One of the areas we cover in the Night & Low Light Photography Class is how to photograph the moon and stars.
If you just point your camera at the night sky and try to photograph the moon, you will get an overexposed white blob. The meter within your camera is great, but is fooled by the dark sky.
Instead, this is one of the few times to put your camera on manual and follow the “Sunny 16 Rule” ( F-Stop = 16, Shutter Speed = 1/ISO).
My suggestion is set ISO to 100, F-Stop to 16, and Shutter Speed to 1/100 of a second and snapping a shot. Then bracket your exposure by changing your Shutter Speed to 1/50 and snapping, and 1/200 and snapping. This will give you 3 different exposures and one will be good.
Camera set-up:
- Put your camera on a tripod.
- Use a cable release or self timer.
- Keep your hands off the camera and tripod to avoid shaking.
- Use your longest lens, the longer the lens the bigger the moon.
- TURN OFF IMAGE STABILIZATION. It will cause the camera to shake on the tripod.
- Turn to manual-focus. Auto-focus will lock you out of shooting. Focus on the moon.
