Is it possible to photograph the moon at night? Learning to photograph the Moon

On November 14th we will have another supermoon. For astronomers, this may be a fairly ordinary event, but for photographers, a supermoon is an opportunity to take spectacular photographs of the Moon.

In anticipation of the biggest supermoon of 2016 (a supermoon that only happens once every 48 years), we're sharing some tips for photographing the Moon in all its glory.

Without going into too much detail, a supermoon is a phenomenon when the Moon is at its closest point to Earth, making it 14% larger and 30% brighter to an observer on Earth. The supermoon is a great time to experiment and take some impressive photos of the moon.

How to Photograph the Moon: Equipment Required

You don't need any special equipment to photograph the Moon. For example, the photo below was taken with an 18-135mm kit lens and then cropped so that the Moon filled the frame:

So what you will need:

• A DSLR with a zoom lens (ideally you'll want a telephoto lens), or
• Release cable, remote control remote control or self-timer function.

How to Photograph the Moon: Camera Setup

Switch your camera to Manual mode or Shutter Priority (TV) mode.

Set the sensitivity between 100 and 200 to minimize noise. Choose your shutter speed depending on the ambient light and the effect you want to achieve.

Because the Moon is a very bright light source and moves quite quickly, you need to choose a fast shutter speed to ensure the Moon is not blurry.

For shooting, try using the F/16 Rule: that is, with an aperture of f/16, the shutter speed should be the number reciprocal ISO sensitivity. For example, if you are shooting at ISO 100, you should choose a shutter speed of 1/100 sec (or 1/125 depending on your camera model).

Depending on the lighting conditions, the f/16 aperture may be too narrow; in this case, open it down to f/11. In any case, you will need to take test pictures and select the settings that give the most acceptable result for you. The main thing you must remember is that the most top scores can be obtained at aperture sizes of f/8 and higher.

Be sure to shoot in RAW format, as this will give you more flexibility when processing the resulting photo.

How to Photograph the Moon: Focus Settings

For supermoon photography, it's best to use manual focus, as autofocus tends to be poor in low light. good results. Manual focusing will allow you to focus exactly where you want.

Set the focus mode switch on the lens or camera body to MF. Using Live View with the ability to zoom the image will help you choose the best focus point, and eliminate the need to try to focus the camera by squinting into the viewfinder.

If you want very sharp photos, you can resort to , which is great not only for macro photography but also for moon photography.

How to Photograph the Moon: Metering Settings

Do you want to get a clear shot of the moon against a contrasting black night sky? The mode will help you achieve the desired result, since it measures a very small part of the scene - usually coinciding with the central focusing point.

Spot metering works best when using zoom lenses because they allow you to frame the image so that the exposure is not affected by extraneous light sources outside the Moon (stars, street lights, etc.).

If there are other objects in the frame besides the Moon and you want to achieve a silhouette effect, then the most suitable would be.

By the way, if you want to expand the capabilities of your zoom lens and don't have the expense of purchasing a telephoto lens, you can use a teleconverter. But remember that using a teleconverter may affect the performance of the lens you pair it with, and the resulting image may not be as sharp as you expected.

How to Photograph the Moon: Eliminate Vibration

Blurred photographs can result not only from the lack of a tripod, but also from vibrations that occur when the shutter is released. To avoid this you must use a cable release or camera remote control

I saw a discussion about a photograph in which the silhouette of a cyclist was shot against the backdrop of a large moon. Many commentators thought that this was editing (it is incorrect to think that “editing” and “Photoshop” are synonyms). I'll tell you how to take such a picture and why this effect is obtained.

It's simple. Long-focus optics were used to photograph the large moon. The original post described that a double teleconverter was attached to the 800 mm lens, resulting in a focal length of 1600 mm. What does this give? Let me explain on simple circuits.

A wide-angle lens differs from a long-angle lens in its viewing angle. So, the new Canon EF 24-70 2.8L II has a viewing angle of 84 at 24 millimeters of focal length (with a camera like Canon 5D Mark III), and 34.3 degrees at 70 millimeters (59.1 and 22 degrees on cropped cameras like Canon 100D-70D, respectively). That is, your camera looks at the world like this:

Changing focal length You also change the angular dimensions of objects in the frame in the photo.

