The moon has always been a popular subject for photographers—no wonder moon and lunar photography is so popular. But whether you’re trying to take a photo of it in plain view or during a lunar eclipse, it can be very tricky to capture on camera. The moon will usually look like a flat white circle and will be too far away to become the focus of your image.
Even with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you might still be having a hard time taking anything close to those majestic close-up shots of the moon that you often see in art galleries, magazines, and in the portfolios of other professional photographers. You’ll first need to have the necessary gear and gain a better understanding of zoom and night photography to achieve a nicely exposed photo.
Tips for Successful Moon Photography
With the following tips, you’ll be well on your way to capturing spectacular photos of the brightest object in the night sky. Start your astrophotography journey by using the correct settings and a few key accessories, and choosing the best times to shoot for best light and weather.
- The best settings
- Looney 11 rule
- Tripods
- Telephoto lenses
- Schedule the shoot
- Shoot at dusk or dawn
- Shoot when the moon isn’t full
- Figure out your composition
Best Settings and Gear for Lunar Photography & Taking Pictures of the Moon – The Looney 11 Rule
While many photographers have their own preferred methods for getting moon pictures, like shooting in manual mode and utilizing manual focus, the following settings and gear will give you an easy place to start. We also discuss the Looney 11 Rule which will make remembering the best settings for lunar photography easy.
1) Aperture, F Stop and Shutter Speed
Professionals advise that you look for the sweet spot aperture of your lens—one in the middle that will really sharpen and bring out the details of the moon. This is what gave birth to the “Looney 11 Rule”—a method of estimating exposure settings without the aid of a light meter. This rule suggests that you use an aperture of f/11 for general moon photography while setting your shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO setting (i.e. ISO 200 should have a shutter speed of 1/200 or 1/250). Of course, this is merely a starting point—you can adjust these camera settings as needed.
Since the moon is actually brighter than most of us think, there’s no real need to boost the ISO too much. You’ll only really need to use higher ISO levels for extreme crescent moons and handheld photography, so using the base ISO of your camera may be enough for most of your shots. As for your shutter speed, just make sure it’s at least 1/125 seconds (for ISO 100) to freeze the movement of the moon.
2) Use Autofocus
While you’re required to expose the shot manually, you can choose to utilize the camera’s autofocusing power when it comes to focusing on the moon—that is, if you’re not used to manually setting your focus ring to infinity. Switch to AF (autofocus) and do a half press with the moon right in the middle of your selected focus point.
You can also use electronic focus guides, viewfinder prisms, and/or live view and focus peaking to achieve accurate focus. However you decide to focus on the moon, you can verify by viewing and zooming in on your captured image using your rear LCD. If the details are soft upon magnification, you may have to refocus and retake the shot.
HDR or Double Exposure
It can sometimes be impossible to have an evenly exposed moon in a single shot. You can avoid getting overly exposed or underexposed shots by bracketing them, which means taking three photos of the moon at different exposures. This way, you can choose the best photo and delete the rest.
If bracketing doesn’t help you get your winning shot, you can merge the photos into an HDR image in Photoshop or another image editing tool. The same method works in fixing shots where the right exposure for your foreground leaves the moon looking like a glaring white glob. Simply take one photo that best brings out the moon’s spots and another that brightens your landscape, and then merge them together during post-processing.
For those who would prefer to do this in-camera, here is a quick tutorial by David Bergman on using your camera’s multiple exposure function.
3) Get a Sturdy Tripod and Keeping Your Shot Stable
To ensure maximum sharpness, it helps to stabilize your camera with a sturdy tripod. Taking a photo of an object that’s thousands of miles away, you’ll need to use fast shutter speeds with a lens that has an image stabilization system and noiseless ISO performance to avoid softening photos when shooting handheld. But depending on your settings, you could still be risking some image blurring that will be evident when zooming the image up close.
Also, you can reduce vibration-induced motion blur in your DSLR by using mirror lock-up, which locks the mirror “up” and prevents it from flipping during exposure, and a shutter release (or your built-in timer) so that you don’t have to press the shutter button on the camera body and risk movement.
