# Night time Moon Pictures



## MDH (Jun 6, 2012)

Hi, 
I am new to photography and have read and learned alot over the last year. One problem I am having is taking a picture of the Moon. I had a perfect picture the other night of a full moon over a darkened wooded area. I tried every thing but every picture that came out the moon was just this white blob. I used differnet lenses, f-stops, aperatures, ISo and the moon was always just a bright light. Is there any way to get this photo so my pictures come out like my eye sees it. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank You.


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## g13a (Jun 6, 2012)

Can you post what is the setup you are using to capture the photograph of  moon ?
You will require a zoom lens atleast 200mm or more to capture it clearly.
Here's my image using 1000D and 55-250mm lens



half moon by Mohit Khurana, on Flickr


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## jwbryson1 (Jun 6, 2012)

MDH said:


> the moon was always just a bright light.



It sounds like you need to shoot with a faster shutter speed or a smaller aperture.

Are you using a tripod?  A tripod is a necessity when shooting photos of the moon.


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## 480sparky (Jun 6, 2012)

If you're trusting your meter for a setting, that's your problem.  The meter is seeing the black sky, and compensating for it, causing the moon to get washed out as a result.

Simple rule for photographing the moon:  It's called the Sunny 16 Rule.

After all, the moon IS sunlit, isn't it?


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## MDH (Jun 7, 2012)

Thanks for the help. I found the solution. Even though I was trying different f-stops, apertures, etc. I didn't take into account the surrounding area and was metering off of that. I found several articles on the subject and I am ready for the next full moon. Thanks Again


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## 480sparky (Jun 7, 2012)

MDH said:


> Thanks for the help. I found the solution. Even though I was trying different f-stops, apertures, etc. I didn't take into account the surrounding area and was metering off of that. I found several articles on the subject and I am ready for the next full moon. Thanks Again



Actually, a full moon will appear flat & dull.  Try shooting anything _but_ a full moon so there's plenty of shadows to give the surface some definition.


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