Let's say we need to photograph a ball with a cube. The distance between the ball itself and the cube does not change - they stand in a clearing. So that the ball takes up most of the frame with wide angle lens we will get as close to it as possible. What happens to the cube? In the picture (on the right) it turns out to be much smaller than the ball:

If we put a long lens on the camera, we will have to move further away - the ball will not fit into the frame with close range, because the viewing angle of a “telephoto” is much smaller:

To be precise, for the 800mm Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM, which was used to take the photo of the cyclist, it is 3.1 degrees (!) on a camera like the Canon 5D Mark III.

And since you move further away, the angular sizes of objects in the frame... will also change! The object that was further away will look larger in the photo, and the further you move away, the larger the cube will appear relative to the ball. Even an interesting effect is possible here: if the cube is initially larger than the ball, then when shooting with a wide-angle lens it will appear much smaller than the ball, and when shooting with a long-angle lens it will appear larger and will protrude beyond its edges!

Now about practice. To shoot a large moon, you'll need a long lens that allows you to stand as far away from the object you want to photograph against the moon. On a DSLR you can get an inexpensive 70-300. And if you attach a two-time inexpensive teleconverter to the 70-300, take a camera with a cropped sensor, then you will get 300x2x1.6 = 960 millimeters of focal length. Move a sufficient distance away, install the camera on a tripod, point at the subject and the moon, set it up and . And of course, don’t forget to select the object that is needed in the frame “for scale” - it could be a building, a car or something else.

Another point worth considering is that the moon is usually visible at night, which means we don’t have enough light. It would seem, what needs to be done? Increase the shutter speed so as not to raise the ISO, especially since 70-300 lenses, and even with a teleconverter, are very dark. But this is wrong - the moon moves across the sky and it is impossible to photograph it with a shutter speed of several minutes, because it will be smeared, like cars and moving people are smeared. With a focal length of about 1000-1500 millimeters, the shutter speed should not be longer than 0.5 seconds; when photographing at 300 millimeters, you can increase the shutter speed to two or three seconds, but no more. This means that in order to ensure such a shutter speed with the existing aperture, you will have to raise the ISO. How much? Look at the situation digital cameras allow you to deal with this quickly.

There is a third nuance. The moon reflects the light of the sun very strongly. Getting a properly exposed moon and a beautiful sky with clouds or stars at the same time is not so easy. Here you can resort to collaging - shoot the moon with one shutter speed, and clouds and stars with other settings, and then put everything together in Photoshop. Still, as I have said many times, .

The last nuance: the moon low above the horizon appears several times larger than when it is high in the sky and it is advantageous to shoot it at such a moment. This phenomenon is well described in Wiki. However, it says almost nothing about atmospheric lenses, and the moon does not appear very large every day.

Something like this. I tried to explain it as simply as possible, I hope it worked. By the way, my wonderful friend and seasoned photography expert spoke well about the effect of focal length on perspective podakuni in our series of articles “How to take photographs with a mirrorless camera” on THG.ru. For those who have not read it, I recommend it - there is a lot of educational information and theoretical foundations, which can be used when shooting with any camera.

Summarizing. This is undoubtedly a montage:

Judging by the perspective, to get such a picture of the girl, you would have to use a wide-angle lens and shoot close. The moon in such a photograph would look like this:

Here is an example of shooting the sun at sunset. I photographed this on the way to Rybinsk:

EXIF is saved in the image, you can see the shooting parameters yourself. I did not change the size of the sun in Photoshop.

Of course, in such photographs some kind of processing is often used - the same increase in contrast, for example, to make the photo more dramatic, playing with white balance. But do not confuse processing, retouching and collaging - any of these concepts fits into “Photoshop”, but these are fundamentally different things.

Since I bought my camera. When I first bought it, about 5 years ago, I thought it would be unlikely to get decent pictures with the inexpensive equipment I had then. Only after I got used to shooting in manual mode did I realize that night photography is absolutely real.

Night photography comes down to the technique of long exposure of a photograph. In simple words this means that you open the shutter and allow light to hit the sensor for an extended period of time, instead of the standard shutter opening and closing time that occurs in Auto mode.

The only thing required for long exposure is an understanding of the basic concept of manual mode. This means understanding how concepts such as shutter speed, aperture and ISO relate to each other in order to get the best image.

The purpose of this article is to inspire you to get out and take some pictures yourself. I warn you - it's addictive.

Photographing the Moon

Let's start with one of the simplest objects that can be found in the night sky - the Moon. It requires no additional equipment other than a digital SLR and a long focal length (or zoom) lens. If you want to photograph a lunar eclipse, or shoot panoramic night landscapes, then these are more complex tasks, and I will go into them a little later.

