Moon Photography for Beginners - How to photograph the moon with a Nikon or Canon DSLR Camera

if you've ever tried to take a picture of the moon but this was the result you've got then don't worry because you're in the right place this is the beginner's guide to taking great photos of the moon how I pull here from fellow genius welcome to my channel where I do photography tutorials I share tips and tricks and I do occasional gear reviews as well there's now over 100 videos on my channel all designed to help you get more from your camera and take better photos so if you're new please consider subscribing now this video is all about taking amazing moon photos and taking photos of the moon can be at times quite tricky now this is particularly true if you're using your camera in one of the auto modes in the auto modes you have no control over what the camera does and what the camera then records and the results you get so often what I see is people taking photos of the moon but the picture ends up looking more like the Sun than the moon because it's just a white blob with no detail whatsoever and this is because what the camera is doing is its overexposing now overexposure means that the camera is recording too much light so what should be a grey moon with detail ends up being a white blob or in this video we're going to fix that so taking a good photo of the moon it generally involves purposely underexposed or letting less light into the camera this way we can turn that white blob into a detailed photo of the moon now if you're using your auto modes you can't do this because in auto you have no control over the camera you can't change anything in this video we're going to get out of auto and we're going to use the manual mode now don't be put off by that if you're new to photography if you've got a new cam and you've not explored manual yet don't worry I'm going to explain to you and show you how to do this on both an icon and a canon camera you're going to love it so as well as overexposed images another common problem I see with moon photos is a general lack of sharpness and sometimes this is camera shake sometimes this is focusing and occasionally it's a bit of both so there's two main goals in this video we want a picture that's well exposed and we want to picture this sharpening focus right let's start with the gear now of course you're going to need a camera and I would suggest a DSLR camera a mirrorless camera or a bridge camera in this video I'm going to be featuring the canon t7 or 1500 d and I've got here the Nick on D 3500 they're both current cameras they're both entry-level cameras as well but don't worry if you've got a different camera type or a different model because the techniques I'm going to be talking about can be applied to any camera as long as it has the manual mode now the other thing you're going to need is a zoom or telephoto lens now this is a canon camera this is the 75 to 300 millimeter lens it's a pretty big zoom and the bigger the better here when you're taking photos of the moon so this lens extends to 300 millimeters the longer the lens the bigger the number and the bigger the better so if you've got a 400 millimeter lens or 500 millimeter lens obviously you're going to be able to get much closer to the moon the moon is going to look bigger in your frame really to shoot the moon you probably need something that is a minimum of around 200 millimeters another bit of kit that I recommend using is a tripod again getting good move photos is all about stability we don't want that camera shake so a good solid tripod is ideal now I have seen people take amazing moon photos handheld but I wouldn't generally recommend it so if you've got a tripod definitely use it and the final thing we really need is a clear sky if it's cloudy generally it doesn't really work so a nice clear sky is best and often you'll find that the moon will actually appear a bit clearer as it starts to clear the horizon now earlier I mentioned that one of the goals when taking a picture of the moon is a nice sharp photo and this is where stability comes in you don't want you camera moving whilst the picture is being taken so that's one of the reasons we use in a tripod but go a bit further with this if you've got the camera on a tripod and you haven't tried everything up there's a chance the camera might move so just make sure everything's tightened up avoid using the center column okay it's nice to be able to raise the camera up a bit higher but that's when it becomes really unstable so I don't recommend using the center column either now if your camera has image stabilization built into it turn it off if your camera lens has image stabilization or vibration reduction turn it off these are good features when you're hand holding a camera but when it's on a try what you don't need it and in fact it can work sometimes against you now another great way of eliminating camera shake is to use a remote instead of physically pressing the shutter button don't worry if you haven't got a remote because you've got something else already built into your camera and it's a self timer every camera has a self timer it's another great way of reducing camera shake and it's free it's already built into your camera with the self timer turned on you can press the button down to focus press it all the way down and take the picture and then stand back the camera will count down a few seconds then start taking the photo and that eliminates camera shake if you're not sure how to set your self timer up let me show you it on a Nikon and Canon camera to turn the self timer on on the neck on look for a button again marked with what looks like a clock symbol next to it press the button and choose the self timer option press ok to set now on the Nikon it does reset so every time you take a picture you do need to reset the timer on a Canon camera look for a button with a marking that looks a bit like a clock press the button and this is where you drive in self timer modes are using the buttons on the back of the camera select either the 10 second or two second timer press set and it's done so now let's talk about focusing now although we're shooting with the cameras in the manual mode we can still take advantage of auto focus and I'm sure you know