The full moon, especially when it’s a special one like harvest moon or blue moon, is always a tempting photo opportunity. However, for years trying to take photos of it with either a usual digital camera or an iPhone results in okay-ish looking photos, but without the detail the human eye can see.
This year (2024) I finally upgraded to a more advanced camera, but still fairly cheap and cheerful – but the main selling factor was its 52x zoom! This is something a phone camera could never compete with.
The camera has fairly extensive settings you can manually change – it’s not as flexible as a DSLR – but it’s got enough to keep me happy.
I managed to find a great online resource at How to Take Pictures of The Moon | 18 Examples & Photography Tips – thanks to Trevor Jones at AstroBackyard.com website! The main gist of this advice is as follows:
- use a tripod
- use 10x Zoom to start with
- use remote shutter
And then suggested settings for your camera are:
- Set the aperture (f-stop) on your camera to f/11 (for a sharp image)
- Set the shutter speed to 1/250 second or faster (to avoid a blurry photo)
- Set the ISO to ISO 800 (avoid going higher than ISO 1600)
- Use manual focus and adjust the lens to infinity
- Adjust your exposure using live-view, while monitoring the histogram
I was able to use most of these settings – and the moon photos I’ve taken so far are in the gallery below.
The results vary in quality, but some I’m very pleased with!
