Moon picture problem

[Teppo Hytönen]

I'm trying to get a good picture of the moon with my S30. However I can only record a quite bright spot but it lacks almost all the moon's surfacedetail. Shorter shutter speed seems to give slightly better result, but I wonder what would be the best setting combination?

 

[CSB]

I'm trying to get a good picture of the moon with my S30. However I
can only record a quite bright spot but it lacks almost all the
moon's surfacedetail. Shorter shutter speed seems to give slightly
better result, but I wonder what would be the best setting
combination?

You have to use at least 300 mm lens (35 mm film camera equivalent) to obtain moon picture of acceptable quality

CSB

 

[Jeroen H29622]

As another poster also replied, the 105 mm lens of the S30 is not going to cut it.

Because the moon is a small bright dot on a large black background, the camera will measure its exposure value from that large dark patch of sky. This over-exposes the moon. You could put the camera on manual and set aperture and shutter speed by yourself. You should take multiple exposures with varying aperture/shutter speed settings to see which works best. That is REAL photography

Jeroen
the Netherlands

http://autorai2001.dhs.org
Cool pictures of sports cars, taken with a G1.

I'm trying to get a good picture of the moon with my S30. However I
can only record a quite bright spot but it lacks almost all the
moon's surfacedetail. Shorter shutter speed seems to give slightly
better result, but I wonder what would be the best setting
combination?

 

[Teppo Hytönen]

Yeah I tried different settings... and I was afraid you're going to say that it won't be possible. Heh. Oh well, gotta see what my furher experiments on the subject will result in ; )

 

[GWS2]

Yeah I tried different settings... and I was afraid you're going to
say that it won't be possible. Heh. Oh well, gotta see what my
furher experiments on the subject will result in ; )

f8, 1/100 at ISO 50 works good. Do NOT try to manually focus at infinity. Won't work. Use auto focus.

Second largest full moon of the year is on 3/28. Hope for clear skies.--Curious Gary

 

[Simon-Ph]

The moon is actually very bright. Try F4 and Shutter speed of 1/250 and you should get a good exposure.

I'm trying to get a good picture of the moon with my S30. However I
can only record a quite bright spot but it lacks almost all the
moon's surfacedetail. Shorter shutter speed seems to give slightly
better result, but I wonder what would be the best setting
combination?

--Simon-Ph

 

[Teppo Hytönen]

f8, 1/100 at ISO 50 works good. Do NOT try to manually focus at
infinity. Won't work. Use auto focus.

Those settings are quite close to what I used when I tried to get a shot. It seems that the surface does show and stuff, but the moon is just so small that it is of no use. I'd need a 6-10x zoom or something to get it big ;p

 

[CSB]

f8, 1/100 at ISO 50 works good. Do NOT try to manually focus at
infinity. Won't work. Use auto focus.

Those settings are quite close to what I used when I tried to get a
shot. It seems that the surface does show and stuff, but the moon
is just so small that it is of no use. I'd need a 6-10x zoom or
something to get it big ;p

Inspired by your question I wanted to experiment but there was some clouds last night and my attemts failed. Did you try digital zoom?

 

[Teppo Hytönen]

Inspired by your question I wanted to experiment but there was some
clouds last night and my attemts failed. Did you try digital zoom?

Digital zoom is no real solution. After all I could just as well resample the shot in PhotoShop or similar prog and would probably get better results. The moon in the picture is so small that it doesn't give a good enough result.

 

[Aaron Chazan]

I'm trying to get a good picture of the moon with my S30. However I
can only record a quite bright spot but it lacks almost all the
moon's surfacedetail. Shorter shutter speed seems to give slightly
better result, but I wonder what would be the best setting
combination?

--
Simon-Ph

The moon is reflecting sunlight. you should use the default sunlight settings expose just like it was daylight. The backgroung is black anyway
if you had a telephoto use it

Aaron

 

[Arle Kruckeberg]

Moon shots have come up before on this forum...in an earlier thread a very good website was given, "shooting the moon" at http://www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/moon.htm
hope this helps

 

[Donald Machado]

regarding full moon....while i will tell you upfront - i have not tried this myself - i have heard that you should set the lens (say 35 or 50mm) to the "bulb" setting - and then set the exposure time frame for as long as you can so that you get a very large amount of exposure and access to light...if you get the moon just when it's up, it's pretty large in my lens anyway...thats all i can offer....any feedback on what i just said would help me understand if what i've heard is worth listening to....

 

[gabeyd]

You inspired me, so I tried it tonight.

This was shot with a G2, 1/100 f4.0, and is cropped from the full size image, no scaling done. Wish I had a telephoto, but I was surprised how much detail I got. EXIF is still attatched if you want to check out the details.



-Gabe

 

[JoeyL]

You inspired me, so I tried it tonight.

This was shot with a G2, 1/100 f4.0, and is cropped from the full
size image, no scaling done. Wish I had a telephoto, but I was
surprised how much detail I got. EXIF is still attatched if you
want to check out the details.



