Shooting the Moon II

Here is an example of why you don't want to shoot on the actual night of the full moon. When I first wanted to get the hang of night photography, I decided to simply shoot out in the yard. My goal wasn't to get an image I liked, but simply to become familiar with how the camera had to be adjusted to get decent results.

Since the exposures are much longer than normal daytime photography, a tripod is a necessity. The camera cannot move if your goal is to get a sharp image. You might get away with tripping the shutter manually if the exposure was long enough since the longer the shutter is open, the less likely a split second movement would show in the image, but it is still better to either use a remote (as I did) or use the timer function where the camera counts down a few seconds and then opens automatically.

This photo is a serendipity of sorts. I had the shutter speed set for twenty seconds. A few seconds after I tripped the shutter, my wife happened to come out on the porch. We have a motion sensor on the porch light and the light came on when she came out.  Since the photo was already in progress, I couldn't stop it and it recorded the light falling on the trees and ridge as well as that of the moon and night sky. Even though the porch light was brighter than the night, since it's contribution to the image was over only about half of the twenty seconds, it didn't "burn out" the lit areas.

But, as you can see, it did burn out the moon. And that is the problem with shooting the moon on the night of the full moon.  There is just not enough light to use a shutter speed fast enough to obtain a well defined edge on the moon, never mine seeing detail in the moon itself. I still like this photo, though, for the play of light from the porch light on the tree branches and ridge.  And I love the deep blue twilight colors and a star here and there.