Photographing the Supermoon…..or any moon for that matter

“If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s OK. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot.” – Confucius

So, you were part of the craze….the mass hysteria to run out and photograph the moon last night. Largest moon in 18 years. Wow, looks awesome you thought. Gotta capture it!. You reach for the the iphone, or perhaps grab the point and shoot. A flash goes off. You look at the screen. Good grief, that looks like garbage!

Not the easiest task, I know!

There is alot of range of light level there, especially after the sun is completely set and the sky is pitch black. Set up the scene with a bit of forground and expose for the shadows and you have a nice photo of a blob of light. Expose for the moon itself and thats all you have….everything else fades away into complete darkness. With all that being said, I found a little post that might help you out on your next outing with the moon. Don’t worry, it will be there again. Lots of chances to get it right.

Check out Lisa’s link below for a little more info on how to get it right. I agree with it all except for the exposure part. (part 5)

I opted for about a 1/250 shutter speed with an fstop of 8 as that puppy is cruising thru the air. Any slower and you chance extreme blur and thus, a lame shot of the moon. Other than that, she is spot on

Thanks Lisa!

Check out her link here!   Mostlylisa

As far as my shots here, although I shot the moon with a 200mm with a 1.4 converter, I severely cropped it to get this larger image. Great detail I think. As far as the other, well, I took a little artistic license on this one 🙂