Some Videos on how to photograph the moon

[Sherman A1]

Just thought these might be of interest to some like myself who are less skilled with our cameras.

http://www.photographytalk.com/forum/tips-and-taking-photos/149454-photography-tip-photographing-the-moon#149454

[Major Nikon]

1. I didn't get through all of it, but there's a couple of things I would add

The two hardest parts are focus and exposure. Everything else is just framing and composition.

If your camera has the capability of live mode (most newer DSLRs do), use that. This will generally give you a more accurate focus and will take care of half of your biggest problem pretty easily. Just make sure the focus square is on the moon.

As far as exposure goes, the best way to properly expose the moon is my looking at your histogram while in manual exposure mode. Start out with the lowest ISO your camera supports and a manual exposure of 1/200 and f/8. If the peak on your histogram is falling off the right side, adjust your shutter speed to a faster setting. If the peak is left of the middle, adjust your ISO to get it between the middle and right side, without falling off the right side.

[ManiacJoe]

2. The "lunar 11" rule is a good place to start.

It is similar to the "sunny 16" rule where for sunny front-light scenes set the exposure to f/16 at 1/iso shutter speed.

For full moons set the exposure to f/11 and shutter speed to 1/iso, preferably using a low ISO value. However, I tend to end up a little closer to f/8.

[canonfodder]

3. A starting point

This might be a help.
http://www.adidap.com/2006/12/06/moon-exposure-calculator/
Gives some good start points, then work from there.
I definately agree with Major Nikon on the iso setting.

[Sherman A1]

5. Cool!

Thanks for posting, hopefully all the good ideas here will result in everyone's pics getting better.

[klook]

4. Good info

I've found it very hard to get a photo with the moon in the sky where the moon is not just one blob of blown highlight.

[rdking647]

7. thats becasue the moon is so much brighter

to expose the background properly (assuming no flash) will take a much longer exposure that will blow out the moon. what i do is take 2 exposures,one with the subject exposed properly and another with the moon properly exposed and then combine them

[kimtjj195_tx]

6. Wow, thanks for the link!

I've always wanted to take a good photo of the moon, especially when it's full.