-Gabe

I know this thread is in reference to a G2, but take a look at this moon shot I took with my Pro90. Full optical zoom (10X), Oly B-300 (1.7X), and full digital zoom (4X). I think that comes out to 68X! Or a whopping 2516mm 35mm equivalent! The detail isn't exactly crisp, but it's BIG! I tok it handheld so couldn't even manage to keep the whole moon in the frame.

http://www.pbase.com/image/1517220

--See some of my shots at http://www.pbase.com/jlaatsch

 

[Cue]

Thats awesome!

Well some pictures i took with my S30.I used settings as the ones mentioned above.

I would also like to ask if there is any way (apart photoshop ) to take a photo of the moon along with the detail of clouds and trees without having it overexposed (kinda weird question!)

Thanks!

You inspired me, so I tried it tonight.

This was shot with a G2, 1/100 f4.0, and is cropped from the full
size image, no scaling done. Wish I had a telephoto, but I was
surprised how much detail I got. EXIF is still attatched if you
want to check out the details.



-Gabe

I know this thread is in reference to a G2, but take a look at this
moon shot I took with my Pro90. Full optical zoom (10X), Oly B-300
(1.7X), and full digital zoom (4X). I think that comes out to 68X!
Or a whopping 2516mm 35mm equivalent! The detail isn't exactly
crisp, but it's BIG! I tok it handheld so couldn't even manage to
keep the whole moon in the frame.

http://www.pbase.com/image/1517220

--
See some of my shots at
http://www.pbase.com/jlaatsch

 

[eg #37159]

Thats awesome!

Well some pictures i took with my S30.I used settings as the ones
mentioned above.
I would also like to ask if there is any way (apart photoshop )
to take a photo of the moon along with the detail of clouds and
trees without having it overexposed (kinda weird question!)

The thing about the moon is that it's much smaller than you think, but much brighter than you think.

So, it's really unlikely that any current camera would have the exposure latitude to do a good exposure of the moon and the very dim clouds. You might to do exosures and combine them, but you'd have to be quick since the moon moves at a pretty fast pace.

 

[jonathan68]

Take the picture in twilight. I did this with a half moon at dusk with
clouds on my S30. I don't have the picture here at work to show
you, but the sky came out a rich blue and the clouds stained
red. To get the best chance of surface detail on the moon, it needs
to be about half so that the shadows fall across the craters. On an
S30/S40 you won't be able to make out craters
as such but hints due to bright spots and shadows.

Thats awesome!

Well some pictures i took with my S30.I used settings as the ones
mentioned above.
I would also like to ask if there is any way (apart photoshop )
to take a photo of the moon along with the detail of clouds and
trees without having it overexposed (kinda weird question!)

The thing about the moon is that it's much smaller than you think,
but much brighter than you think.

So, it's really unlikely that any current camera would have the
exposure latitude to do a good exposure of the moon and the very
dim clouds. You might to do exosures and combine them, but you'd
have to be quick since the moon moves at a pretty fast pace.

--
J

 

[crl]

I'm trying to get a good picture of the moon with my S30. However I
can only record a quite bright spot but it lacks almost all the
moon's surfacedetail. Shorter shutter speed seems to give slightly
better result, but I wonder what would be the best setting
combination?

While some people have come close no one has mentioned the Sunny 15 rule. This rule of thumb is one of the first people used to learn to get a correct exposure. It states that the correct exposure for any object illuminated by bright sunlight will be correctly (or very nearly so) exposed at aperture F16 and a shutter speed equal to 1 over the ISO.

Of course to get an equivalent exposure at faster or lower shutter speeds you would increase or decrease the aperture. So using ISO 50 you might want to try shutter speed of 200 at F4. I would use the sunny sixteen rule and bracket my exposure

Remember this applies to any object illuminated by bright sunlight. With a little experience you will soon be able to figure out the proper exposure for a variety of lighting conditions. Of course this was all much more important before the development of all the fancy metering options etc we have but is still very useful.

 

[crl]

While some people have come close no one has mentioned the Sunny 15
rule.

should be Sunny 16

 

[Dave Mac]

This was with my G2, and a pair of binoculars held in front of the lens. I know that takes some of the quality awaw, but I was just experimenting:

http://www.pbase.com/gtdavemac/

I'll tell ya, I could not hold it steady AT ALL, but the fast shutter speed managed to get it without muvh blur.

You inspired me, so I tried it tonight.

This was shot with a G2, 1/100 f4.0, and is cropped from the full
size image, no scaling done. Wish I had a telephoto, but I was
surprised how much detail I got. EXIF is still attatched if you
want to check out the details.



-Gabe

I know this thread is in reference to a G2, but take a look at this
moon shot I took with my Pro90. Full optical zoom (10X), Oly B-300
(1.7X), and full digital zoom (4X). I think that comes out to 68X!
Or a whopping 2516mm 35mm equivalent! The detail isn't exactly
crisp, but it's BIG! I tok it handheld so couldn't even manage to
keep the whole moon in the frame.

http://www.pbase.com/image/1517220

--
See some of my shots at
http://www.pbase.com/jlaatsch

--
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/gtdavemac