Equipment

DSLR camera and lens

Ideally, you are the owner of the digital SLR camera or have access to it. If not, you can buy a used digital SLR at affordable price. I quickly found a Canon Rebel T2i/T3is for $300-$400. Or you can buy a new camera for $500-$1000 (or more).

Speaking of lenses, in order to capture such close-ups of the moon, I would recommend a lens with at least a 200mm lens (this is called a telephoto lens). You can always buy a used lens, but they are harder to find. I read good feedback about Canon AF 70-300mm, you can buy it new for $380. You won't find it cheaper!

Tripod

Since the Moon is quite bright, a tripod is not necessary, but it is very convenient to work with if you need to get a guaranteed clear shot. If, for example, you are filming a lunar eclipse, then you will definitely need a tripod, since the brightness of the Moon will be much less than usual. Anyone will do tripod. I've been using a 40 bucks tripod for years now. You can find one at any photo store.

Remote shutter control

It is only required when shooting lunar eclipse or when photographing a wide-angle panorama. When shooting with long exposure, by pressing the shutter release as standard, you can move the camera, which will lead to a blurry image in the photo.

This can also be avoided using the control panel. They are usually super cheap if you buy them on eBay or Amazon. I would recommend purchasing an intervalometer, they are only a couple of bucks more expensive than remotes, and have more functionality (hint: time lapses!). If you don't want to use remote control, you can just use the camera's timer.

My photographic equipment

Over time, I upgrade the equipment I use. That's why I often buy more modern equipment. The first one I had was a Canon Rebel T2i (EOS 550D) DSLR with a 50mm lens and a tripod for 40 bucks. And today I use the following for lunar photography:

• Canon 6D camera;
• Canon EF 100–400mm f/4.5–5.6L USM lens;
• Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod with 804RC2 panoramic tilt head.

Also, ever since the iPhone came out with built-in wi-fi, I've been using it to remotely control my Canon 6D.

Preparatory work

Moon position and phase

If you are not an experienced astronomer, you will need some help to determine exactly when and where the moon will be in the night sky, including what its phase will be. You can go outside and see everything for yourself, or use iPhone app, for example, SkyView is a virtual sky in your pocket. What I do is enter “Moon” into the search and the program shows what position it is in the sky and what phase it is in.

I can track its changes over time by tapping the bottom of the screen to bring up the time settings menu. Here you can see the location of the Moon, and what it will be like on a certain day and time.

Besides being incredibly fun just to play around with, the app will allow you to plan outings to take photos of whatever you want.

Main application screen (left). When you click on the magnifying glass, we enter the search (on the right).

Weather

The next thing to check is the weather. The biggest problem when filming anything in the sky is cloudiness. Best method To guard against this, go outside and see what kind of clouds there are. If everything is fine, start taking your shots.

However, if you're hoping to capture a special shot like a supermoon or lunar eclipse, it's important to know what will be weather. If it’s cloudy, then there may be no point in getting out of bed at night and driving somewhere far away.

When it comes to weather, Clear Dark Sky is a must-have site. It provides simple astronomical forecast charts that you can use to photograph the night sky.

There are many details in these graphs, but the ones that will be most relevant to you if you are going to shoot the Moon are in the top row - Cloud Cover. If everything here near the time you plan to shoot is filled with white squares, you're probably out of luck. If the squares are dark blue, this is probably good conditions. In the example below, the Wednesday afternoon sky looks completely cloudy, but clears up nicely in the evening by 10:00 p.m.

Composition

In general, the composition does not play big role, if you just want to capture the Moon. I usually center her in the frame and take the photo. You can add interest to your shot by adding something in the foreground, such as a tree or barn. This will add depth to the image, but such scenes can only really be captured with a very long telephoto lens.

For photography, you can use a lens with a shorter focal length and then crop the composition, but the result may be an image with insufficient detail and noise/grain will be noticeable.

I like to capture the Moon behind the clouds. This adds mysticism. The first photo uses clouds for the setting and a tree in the foreground for framing. The second image uses only cloud cover.

Don't always do only close-ups. The transition to a wide-angle shot that includes the ground is equally cool.

The shot below requires more skill as you need to keep the shutter open for about 15 seconds, and you need to set your aperture and ISO to ensure you get a beautiful composition. In the photo, the Moon rises over a farmer's field.

Shooting

Once you arrive on location with your camera mounted on a tripod, there are a few things to double check.

