Saturday, September 20, 2008

Click to enlarge ...

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding-
Riding-riding-
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

The Highwayman - Alfred Noyse

The moon is devilishly hard to photograph. I keep trying and occasionally I get a passibly good shot. Here’s one from the other night I like ... partly because the moon is in reasonable focus ... and partly because of the post processing I did. Click below on “The Rest of the Story” for my tips on photographing the moon.

Tips on Photographing the Moon

• Shoot when the moon is less than full – the angle of the sunlight hitting the moon’s surface will create nice shadows around the lunar craters and give you a dramatic image. When the moon is full, the sunlight hits the surface straight down … no shadows … little definition of the moon’s features.

• Shoot when the moon is as high as possible in our sky – this minimizes atmospheric distortion. When the moon is directly overhead, there are about 200 miles of air between you and the moon. When the moon is on the horizon, there are about 4,000 miles of air in between. Air is turbulent and the more there is the poorer the focus.

• Shoot when the sky is clear – no clouds obviously. Not so obviously, shoot when the humidity is low. Humidity in the air tends to glow and look hazy. Fine if you want that effect. Not fine, if you want a really clear shot.

• Shoot when it’s cold. Warm air ripples more than cold air and spoils your focus.

• Use a tripod – holding the camera absolutely still will eliminate motion blur.

• Use the self-timer feature of your camera – this was designed to give you time to press the shutter and then run into the frame before the shutter actually clicks. It also provides time for any motion induced by pressing the shutter to calm down.

• Choose a mid-range aperture setting for your camera – the middle range tends to be the sharpest focus on most lenses. I like apertures in the f/8 to f/11 range even though by best lens goes down to f/2.8 and up to f/32.

• Choose the ISO of your camera so the resulting exposure is less than half a second – this will tend to minimize noise in the resulting image.

• Under expose your shot – the moon is incredibly bright. Left to its own devices, your camera will expose properly for the average brightness of the sky and over expose the moon. Most cameras let you set Exposure Value Compensation. Experiment by reducing EV Comp by 2, 3, 4, and then 5 stops. Somewhere in there you’ll find the sweet spot. When you get the picture into your computer, use photo editing software to brighten the image to moon-like brightness.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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