Phone cameras often have a wide lens and a small sensor, so the Moon might come out looking like a blurry dot of light in the sky. But there is a new generation of phones that let you take better pictures of the Moon. Here is how you can play to the strengths of your phone camera:
The moon can be photographed using a mirrorless or DSLR camera and zoom or super-telephoto lens or even super-telephoto COOLPIX cameras. One tip for increasing the apparent focal length of your lens on an FX or Full Frame Nikon DSLR or Z series mirrorless camera is to set the camera into DX Crop mode. This will add the 1.5x crop that using a DX format Nikon DSLR or mirrorless camera would have done, giving you extra reach.
new moon pictures on the set
Yet another technique is to photograph the moon and the landscape as separate images and combine them together using an image-editing program. Use the same focal length that you shoot the landscape with, when you photograph the moon, for the most realistic look in the final composite. It also makes the actual compositing easier to do.
Other ways to get creative: set the Picture Control in the camera to B&W since the moon against the black sky is pretty much a monochromatic image. When doing so, try adjusting the red filter in the monochrome setting, which will give you more of a punchier tonal difference or higher contrast between the blacks and whites.
Jamie has been writing about all aspects of technology for over 14 years, producing content for sites like TechRadar, T3, Forbes, Mashable, MSN, South China Morning Post, and BBC Wildlife, BBC Focus and BBC Sky At Night magazines. \n\nAs the editor for www.WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, he has a wealth of enthusiasm and expertise for all things astrophotography, from capturing the Perseid Meteor Shower, lunar eclipses and ring of fire eclipses, photographing the moon and blood moon and more.\n\nHe also brings a great deal of knowledge on action cameras, 360 cameras, AI cameras, camera backpacks, telescopes, gimbals, tripods and all manner of photography equipment. "}; var triggerHydrate = function() window.sliceComponents.authorBio.hydrate(data, componentContainer); var triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate = function() var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = ' -8-2/authorBio.js'; script.async = true; script.id = 'vanilla-slice-authorBio-component-script'; script.onload = () => window.sliceComponents.authorBio = authorBio; triggerHydrate(); ; document.head.append(script); if (window.lazyObserveElement) window.lazyObserveElement(componentContainer, triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate); else triggerHydrate(); } }).catch(err => console.log('Hydration Script has failed for authorBio Slice', err)); }).catch(err => console.log('Externals script failed to load', err));Jamie CarterSocial Links NavigationJamie has been writing about all aspects of technology for over 14 years, producing content for sites like TechRadar, T3, Forbes, Mashable, MSN, South China Morning Post, and BBC Wildlife, BBC Focus and BBC Sky At Night magazines.
As the editor for www.WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, he has a wealth of enthusiasm and expertise for all things astrophotography, from capturing the Perseid Meteor Shower, lunar eclipses and ring of fire eclipses, photographing the moon and blood moon and more.
What makes this particular buck moon a supermoon is something else. Supermoons by definition happen "when a full moon coincides with the Moon's closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, a point known as perigee," according to NASA.
Supermoons in general appear 17% bigger and 30% brighter than when the moon is at its farthest point away from Earth, according to NASA. Supermoons are slightly bigger and brighter than most full moons, too. Just because it's bigger and brighter doesn't necessarily mean you'll see it unaided, so binoculars may give you a better view.
A supermoon occurs when the Moon, which is orbiting the Earth in an elliptical orbit, is at the perigee, its closest point to Earth along this orbit. When the Moon reaches perigee at the same time as a full Moon, it appears larger and a little brighter than an average full Moon, giving us a supermoon. The technical term for a supermoon is a perigee-syzygy Moon.
Moonburst in Eastern Sierra Nevada - Photographed one day after the full moon, with starburst effect. To create this, use an aperture setting of f/16 or higher. The small opening causes diffraction as light bends around the aperture blades causing the rays. Using f/22 you will have more rays, however I find the softening too much and prefer f/16. Photographed with the 17mm tilt-shift lens, I shifted it down to correct the landscape perspective: f/16, 30 seconds, ISO 320, TS-E 17mm f/4L, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III.