First, make sure your camera is set to take RAW photos and not JPEG. This will give you the opportunity to be more flexible with the light, which can be improved in post-processing (more on this below).

Secondly, focusing can be a little more difficult at night because the light entering the camera lacks contrast. In most cases, when shooting the Moon, to avoid any problems in the photo, turn off autofocus. In low light conditions, autofocus may not work at all. In such circumstances I use manual focusing.

To get sharp focus, I go into live view and use the digital zoom - that's the magnifying glass in your camera.

Try to understand your camera to understand how to work with it. Here are the buttons for Canon 6D:

Press the live view button (top) and then use the zoom (below) to digitally enlarge your subject

Once you have zoomed into the desired composition in the frame, focus manually using the focus ring on the lens. Use the live view display to focus on the moon. After this, try not to touch the lens again.

One last thing to consider is that the Moon moves very quickly. You'll have to capture the composition and take the photos relatively quickly, and manually track the Moon while adjusting the camera's position with a tripod. In addition to this, when zooming in on the Moon, the shutter speed should be less than 2 seconds, otherwise the Moon will be blurred by movement.

Now you are ready to shoot! Below are a few initial shooting settings that I use in different conditions:

Natural bright moon:

• Aperture f/11.
• ISO 100.
• Shutter speed 1/20 - 1/50 second.
• Focal length 400 mm.

I usually start with the above settings and adjust them depending on the result I see in the test shot. One thing to keep in mind is that the lower your aperture is, the sharper your image will be. However, you can't cover it too much, otherwise diffraction will eat away at your sharpness.

Use the calculator to see how the impact of aperture value can affect and degrade a photograph.

Knowing all this, if your image is too bright, stop your aperture down to f/11 or f/16 and leave the rest of the settings alone. Below is an example of a very bright Moon that looks really sharp and beautiful.

Shutter speed 1/50s, f/22, ISO 200. Focal length 400mm

The image you take will not look the same as this photo. It was heavily cropped and lightly tinted. Dont be upset. Here's what you can roughly see on your camera:

Shot straight from the camera, without cropping or post-processing

In case you want to shoot a dark moon, this changes things up a bit. Since there is already little light, you need to change the camera settings so that what is in the sky can reach its sensor. The aperture must be fully open. This will allow you to pass maximum number light that the lens can transmit. Then you need to increase the shutter speed to allow even more light to reach the sensor.

Lastly, you'll probably need to increase your ISO to make your camera more sensitive. Lack of balance in these changes will lead to deterioration in sharpness and increased noise. The rule I follow is to raise the ISO last.

Here are the settings I used for the last lunar eclipse:

• aperture f/6.3.
• Focal length 400 mm.
• Shutter speed 1.3 seconds.
• ISO 400.

Wide viewing angle

The Main Difference Between Photographing a Lunar Eclipse close-up and panoramic in that the telephoto lens is replaced by a wide-angle lens; such as the 18-55mm that comes with most entry-level DSLRs.

Another one a big difference the point is that you need to let more light into the camera sensor so that both the night landscape and the stars can fit into the image. Because of this, the Moon will have to be overexposed (overexposed) a little, but the result will look beautiful.

Adjust your settings to find the right balance. When photographing landscapes, I use the shortest focal length possible.

If you have a kit lens, use 18mm (or whatever is closest to you) wide angle). You also need to open the aperture as much as possible. In terms of shutter speed, the shutter should be left open much longer than before.

In most cases, you won't get a good shot of the stars with a shutter speed shorter than 10-20 seconds. Why not increase it to 30 seconds then? The reason is because the Earth is rotating, and if you leave the shutter open too long, streaks will start to appear. This may be the desired effect, but in this case we want to avoid the appearance of .

Eventually, in most cases, you will need to increase the ISO, just a little; start with 800, go to 1600 or 3200 if your exposure is really bad.

The photo of the rising Moon against the background of stars (shown above) was taken with the following settings:

• aperture f/4.
• Exposure time 16 seconds.
• ISO 3200.
• Focal length 24mm.

Post-processing

After you've taken your photos, you need to see how they look on your computer. At first I didn’t even think that the pictures needed to be processed. When I started doing night photography, I realized that in most cases you want to improve what was done with the camera.

The main reason is that with long exposures it is very difficult to guess the ideal amount of light. allows you to minimize excess light and increase useful light.