how this works you press the shutter button halfway down your camera focuses and most cameras generally beat to let you know it's focused and because the moon is quite a nice bright subject your camera should ideally have no problems focusing at all but if your camera is struggling to focus you can manually focus the lens and I'm going to show you how to do that in a moment but first I want to show you how you can use auto focus but you can move the focus points around so you can be very specific about where your focus point is and generally I use the middle focus point so I place the moon in the middle of my frame I'm going to demonstrate this to you you got it on a Nikon and then a canon to control the focus points on this Nikon we start by pressing the I button we go to the auto focus area mode and on this particular camera there's just the two options so you select the single point autofocus option press ok you then press the shutter button lightly here's the focus point default in the middle using this multi select at all we can move it around wherever we like so when you look through the viewfinder and you press this up down left and right you'll see the focus point moving around in the frame so when you're taking your moon picture if it's in the middle of your frame make sure your focus point is set to the middle to select and change the focus points on your Canon camera we start by pressing this button and then you turn the dial on the top of the camera to choose the focus point you want alternatively you can use the buttons on the back of the camera as well but I find turning the dial is quicker I'm going to set it to the middle by default that's what I prefer and this means that when you look through the viewfinder and you focus the camera will only focus in the middle of the frame if your subject is not in the middle of the frame you press the button and you move the focus point to wherever your subject is this is a great mode press the shutter button lightly to go back to the normal screen so being able to control the focus point is very important because if your moon is knowing the middle ear frame let's say it's over to the left you can now move the focus point to the left of the frame rather than having to move the camera generally when I'm taking a picture of the moon the moon's in the middle so I usually use the center focus spot now as I mentioned I'm also going to show you how to manually adjust the focus a lot of astrophotographers light using the manual method and this again is fairly easier to do and for this we're going to be taking advantage of the cameras Live View mode because it has this really cool feature built into it which is called digital zoom I'm going to show you how this works on a Nikon and Canon camera to manually focus using live view we start by pressing the I button we choose the focus modes and we select manual focus this turns the automatic focus off we then press or turn on the live view we get a live view now of what the camera sees using the plus button here we can apply the digital zoom and we reach around to the lens adjust the focus not the same as the zoom the focus make sure you get that one right and you can see it adjusting the focus so once you've got it pinned sharp all you've got to do is press the minus button to back out and you're ready to tell your picture to select manual focus on a canon camera you use the switch on the lens set it to M or M F we then on the back of the camera turn on the live view we use digital zoom by pressing the plus button you will notice the screen looks very blurry I reach around to the lens I adjust the focus and you will see the subject going in and out of focus as I adjust the focus ring again don't mix up the focus with the zoom now once you see a really sharp image press the plus button again and again and you're ready to see your picture so your camera is now nice and steady sitting on the tripod you've got your focus in now do the next thing we need to talk about is exposure because we want a nicely exposed image of the moon now there's three things we need to control here ISO aperture and finally the shutter speed first thing we're going to look at is ISO and my recommendation with ISO is ISO keep it low secondly a camera's ISO to the lowest possible number now on most cameras this is 100 the lower number will minimize digital noise and help to sharpen your image let me show you how to do it changing away so is easy you press the I button you select ISO from the menu press ok select the ISO you want here we're selecting 100 press ok to sit and to reset the screen you just press the shutter button halfway down most Canon cameras have an ISO button on the back or sometimes the top of the camera here on the back press the button here's your ISO options to change just press the buttons on the back of the camera once you've selected what you want press set to select and that's done easy so if your ISO set the next thing we need to do is set the aperture now the aperture is an opening in the lens it's a great way of controlling how much light you let pass through the lens it's shown on the back of the camera as an F number and these numbers can be a bit confusing but don't worry about them too much for now now we're going to start by setting the cameras F number to f11 that is a fairly small aperture and I'm going to show you how to do it to change the aperture on the Nikon d five hundred there's an aperture button on the top which also doubles as the exposure compensation button you hold it down and then you turn the dial on the back of the camera to change your F number darling to the right for a bigger F number dialing to the left for a smaller F number and we of course are going to select f11 done to change the aperture that's the f-number using the camera in the manual mode all you do is hold down the AV button which stands for aperture value and while it's holding it down you turn the dial on the top of the camera to the right for a bigger number or to the left for a smaller number now as mentioned earlier we're going to start with F 11 so once you've selected it for 11 you're done okay so we're getting there we've got our ISO set at a hundred we've got our aperture set F 11 and there's only one final thing we need