Experimenting with night shooting

[venchka]

We talked at length about shutter speeds, long lenses and the moon.

All for nothing it seems. The moon is bright. The shutter speed will be high no matter what. OK, avoid f/64 or the shutter speed may be too long.

I knew what I was talking about. It just came out wrong. Look at the exposure guide in the link john poste. This guide is for f/16. Not a friendly f-stop for wee digital sensor

Lunar Photography Exposure Guide (@f/16)
ISO
Film
Speed ...........Full Moon
25.. .................1/15
50 ...................1/30
100 ..................1/60
200 ..................1/125
400 ..................1/250
800 ..................1/500
1600 .................1/1000
3200 .................1/2000

The shutter speed getting too slow will never be a problem when photographing a full moon with a digital camera. Don't most/all of them stop at ISO 100? My example used f/8 or f/11. So...

ISO 100
F/8 or f/11
1/125 or 1/250 sec.

[Terry C]

Wayne

I am just referring to the task of photographing the moon with desired goal of getting both a properly exposed (for the shooter's purposes) and sharp (again for the shooter's purposes) image. The initial question was how to get a "crisp" and "clear" picture of the moon and my response was aimed at answering that question and only that question. I may have misinterpreted your "let the shutter run as long as it takes" statement.

[venchka]

No worries. We whipped this dog to a frazzle.

Follow the chart above. You can't go wrong. Well, I could go worng. Don't be like me.

If the exposure you quoted is correct, Adams must have been using a filter (he often did) or he had some really slow film or he overexposed/underdeveloped for the photo of Hernandez. It's often said that he relied on memory for the exposure and only had time to expose 1 sheet of film. The reward for being prepared.

[Terry C]

Originally Posted by venchka

No worries. We whipped this dog to a frazzle.

Follow the chart above. You can't go wrong. Well, I could go worng. Don't be like me.

If the exposure you quoted is correct, Adams must have been using a filter (he often did) or he had some really slow film or he overexposed/underdeveloped for the photo of Hernandez. It's often said that he relied on memory for the exposure and only had time to expose 1 sheet of film. The reward for being prepared.

Not sure about the filter but I do know that his light meter was missing and the little bit of light he had left was just about to disappear. He only had time to set up the 8X10 and get one sheet exposed before the light was completely gone.

[venchka]

That's the story I've heard. 1 sec. @ f/32 is very plausible. But if you look at a meter reading of the full moon, getting to 1 sec. exposure means very low ASA and/or high filter factor and some overexposure. Interesting story. High 5 figure photo when a copy that he printed turns up.

[tahcoboy]

no i see what i was doing wrong when i tried to get a photo of the other two planets next to the moon the other night.

[90 5.0]

Use mirror lock up and a remote or if you don't have one set your timer to 10secs to get the wobble out you will have using a long lens, use a weight bag if you have one. If your shutter speeds are too slow the moon will be oblong, it moves pretty fast across the sky so keep them less than a sec but you shouldn't be using that long of a speed. Use the tables above and experiment.