4) Invest in a Super Telephoto Lens
To zoom in and eliminate the dark space around the moon without having to crop your photo and lower the resolution of your image, you’ll typically need a lens that offers a focal length of 200mm onwards. This falls under the category of super telephoto lens. Taking the shot is not what’s actually difficult about moon photography. What makes it challenging and nearly impossible for some is the fact that it requires a long lens to really capture the moon in its full glory. The longer the lens, the easier it will be.
This kind of lens give you enough optical reach to capture details of the moon that are not visible to the naked eye. However, you’ll need to invest in one that’s at least 400mm or more (like the Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM) to really make the moon the focal point of your photo.
Finding the Time and Place to Shoot
Finding the right place and time to do moon photography is just as important as the settings on your camera. Some moments throughout the day will provide more opportune times to get the full glory of the moon. Planning ahead the location of your shoot will also save you some headaches.
5) Schedule the Shoot
The secret to a successful shoot is to plan ahead of time so you can prepare for any possible problems and improve your chances of capturing the best photos of the moon. Your otherworldly subject won’t always be there in plain view, so it’s important to check the weather and the phase of the moon beforehand.
Aside from ensuring that the sky is clear enough for some lunar photography, you’ll need to find out where the moon will be and when it will be full, waxing, halved, or quartered so you can get your desired shot. There are mobile apps and websites that can help you track the moon’s position and show you its scheduled phases.
6) Shoot at Dusk or Dawn
There’s nothing like a pitch black sky that will really make your moon stand out from the background. However, taking photos of the moon while it’s really dark out will leave you with monochromatic-looking images. Consider shooting while there’s still a little light out, so you end up with a bluer sky background and a more visually-interesting image.
7) Shoot When the Moon Isn’t Full
Full moons look pretty great, especially when its gray “spots” are made visible by the right exposure settings. However, full moons can look quite boring and flat when captured up close. Try to capture images at different moon phases. One option is to try for side lighting that adds shadows and reveals the craters on the surface of the moon. Gibbous (waxing or waning), quarter, and crescent moons look fascinating in photos, so shoot before or after the true full moon period.
8) Figure Out Your Composition
The moon can be your main subject or simply one of the elements in your image. The latter is usually much easier. Simply frame the moon with something in the foreground—like a tree or a building—to add scale and interest to your photo, as well as to give the moon a sense of place.
Should you decide to capture the moon on its own, consider mixing it up and place the moon off-center by following the Rule of Thirds.
While there are commonly followed compositional guidelines in most photography niches, you ultimately have the last say in how you will execute the shot.
How to Make the Moon Look Big in Your Photos?
You can use a long focal length (like a 300mm lens or longer) or accessories like teleconverters to magnify the size of the moon relative to the frame, but you can also increase the moon’s prominence by shooting just after moonrise when it’s low in the sky. The lower the moon, the larger it will appear. Shooting the moon with a crop sensor camera will also make the moon appear larger in the frame. For example, a Canon crop sensor camera will have a 1.6x magnification over a full-frame camera.
How do I take sharp pictures of the moon?
If you’re taking an image of just the moon, chances are you’re using a strong telephoto lens. The longer the focal length, the faster your shutter speed needs to be in order to avoid blurry images from camera shake. The rule of thumb is to make sure the shutter speed is at least 1/the focal length.
So, for example, if you’re using a 500mm lens, then the shutter speed should be at least 1/500 sec. Another option is to use a tripod. On a tripod, you can decrease the shutter speed a bit, but not too much, because you must remember that the moon is moving and if the shutter speed is too slow, you’ll get motion blur.
How do you take a picture of the moon without glare?
When you’re shooting directly into the moon, it’s just like you’re shooting directly into a point light source. Glare often is the product of the lens construction, and you might not be able to eliminate it completely. You can try to minimize it, however. Here are some suggestions:
- Avoid using any filters in front of your lens.
- Try to shoot at the widest aperture of the lens.
