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Question: How to photograph the moon!?
I am new at photography and want to learn the art of photographing the moon!. I have Kodak 10mp/15x digital camera!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Your exposure will be just about the same as the exposure for a picture on a sunny day on earth!. The reason for this is that the sun is shinning on the moon and the moon is about mid gray in color!. - This is pretty much the basis for Ektar's answer!. Because you will be shooting with lots of magnification, its best to use a high shutter speed!. If your ISO is 100, the correct exposure would according to the sunny 16 rule be about 1/100 at F16 - but you should use an equivalent exposure with a higher shutter speed - For example 1/400 at F8 or 1/800 at F 5!.6!. - Or you could shoot at IS0 200 and shoot at 1/1600 at F5!.6 if your camera allows for that setting!. You should of course use a tripod and set your focus for infinity!. (You said you were new to photography so some of this may be confusing - but the idea is that you can get an equivalent exposure with a given sensor sensitivity, by shortening the shutter speed and opening the lens wider - Each F stop doubles the amount of light that gets in through the lens - So F11 lets in twice as much light as F16 and F8 lets in twice as much light as F11 and F5!.6 lets in twice as much light as F8!.)

If you want details of moon craters in your pictures, don't take your picture when there is a full moon!. - During a full moon, the lighting is very flat because the sun is shining almost directly down on the moon!. The lack of shadows makes the craters hard to see!.

If you are not interested in a closeup, but want to take a landscape picture with the moon in it - one of the best times to do so is the day before a full moon!. A full moon rises at about the time the sun sets - and the day before a full moon, the moon rises about an hour earlier - So as the sun is setting on the day before a full moon is a good time to take a picture of a moon rise!.

Finally, if you want to get really creative in taking a picture of a moonrise, take several pictures at widely different exposures, and try to merge them together using software that has a High Dynamic Range feature, such as Photoshop CS3 or CS4!. (For an example of what High Dynamic Range looks like, go to www!.flickr!.com and do a search for HDR!. or both HDR and Moon!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com

To get the Moon full frame you will need a lens greater than 2000mm (35mm format less for smaller sensors) the angle of view needs to be almost exactly 1/2 a degree for a full Moon, with your camera the Moon will only be a tiny part of the image even at maximum zoom!.

You can connect your camera to a digiscope and use the scope to project the Moons image into your cameras lens, this combination should give you the required amount of magnification!. Once you have your lens photographing the Moon is actually quite easy its so bright, aperture priority (Av) mode works quite well, a full Moon will have an exposure of about 100th of a second at f8, a crescent Moon will be about 1/10th of a second at f8!.

A sturdy tripod is a must as vibration at such magnifications is really critical even nearby traffic can blur the image!.

ChrisWww@QuestionHome@Com

Here's how I do it with my point and shoot!. Most calendars will have the phases of the moon on them in small print!. Look for the date of a full moon!. The moon rises in the East so plan ahead and find someplace that gives you a good view of the eastern horizon!. You have to be there at least a half hour before it gets dark!. Once the moon starts to shine it's very hard to get a photo of anything except a big, blurry, shiny-white ball!. You might also try some photos on the day before the full moon!. The day after usually doesn't work because the moon rises later when it's darker!.

Then if you want your moon in a night-time photo, select it and copy and paste onto a new layer of the background!. Use effects to give it a nice glow!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Manual control
Infinity Focus
Sunny F/16 Rule - F/16 & 1/focal lengthWww@QuestionHome@Com