Full Moon: 8 tips to get great shots

Full Moon: 8 tips to get great shots


Taking pictures of the full moon isn’t an easy task. You’ll need some good equipment to get a nice close-up. Here are some tips:

taking photographs of the supermoon

 

  1. You preferably need a fast zoom lens, like an f/2.8, but you can get away with a slower lens if you stabilise it correctly (see tripod)
  2. If you want a real close-up, you should have at least a 300mm but preferably a 500mm
  3. Shoot manual mode
  4. Set ISO at 100 for zero noise
  5. Preferably a camera with a full-frame sensor. Full-frame sensors do better at high ISO, and you’ll need it if you want to capture decent images in total darkness. The Sony A7s would be an excellent choice for this
  6. If you’re going to for that close-up, remember that nighttime exposure is not going to work as you’re effectively shooting sunlight bouncing off the surface of the full moon
  7. Set manual focus to infinity or just below
  8. Use focus peaking if you have it on your camera to check focus
  9. Use spot metering (spot on the moon) and use the in-camera metering for exposure
  10. try bracketing with apertures between F/5.6 and F/16 and see what works best depending on atmospheric conditions
  11. have your laptop, so you can quickly check your shots on a big screen, and redo them if necessary
  12. use a tripod, so you’re free to experiment with longer exposures
  13. if you want to avoid any possibility of camera shake, use a remote

Mitakon 50mm f0.95 low light performance

Good luck on trying to get those full moon shots, and if it doesn’t work out, remember that another one like this will be along in about 40 years 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wim arys

Wim Arys is a photographer from Belgium Europe with a passion for mirrorless cameras.

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