Post-processing is key to creating beautiful photographs and depends entirely on the photographer's ability to apply it correctly. Some take drastic measures in post-processing. But personally I don't like photos that look unnatural, I want to enhance the natural elements in the photo. However, there are no right or wrong processing methods. It is up to the photographer to choose how his images will look.

For post-processing, most photographers use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. Personally, I use Lightroom entirely to organize and adjust my images. I load Photoshop only when I need to make more complex corrections.

Also, Photoshop is very expensive and you can only purchase it as part of Adobe Creative Cloud, so you have to pay for it on an ongoing basis. I recommend sticking with Lightroom 5 before Lightroom gets involved in the cloud. To do this you need to pay $80 one time, this is an absolute necessity for any photographer.

My quick and dirty processing process looks like this:

• Enable lens distortion correction to correct and .
• Adjust to desired brightness/intensity.
• Increase sharpness.
• Reduce noise (varies depending on how noisy the image is).
• Slightly desaturate the image.
• Adjust the tonality or saturation of the colors that should shine.

Many novice photographers pester their more experienced colleagues with the question of how to properly photograph the Moon at night using a DSLR. Good photographs of the earth's satellite always attract attention, and not every professional photographer can boast of high-quality photos on this topic.
In this article I want to give some tips that will help you photograph the Moon at night and easily take good pictures with a regular middle-class camera. The whole secret here is correct settings SLR camera. Don't even hope to take a great photo in automatic mode!!!

1. Since you will have to work with a long shutter speed, be sure to use a tripod. Otherwise, the photos of the Moon will be blurry and unclear.

2. Use lenses with long focal lengths. The best thing is the so-called telephoto camera. To begin with, you can, of course, use zooms with a focal length of at least 150-200 mm.

3. To take pictures full moon as high quality and clear as possible, the aperture should be set as when shooting a landscape - 8F–11F. These are the same parameters as for landscape photography.

4. Don't forget that this is not just shooting at night - you are shooting a light source! And very bright light. Therefore, to capture the structure of the lunar surface as best as possible, use a shutter speed of 1/30 to 1/50.

And one more thing - take as many different pictures as possible, try to photograph the Moon from different angles and angles. Try changing the settings a little and see the results! Sometimes, for greater effect, it is necessary to process the resulting image in Photoshop.

Moon always attracted people's attention. The mysterious distant planet has always been surrounded by clouds of myths, rumors and secrets. Sometimes lunar landscapes are so beautiful and expressive that even novice photographers uncover their simple point-and-shoot cameras (or mobile phones) in the hope of capturing this miracle. Unfortunately, the results of such spontaneous filming are often more than depressing. In this article we learning to photograph the moon.

When is the best time to photograph the Moon?

It's no secret that the Moon can be seen even during the day. Sometimes a narrow crescent suddenly appears in a clear cloudless sky, sometimes a little more. But we will never see the full moon during the day. Why?

Everything is very simple. To see the full Moon we must have the Sun on opposite side, that is, beyond the horizon. Therefore, we must have night or at least evening. Taking photographs of the Moon during the day is not very interesting. She is faded, dull and expressionless.

The moon is easiest to photograph on a dark night. It is bright and clear. Since the sky around her is almost black, you don’t have to worry about somehow conveying its color.

The most interesting, but at the same time difficult to perform, are shooting the Moon at sunrise or sunset at dusk. Usually these are the most picturesque paintings. Imagine quiet summer evening, all the work in the garden has already been completed, you look up from the garden bed and suddenly see a large full Moon above the horizon, bright and yellow, like a polished copper coin.

If you are more of a photographer at heart than a gardener, then you immediately wash your hands of the greasy black soil, grab your camera and rush outside the village to shoot this magical landscape against the backdrop of a forest, river or something else quite beautiful.

Indeed, if you know how to photograph such landscapes correctly, they turn out simply excellent.

How to photograph lunar landscapes correctly

When shooting at dusk, all novice photographers have the same problem. Not to mention that some people shoot such landscapes in auto mode with flash :)

The point is that the Moon in the evening sky is a fairly bright object. If you set up your camera so that the evening landscape itself turns out well, then instead of such a bright and beautiful moon in the photo you get just White spot. If you shorten the shutter speed, the Moon itself will turn out very well, but the landscape will be very dark, barely visible.

Moreover, if a photographer sees in front of him a real landscape with a large and beautiful Moon, which he just wants to photograph without stopping, then in the photograph it usually turns out to be just a bright small dot.

What to do?

What's the best way to photograph the Moon?

