Moon Photography Pictures of the moon are popular, but quite tricky. Here, I will lend some techniques that many pro's use to give you a better outcome.If you've ever tried to photography the moon, it is difficult due to it's brightness in contrast to the night's sky. It is a challenge to show the beauty with just a camera. Usually, our pictures come out as a big blob of white light in a darkened background. Sometimes, it is grainy and just not the right light. The good thing is, it's not that hard to learn how to accomplish a photograph of the moon. It is fairly simple to set up a DSLR in order to take a clean image of the moon. The first tip is that you need to have a long zoom lens. Anything in the area of 50-500mm should get you the detail you're looking for. The most important piece of equipment, aside from the camera and lens, is a sturdy tripod. Air quality, affected by dust and pollution, can sometimes affect a clean shot, so you may want to drive somewhere the air is clear and clean.You need to research for the charts online to show your moonrise times and you should wait as late as possible to get the completely dark sky with the moon being bright. Make sure you are shooting in RAW format. This gives you the most control over the details and shadows in your shot. What is the phase?Reference a lunar calendar to see which phase the moon is going to be in. Moonconnection.com is a good resource that will show pictures of the moon according to which hemisphere you are in. Thus, you can plan ahead. Zoom? CLOSEYou MUST have a zoom lens to capture the moon's surface detail. You must have a tripod and, if you can, a remote sensor release. If you do not have one, use the timer function.Now SET UPSwitch to Manual mode and switch the lens to manual focus. Because the moon is bright, switch to a low ISO. Also, use a fast shutter speed. I usually choose 1/160-1/200 sec, f/8-f11 and ISO 200.You can watch it liveYour lens will not fill up the frame, so it can be difficult to judge the focus. You can use LIVE VIEW to zoom into the middle of the moon, and, while keeping your shutter button depressed half way, switch to manual focus and release. This will set your focus correctly. These tips should help you to get a better picture than you have been. I'm off to photograph this Lunar Eclipse!!!