to adjust and that's the shutter speed now the shutter is like a little door it sits behind the lens it's closed when you press the shutter button it opens and allows light into the camera and then closes again now what you can do is adjust the shutter speed and of course the longer the shutter is open the more light you let into the camera the quicker the shutter is the less light you're going to let into the camera you don't worry about that too much for now we're gonna start at a shutter speed of a hundred and twenty-fifth of a second let me show you so on the Nikon once you've set your ISO and your aperture all you need to do is adjust the shutter speed and this is as easy as turning the main dial on the camera if I del to the left you'll see the shutter speed slows down this is a longer exposure and if i dial to the right I will increase the shutter speed and we're going to dial in 125th of a second so I've got a few more to go there we go and we're ready to go now underneath you'll see your cameras light meter and it's all the way over to the minor side now this is a good thing if you remember what we're trying to do is under expose so we don't over expose our moon shot now if when you've taken your picture on the Nick on camera if your moon is still a bit too bright down to the right with the dial on the back of the camera and increase your shutter speed a touch and taken up a picture if it's still too bright just increase your shutter speed a bit more and keep going of course if your moon is too dark you can slow the shutter down to let more light into the camera and you do that by dialing to the left so darling to the right will increase the shutter speed and make your moon darker darling to the left was slow your shutter speed and make your moon brighter so we've got our ISO set we've got our aperture set changing the shutter speed is very easy when using manual because all you've got to do is turn the dial on the top of the camera if I dial to the left you'll see the shutter speed will slow down this is a longer exposure and if I del to the right the shutter speed will increase this is a fast exposure or a faster shutter speed and we're going to dull to 1 to 5 so that's one one hundred and twenty-fifth of a second and this is a good place to start now when I press the cameras shutter button lightly the camera wakes up the meter and you'll see this little marker now ideally we want this over to the minus side because that means we are going to under expose and if you remember that's what you need to do when you're taking a picture of the moon if you've taken a picture of the moon and it's still a bit too bright all you've got to do is increase the shutter speed to increase you dial to the right and you make the number bigger and you try again now if the moon is still too bright you go back and you increase again and you just keep going equally of course if the moon is too dark you dial to the left to slow down the shutter and that will let more light into the camera so remember dial to the right for a faster shutter speed this will make it image darker dial to the left for a slower shutter speed this will make it image brighter someone should dialed in your shutter speed you're ready to take your first photo now here's the checklist is your camera sturdy is it on a tripod have you turned your stabilization off is your self-timer turned on or are you using a remote camera settings ISO keep it low 100 iso i recommend a pitcher good place to start f11 shutter speed 125th of a second again a good place to start if you've got a tick for all those boxes you're ready to go press your shutter button down or press your remote stand back and let your camera do the work when you've taken your picture press play zoom in check it out hopefully it's going to be sharp and hopefully it'll be well exposed now if your image isn't well exposed let's say it's too right that means you need to let less light into the camera with the next photo and the best way to do that is to increase the shutter speed so the shutter opens and closes a bit quicker to do that you just dove to the right with the dial on the camera now if your picture is too dark and it's underexposed I think this is less likely what you need to do is slow the shutter down a bit and to do this you doll to the left the shutter will be open a bit longer and you'll let more light into the camera it's as simple as that now before I wrap up the video a couple of things I want to mention the moon is moving across the sky at night so even though your eyes don't notice it it is moving and it may fall out of focus if it moves off your focus point so every few minutes you might have to readjust the tripod slightly aperture I did recommend in this video starting with f11 but I do recommend experimenting a bit here most lenses have what's called a sweet spot where you'll get a sharper image this usually falls somewhere between f11 and f-16 so play around with these see which results you get and finally if you've got access to Photoshop or even better Lightroom try shooting in the raw mode because you'll have more to play with when it comes to editing your image so I hope you've enjoyed this video and you get some amazing moon photos if you do and you like you as an Instagram make sure you include the hashtag photo genius Brisbane that way I can check them out I'd love to see them if you've enjoyed the video please give us a thumbs up consider subscribing to my channel and don't forget you can leave your questions comments or suggestions down below I hope to see you again sometime soon see ya bye

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Views: 463,389

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Keywords: how to take photos of the moon, moon photography, supermoon, moon photography with canon, moon photography setiings, moon photography with 70-300mm lens, how to take photos of the moon with a DSLR, photography tips and tricks, photography beginners, beginners guide to photography, nikon d3500, nikon d3400, canon eos, canon photography, nikon photography lessons, telephoto lenses, 70-300mm lens, photography guide for beginners, Supermoon 2020

Id: UEmbES-i_oo

Length: 17min 47sec (1067 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 07 2020