- Use a single focal length or prime lens rather than a zoom, if possible.
- Use your lens hood.
It might also help if you position the moon at different parts of the scene. For example, off center or at the corner.
Does the Phase of the Moon Matter?
The full moon is one of the more common phases for photographers to shoot, but crescent moons and other phases can be very photogenic as well. The moon will appear the largest and will therefore be the most impactful during gibbous and full moon phases. While the surface size of the moon will be smaller before and after the full moon, the portions of the moon that you do see will be just as bright and will often require similar camera settings. Experiment with photographing the moon during different phases to see how the shape and form of the moon affects your images.
Moon Phases and How to Photograph Them
New Moon
New moon is synonymous with no moon. When in new moon, the moon is in complete shadow and invisible in the sky. You’ll not see it at all because it also rises and sets with the sun. Obviously, you won’t be doing any moon photography. However, this is the best time to photograph stars, the Milky Way and the northern lights. The bright moon is not present to “drown out” the other celestial bodies.
Waxing Crescent
In the northern hemisphere, as the moon progresses through its phases from new moon to full moon, it appears to grow from right to left. In the southern hemisphere, it’s the exact opposite. The moon appears to progressively illuminate from left to right. As the waxing crescent moon transitions to the waxing quarter, it will rise in the morning, reach its height around dusk, and set around midnight.
Waxing Quarter
In this phase, the moon with be ½ illuminated. It will be visible during daylight hours so you can make some interesting “daytime” compositions with the moon in the picture. There will be enough illumination from the moon light to cast some weak shadows on foreground elements during long-exposure photography.
Waxing Gibbous
The waxing gibbus is almost full and provides excellent light to the foreground. It’s usually present throughout a good deal of the night and provides nice shadows on foreground elements during long exposure photography.
Full Moon
This is arguably the best time for moon photography. It comes up at sunset and disappears with sunrise. In a dark environment, the full moon often offers enough light to see by. There are, in fact, many who do full moon hikes without the aid of any artificial light. The full moon will provide very strong shadows to foreground elements. There’s a saying, “The moon shines brightly in a sea of little stars, but disappears with the appearance of a single sun.” Well, the full moon is so bright, that other celestial bodies such as stars, milky way, and northern light are often invisible or only faintly visible.
Waning Gibbous
As the waning moon moves into its third (waning) quarter, it will rise at midnight and set in the morning. What applies for waxing also applies for waning gibbus as far as the amount of light it generates. If you want to get images of the moon craters, this is probably the best moon phase to use as the shadows on the moon surface are strongest and allow for craters to be the most conspicuous.
Waning Quarter
The waning quarter moon is about 50% full. It’s visible from late at night till morning.
Waning Crescent
The moon during the waning crescent is almost dark. It lasts from dawn until the afternoon. It’s dark enough that you can still get some decent images of the milky way, stars, and northern lights. The new moon is next and the moon phases repeat.
Photographing a Regular Moon vs Super Moon
A super moon occurs when the moon is closer to Earth in its orbit and therefore appears up to 14% larger. Many photographers like to take advantage of this opportunity to photograph images of the moon in relation to architecture or natural settings like mountains, sandstone arches, or trees. Not only does the moon appear larger, but it will appear brighter by up to 30%. This will somewhat affect your settings, so if you’re used to photographing a regular moon, you’ll need to underexpose a bit to compensate for the added brightness. Just like a regular moon, the super moon will appear largest just above the horizon.
Photographing the Moon on Your Smartphone
Can you take moon pictures on your smartphone? Without using lens accessories or special apps, taking images of the moon with your phone often results in an underwhelming image of a white blob and a moon close up shot is impossible. Fortunately, many companies create aftermarket lenses that you can use with your Android or iPhone to convert the phone’s wide-angle lens into a telephoto lens and magnify the size of the moon in your shots. You can also use some telescopes with an adapter that connects to your smartphone for great lunar shots. Bonus tip: Use a tripod with your smartphone to avoid camera shake.