Alas, I would be the last scoundrel if I said that a beautiful lunar landscape can be obtained even using a camera mobile phone. At some stage in the development of technology this will probably be possible, but now we need something more serious.

To photograph the Moon, it is better to use a film camera with a telephoto lens. Why film? Everything is very simple. Dynamic range for photographic film it is noticeably wider than the similar parameter even for professional digital cameras. So, to get a beautiful photograph of the Moon against the backdrop of an evening landscape, take out your old Zenit, go to the store for film (sensitivity no more than ISO 100) and get a telephoto lens somewhere. Naturally, all this had to be done in advance, and not rush around the city in the evening in search of an open photo store where they sell film.

However, even on digital SLR It is quite possible to photograph the moon if you know how.

Below are a few photographs that I took from the balcony of my own apartment. Using these photographs as an example, you can understand what parameters need to be set when shooting lunar landscapes. Photos are given without any computer processing.

Photo 1. Time 7:59. ISO 320, shutter speed 1/50, aperture 5.6, focal length 400 mm.

Despite the fact that the sky was already light, I had to make it darker by using a shorter shutter speed. Otherwise, instead of the Moon, there would be a bright spot.

Photo 2. Time 8:09. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/30, aperture 4.5, focal length 100 mm.

I hope you remember the rule: the lower the sensitivity, the less noise the matrix makes, the better the quality of the photo. In order to create a city, the shutter speed was increased. The result is obvious - the drawing on the Moon is unreadable.

Photo 3. Time 8:27. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/100, aperture 4.5, focal length 100 mm.

As the sky becomes lighter and lighter, it becomes possible to convey not only the image on the surface of the Moon, but also the landscape below it. If you modify the “ground” a little in Photoshop, you’ll get a pretty decent picture.

Photo 4. Time 8:28. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/100, aperture 5.6, focal length 400 mm.

This photo was taken almost immediately after the previous one. The only thing that was changed from the settings was the focal length and, accordingly, the aperture. Notice that as you approach the horizon, the features on the Moon's surface become increasingly blurred and the edges become more jagged. This is explained by the effect of "jittering" of the atmosphere.

Photo 5. Time 8:40. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/160, aperture 5.6, focal length 400 mm.

The closer to the horizon, the larger the Moon appears. However, the less clear it turns out. We look at the Moon through a thick layer of air, which, unfortunately, is not as transparent as we would like. In this and the next photo, the sky and earth are slightly cropped.

Photo 6. Time 8:44. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/160, aperture 5.6, focal length 400 mm.

And in conclusion, here is such a fantastic picture. If I had not seen the whole process, but had accidentally glanced in that direction, I would have been quite surprised and would have wondered for a long time what kind of dome appeared on the horizon. After all, details on the surface of the Moon are now completely indistinguishable.

How the moon is closer towards the horizon, the faster its “fall” becomes. This is the moment when the photographer must be very attentive and shoot the most interesting points. For example, the passage of the Moon behind a pillar, etc.

The sun and moon are in the frame at the same time!

This photo was taken with a regular, and not at all professional, Canon EOS 300D digital SLR with the simplest kit lens. However, let's forget for a second about the technical shortcomings of filming and be surprised: both the Sun and the Moon are present in the frame at the same time:

If I had noticed this situation earlier, when the sun had not yet completely set, the picture would have been even more interesting. Theoretically, nothing is impossible for you to take such a photograph. You just need to properly calculate the date when such a combination will be possible, guess so that it will be good weather and - forward.

How to Photograph a Lunar Eclipse

If you become aware that a private event will take place soon, or even better, total lunar eclipse, this is a great reason to spend the night in nature, to breathe fresh air and, at the same time, take great pictures. Photographing the Moon during an eclipse also has a number of secrets and features.

Of course, you understand that you need to arm yourself with a long lens and a tripod. The most important thing is not to miss the moment the eclipse begins. Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is a long process and, accordingly, it begins very smoothly.

Then it is worth filming all phases of the eclipse, including the moment when only one narrow crescent remains of the Moon.

By the way, even during a total lunar eclipse, you will still be able to see the dark part of the Moon. She is visible from behind sunlight, passing through earth's atmosphere and partially scattered by her. Your camera will see this especially well if you lengthen the shutter speed a little:

Here it is worth again paying attention to the fact that the use of high-quality optics and matrix can significantly affect the result. For example, take a look at this photo:

Then, in 2004, it seemed to me that this photograph was quite clear and of high quality. However, now I don't think so anymore.