Blood moon Capture - Settings?

[Jetson]

Hi guys,

Its a blood moon in the UK on Friday and likely to be a clear sky again(!)

Never done night shots, is it worth getting out the Mavic out for some once a century occasion shots or am I wasting my time?

Have all the ND filters etc, any recommendations on settings / filters?

If you've seen a good YT demo feel free to ping..

Cheers

Mike

 

[Thwyllo]

Firstly why on earth would you want a filter that reduces the amount of light entering the camera in order to photograph something at night? If you want stills and have any exposure issues - which I can't see with a red moon - just reduce the EV. But quite honestly, with a wide angle lens and no zoom function I suspect it will be a little red spot in the corner of the frame....don't let that put you off trying though.

 

[ccoltmanm]

Agreed. You aren’t going to get a good shot with it. But he’s asking for the best shot he can get. I suggest you look st the “twilight” camera filter setting. It lets you get some interesting low light captures

 

[Thwyllo]

Good tip actually...won't help with the wide angle problem but nothing ventured....

 

[melmartin]

It will be a very small dot in your image. Digital zoom will blow out any details. We need a Mavic with an optical zoom lens controllable from the remote or cellphone/tablet.

 

[Jetson]

Firstly why on earth would you want a filter that reduces the amount of light entering the camera in order to photograph something at night? If you want stills and have any exposure issues - which I can't see with a red moon - just reduce the EV. But quite honestly, with a wide angle lens and no zoom function I suspect it will be a little red spot in the corner of the frame....don't let that put you off trying though.

Yes totally agree but I did read somewhere that an ND4 can sharpen the edges at night...a polariser makes more sense.

 

[AeroMirage]

I get good moon shots with my Oly PEN F with 300mm zoom.
All I have ever had show up in drone pics of the moon was a small white dot.

 

[Thwyllo]

Yes totally agree but I did read somewhere that an ND4 can sharpen the edges at night...a polariser makes more sense.

ND filters don't sharpen anything. All they do is reduce the light hitting the sensor, so everything else has to slow down, which then makes image blur a problem, especially in twilight. A polariser won't do anything either in this case - their function is to reduce light reflection in a plane opposite to the sun. So they're great for making skies much bluer, water and glass more transparent and greenery much greener. But with a moon that has not much light landing on it compared to normal, waste of time. It might be useful on a stills camera in normal moonlight, I've never had occasion to try it.

 

[Thwyllo]

I get good moon shots with my Oly PEN F with 300mm zoom.
All I have ever had show up in drone pics of the moon was a small white dot.
View attachment 42670

Nice shot. The other problem of course with small camera sensors and wide angles is that they will meter for the biggest area, which of course is a big black square of blackness, leaving a normal moon massively overexposed. You'd probably do better than a drone by using a camera phone on a tripod frankly, and even then it would need a decent optical zoom, not a digital one.

 

[Mavicdave68]

Generally 400mm is a minimum for a half decent shot (size wise) .... should be "easier" to photograph the blood moon as its not as bright as a regular moon with its inherent exposure challenges ..... I've been looking for somewhere local to potentially get out and fly the drone at sunset and moonrise ... and then I just heard a weather warning for thunder storms and lightning ! lol ! gotta love our weather eh ?!

 

[Lake_Flyer]

However, the blood moonlight mirrored in a lake is worth trying tonight. At least that's what I'm thinking about. The moon itself is usually quite visible in a shot however small. I think I take the Inspire1 with floats for that.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Of course over here it's illegal to fly after sunset but still.......

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I would start by setting the camera colour settings to neutral. Find a suitable shutter speed@lowest possible ISO. Then manually dial up or down the white balance until the screen resembles what I see with my naked eye as much as possible. Then switch to D-Log.

 

[gnirtS]

Hi guys,

Its a blood moon in the UK on Friday and likely to be a clear sky again(!)

For a small part of the UK maybe. But for myself and about 75% of the rest of the country its another day of cold, windy and thick grey cloud, just like the last week or so.

Never done night shots, is it worth getting out the Mavic out for some once a century occasion shots or am I wasting my time?

You're wasting your time. The mavic is fairly poor at night. Also the moon is such a tiny object in the sky it'll appear as a few burnt out blurred pixels against a noisy black background. Its tiny.
Also, the moon will be WAY above the horizon by the time of eclipse and the mavic cant look up enough.

Have all the ND filters etc, any recommendations on settings / filters?

Why on earth would you want to use an ND filter at night taking an already noisy, unsharp image into one even noisier and less sharp?!

You barely need them during the day, at night it'll make something already awful far worse.

If you're one of the lucky few to get a clear sky just go out and enjoy it or use a real camera with lens to take a photo. Leave the mavic indoors.

 

[gnirtS]

Yes totally agree but I did read somewhere that an ND4 can sharpen the edges at night...a polariser makes more sense.

You can also read about lizard people, alien moonbases and elvis being alive on the internet. Doesn't mean any of it is true.

ND filters ONLY purpose is to block light. They do absolutely nothing else. Its near night time, you need all the light you can get.
Why would a polariser make more sense?! Theres no sense to it. And also, explain to me how a polariser is going to work anyway shooting directly into a light source?

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Is it that time again? Spank that noob?

How can people be so stupid not to know the things you happen to know!
The idea...

Let's stay good people.

 

[Jetson]

Wow, friendly lot aren't you.

Sure the idea of a forum is for support and inspiration, not trolling.

Oh and shame the weather for you gnirt, at least it suits your general, miserable disposition.

Later ladies...

 

[Thwyllo]

Is it that time again? Spank that noob?

How can people be so stupid not to know the things you happen to know!
The idea...

Let's stay good people.

Because these things are nothing to do with drones, they are basic principles of photography which you ought to have at least a grasp of if you go out and spend hundreds of whatever currency on a flying camera.

 

[The Fat Controller]

Unfortunately even a camera with the power of the Hubble telescope won't be able to do anything for me this evening. Currently I'm looking at dark grey skies with no sign of clearing and threatening thunderstorms. No blood moon for me tonight

 

[gnirtS]

Wow, friendly lot aren't you.

Sure the idea of a forum is for support and inspiration, not trolling.

Oh and shame the weather for you gnirt, at least it suits your general, miserable disposition.

Later ladies...

A question was asked and got a realistic, honest answer. Off several people.
If you don't want to hear an honest, correct, answer than why ask the question?
Or would you rather people just lie about basic physics and photography to make you feel better?

This is absolute basic photography, nothing to do with drones. Its something 5 seconds of google could have yielded as well.

Some people seem to be getting very snowflakey on here.