Although I only have the kit 18-55mm lens, I might as well still try.
I hardly ever shoot at night, so I need some help if possible.

What type of settings should I go for?
Wider aperture, low ISO?
15-30 second exposure?

In that article it said if I was trying to shoot the moon at:
f/16
400iso

It'd need a shutter speed of 1/400
That seems incredibly fast, imo, for a shot of the moon.
But as I said I'm not experienced with night photography, so is that right?

I just tried to take a few quick shots @ f/8 200iso and 10 second/20 second exposure
They both resulted in the moon looking like a white sun, with light rays coming off it.
I guess I can't take a picture of the moon with a 15-55mm :\

The moon reflects the sun's light ... it's not as, but basically like shooting a slightly dimmer sun. So yeah you want to shoot at a faster speed because otherwise you will just get this blurred out white object that will appear to move ever so slightly so you see two bright merged moons.

Oh ok.
So will I need a really fast shutter speed, wide aperature, and low ISO?
Or a medium aperature with a 200-400 ISO?

Also, am I wasting my time even trying this with a 55mm lens?
If so I won't bother worrying about staying up to 3-4am tonite

Yes, you need a faster shutter speed. Around 1/200 or so or higher. The moon moves pretty quickly, if you do a slow exposure it will be blurry. As Solarves said it's a bright object, and you're exposing for the moon itself and not the surrounding sky.

Chances are your moon will be a white blob - keep increasing your shutter speed until detail starts appearing and you get the right exposure.



Not a wide aperture. Stop it down to at least f/9 or so. You should also use a tripod. ISO 100, and adjust shutter speed as necessary to get detail in the moon.

You're probably wasting your time with the 18-55 honestly, because 55 isn't that wide. A better idea with that lens would be to get a scene that includes the moon rather than just the moon itself. If you're going to do this you'll have to probably take two exposures though since the moon is so bright.

This post was edited by bergmann on Dec 21 2010 07:03am

Yes, sorry to not get back to this thread last night.

I would use iso 400-800 personally unless the moon was taking up the full frame in which case I'd probably still use 400.

Oh you may have stayed up for nothing because 55mm will make the moon a bright spot in a vast ocean of darkness. The result will be very boring. You may have discovered this.

Too bad THAT eclipse wont happen for another 400 years or so. But don't fret because other eclipses will. And for them I'd use a 500mm+ lens or such a lens with a teleconverter or a converted telescope.

I'd mount it on a sturdy tripod, I'd use a shutter release cable, I'd put it into manual exposure. Iso about 800 or so, give or take. I'd use an aperture of say f8 f/11 f/16 and start at around 1/100 or so a second, perhaps more if the moon is taking up more of the frame in which case I'd shoot for around f16 and 1/400 or so maybe more as a starting point. I'd chimp because that takes a second and you can correct things. You want a moon with good texture not brightly washed out and moving across the frame.

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

According to NASA, by following the link above you will see there is another full lunar eclipse on June 15th and December 10th of 2011 so you have time to save up for a bigger lens and a good tripod.

This post was edited by Solarves on Dec 21 2010 09:44am

I don't think you will get any good shots of the moon with the kit lens. I mean I have tried with a short telephoto lens, a 135mm and even that wasn't enough unless I do like a 100% crop or something

Same.
This guy got a good picture using 250 mm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herman_bresser/5280441950/meta/in/photostream/