want is clarity. Then I'll move on to fancier stuff.

Remember only trying to help.
Thank you so much, I really am learning, even though I'm frustrated. What I learn here I can transfer elsewhere.

[Peter_AUS]

Those answers help Kelly. Especially the Filter Virgin bit.

Are Auto Focusing or Manual Focusing your lens, forgot to ask that one.

What time of day/night are you taking the photos of the Moon. I know it depends on when the moon is available in the Month cycle, but all this info will help, especially others that are following this thread as well.

I would try taking the images in RAW as well, you can do a lot of image post processing with the RAW image, like exposure compensation, white balance easier, sharpen the image.

If you haven't gotten hold of Caputre One DSLR, get the trial version and use that for a month, you will get to see what you can do with the RAW image post capture.

Having a Sturdy Tripod is essential for this type of image capture, it is really important that there is no camera movement at all, if you can help it to get a clear image.

This is from a course I am doing from the info book they supply.

Summary for Obtaining Sharp Image.

Four different things you should do in every shot that will help assure that you get the sharpest possible image every time:

1. Do not use a skylight filter to protect the lens.

2. make sure the lens is immaculately clean.

3. Focus carefully and precisely.

4. Avoid camera shake by using a tripod or monopod whenever possible. When you can't, brace the camera and shoot at a very high shutter-speed.

Camera shaek.

This is the most common cause of unsharp pictures. The problem may be caused by the way that you press the shutter relaese button. Uneven finger pressure, excessive pressure, or jabbing at the button can cause camera shake. The correct techique is this:

When you're ready to shoot, place your finger directly over the centre of the release button and then slowly and gently apply pressure until the shutter mechanism is activated. Don't release your finger until after the shot is completed.

[Chunk]

Those answers help Kelly. Especially the Filter Virgin bit.

Are Auto Focusing or Manual Focusing your lens, forgot to ask that one.

Peter, isn't the sharpest focus for distant objects other than having the lens cranked all the way against the focusing stops? Seems like I read that years ago. Didn't make intuitive sense to me and I've always wondered.

[opus]

This is exactly what I'm doing:

Around 10:30 or 11 pm, I take my camera outside to my front porch. It is equipped with a remote shutter release. I plant the tripod on the concrete and make sure it is as stable as possible. Then I make sure IS is off, bring the lens to 300mm, and turn it towards the moon. I try to point the center focusing dot on the moon so that I have enough room to crop attractively. When I've got the moon in position, I tighten the tripod tightly into position.

Now it's time to set exposure. I switch to Manual mode. FIrst I set ISO, and then set Aperture. Then I set shutter speed.

Then I step back from the camera and take hold of the shutter release button. I sneak a peek through the viewfinder again, making sure I don't touch it or breathe too hard near it, to make sure the moon is still in position, then I step away. I wait about 10 seconds to be sure any camera shake from my messing around has stopped. Then, I push the remote button half way. The camera beeps and focuses. While still holding the button half way, I wait about 5 seconds until I'm sure the camera is doing nothing more. Then I follow through.

Then I go back and adjust shutter speed, and go through the whole process again several times. Then I go back and adjust aperture, and go through the whole process again several times. Then I might adjust ISO and repeat it all again.

30 moons later, I'll come in and download them all, and pick the ones with the most desirable settings that look brightest and clearest, and view them, enlarged, in my canon image viewer.

Once I've selected the best shot, I open it Photoshop, select "view as actual pixel size". Then I change my ps ruler preferences to "pixels", bring the zero point to my upper left crop, then go back in with the cropping tool and crop to about 630 pixels wide, 500 pixels tall. Then I "save for web" at the highest jpeg settings possible without bringing size above about 130k.

Then I post.

[Chunk]

This is exactly what I'm doing:

Around 10:30 or 11 pm, I take my camera outside to my front porch. It is equipped with a remote shutter release. I plant the tripod on the concrete and make sure it is as stable as possible. Then I make sure IS is off, bring the lens to 300mm, and turn it towards the moon. I try to point the center focusing dot on the moon so that I have enough room to crop attractively. When I've got the moon in position, I tighten the tripod tightly into position.

Now it's time to set exposure. I switch to Manual mode. FIrst I set ISO, and then set Aperture. Then I set shutter speed.

Then I step back from the camera and take hold of the shutter release button. I sneak a peek through the viewfinder again, making sure I don't touch it or breathe too hard near it, to make sure the moon is still in position, then I step away. I wait about 10 seconds to be sure any camera shake from my messing around has stopped. Then, I push the remote button half way. The camera beeps and focuses. While still holding the button half way, I wait about 5 seconds until I'm sure the camera is doing nothing more. Then I follow through.

Then I go back and adjust shutter speed, and go through the whole process again several times. Then I go back and adjust aperture, and go through the whole process again several times. Then I might adjust ISO and repeat it all again.

30 moons later, I'll come in and download them all, and pick the ones with the most desirable settings that look brightest and clearest, and view them, enlarged, in my canon image viewer.

Once I've selected the best shot, I open it Photoshop, select "view as actual pixel size". Then I change my ps ruler preferences to "pixels", bring the zero point to my upper left crop, then go back in with the cropping tool and crop to about 630 pixels wide, 500 pixels tall. Then I "save for web" at the highest jpeg settings possible without bringing size above about 130k.

Then I post.

Now THAT's detailed.
The only thing I'd change is to use manual focus and set it on infinity. I'd also try it set a little bit less than infinity too on a couple shots.

[Peter_AUS]

True Chunk but there are no Infinity markers on the 75-300 IS Canon Lens.

Kelly try not using the photo at the 300mm end exclusively, but move it back a little to around 290mm.

This lens is not the sharpest at it's extreme ends, i.e, 75mm and 300mm.

Look at the Histogram of the image in Photoshop as well, you will see that the histogram is more to the left/middle and nothing on the right hand side of the histogram, which means underexposure, so you need to slow down the shutter speed a bit more I would think.

Your work process seem OK, only thing that you don't seem to be doing is any USM at all to the image. My experience is, you need to do a little on digital and scanned images as the last process before saving to the web or for print. Just my experience.

Moons not up to around 3am here at present and it not on a good trajectory to photograph, otherwise would be posting here with you, for comparisions. It has also been a little overcast at night as well, although no rain for us unfortunately.

[opus]

Thanks for all your help, Peter. I took RAW files tonight, so I'll post something from them a bit later. Right now I want to post a shot of the moon as it looked as it rose. It's full of noise from the higher ISO, and I didn't have my cable release with me, so I can't enlarge it like the others. But I like the color of this one.

[Peter_AUS]

That's OK Kelly, quite understand and hope the child didn't have to wait too long at the theatre for you.

This is really errie looking, much like a firey red sun taken with a filter. But you are certainly enjoying this I can tell.

I like the moonlight shot through the trees over what appears to be maybe a lake ? of the ones you posted tonight the best of the current postings.

This firey red one is interesting though. Remember I mentioned about taking photos in the last hour before sunrise of Celestial things, because the Earths crust has cooled sufficiently to allow for less heat haze, that we don't ordinarily see unless looking at the right angles.