You can photograph just the moon or include it in a landscape photograph, adding interest to the scene. Plan your trip around the moon to include it in your landscape images. Photographing the moon at night with a landscape or at sunset can be challenging to get a good exposure to balance with the sky. Here are the days and times that make for good photographs of the moon.
Mountain Peaks with Full Moon - I photographed the moonrise on the night before the full moon in Yosemite National Park, California with a 300mm focal length. Notice the size of the moon in the frame. I cropped the top of the image with empty blue sky since there was not much going on. Photographed at f/5.6, 1/5 seconds, ISO 100, EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM, Canon EOS 5DS R.
Bolivia Salt Flats with the Full Moon - Photographed one day after the full moon at twilight and a half-hour before sunrise, instead of 15 minutes (as suggested later in this article), causing the moon to be bright in the scene. Photographed with 16mm focal length, the moon appears small in the frame yet adds interest with the placement in the upper right area. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia: f/16, 1.6 seconds, ISO 100, EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, Canon EOS 5D Mark III.
Half Moon and Cliffs - Notice the size of half moon in the frame with the 300mm focal length and how it makes the moon the dominant object in the scene. I like the pleasing symmetry of the half moon. I placed it upper left third of the frame to balance the composition. Photographed at sunset in Yosemite National Park, California. I used f/8 since it is the sharpest aperture of this particular lens: 1/30 second, ISO 100, EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM, Canon EOS 5DS R.
Photograph the crescent moon one to three days before or after the new moon. Look to the west to photograph the crescent moon at sunset on the days after the new moon. Alternately, photograph it at sunrise looking to the East on the days before the new moon.
Crescent Moon with a Point-and-Shoot - You can easily photograph the moon with less expensive gear too. Photographed with the Canon G3 X PowerShot point-and-shoot camera at f/5.6, 1/8 second, ISO 125 at 220mm (600mm equivalent), cropped to the moon. My G3 X article can be found here.
For any moon phase, a good time to photograph the moon to balance the exposure with the landscape is about 10 to 15 minutes before sunrise, until about 10 to 15 minutes after sunset in the contiguous United States and similar latitudes. For latitudes near the equator the time will be shorter, and in Alaska and similar latitudes it will be longer due to extended twilight time. Photographing at these times will allow for a nice exposure of the moon and landscape. At other times the moon can be washed out from overexposure and appear white without all of its detail captured in the photograph. Note that with a wide-angle lens the moon can still be appealing without detail due to how much smaller it would be in frame.
When photographing the moon in a landscape, set the exposure for the landscape. After sunset, I increase the exposure to counteract the lower light level. Once the increase in exposure is enough to cause the moon to be overexposed, I know I will no longer be able to get a good exposure for the moon and the landscape in the same shot. Once this happens, for a little while you can use a graduated neutral density filter over the sky to darken the exposure for the moon, while still allowing for a brighter exposure on the landscape underneath. Similarly nearing sunrise, once it gets bright enough I will no longer be overexposing the moon and with enough light, I will get a good exposure of the moon and landscape in one shot.
Photographed with a full-frame sensor camera. This shows what size the moon will appear in the image at different focal lengths so you can take this into consideration when making a composition of the moon in a landscape.
Use a teleconverter to get the moon larger in the frame. If you are using one, there will be some light loss and an increase in exposure will be needed. A teleconverter is a small lens that is mounted between your camera and main lens. It will increase the focal length of the lens. The Extender EF 1.4x III teleconverter will multiply the focal length by 1.4 and the Extender EF 2x III will double it. For example, a 400mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter would have a 400 x 1.4 = 560mm focal length.
Full Moon and Twilight with Teleconverter - To get the pink band of light in the sky, I photographed just after sunset at twilight one day before the full moon, looking over the ocean without any mountains obstructing the view of the moon. Photographed at f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 320, EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x III for 700mm actual focal length, Canon EOS-1D X.
The deep blue color was photographed at twilight one day before the full moon: f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 1250, EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4x III for 700mm actual focal length, Canon EOS-1D X. For less noise, use a faster shutter speed and lower ISO.
The shutter speed required to stop the motion in the night sky will vary depending on the focal length of the lens. The longer the focal length, the faster the shutter must be in order get a sharp image and stop the movement of the moon and stars. 2ff7e9595c
Comments