Photo Settings for Super Moon/Lunar Eclipse?

[scott492010]

I am using a Air 2s .... I have noticed others with a Air 2s get great shots of the moon where you can actually make out details of the moon in the photo.... I am curious what others are using for settings for their photos?

Here is an example of the no detail moon photos i am getting.

 

[Jim Martin]

Hi Scott,
The challenge is that the moon is extremely bright compared to everything else in the frame. Depending on just how bright the moon is compared to everything else and how much dynamic range you have to work with, you could try setting up the shot so that the moon is properly exposed (you may need to manually lower ISO or exposure and/or increase shutter speed to keep the moon from blowing out). Then bring the photo into Lightroom (or your editor of choice) and see how far you can push the shadows and blacks to bring out the rest of the picture. I think the Air 2s has over 12 stops of dynamic range which is pretty good. You might be able to pull this off if the rest of the shot isn't too dark.

If it were me, I'd lean towards taking multiple shots. Start with a shot to get the moon properly exposed and then take as many additional shot as you need to get the rest of the image exposed properly. Then merge the shots.

Look forward to seeing what you get!

Jim

 

[TX Steve]

on several models they have a Night Mode that bumps the ISO to 12800. I have some some videos shot that way and it looks pretty good

 

[hank970]

The Moon subtends only about a half degree of arc, and the camera's field of view on your drone subtends eighty-eight degrees. So, the Moon is only 176th the width of the image frame. Since the image frame is only 5472 pixels wide, an image of the Moon would be only about 31 pixels wide. What kind of detail would you realistically expect to capture of a subject that's comprised of so few pixels? The photos which accompany your original post tell the tale. The Moon appears as just a tiny speck in the sky.

If I were you, I'd shoot for the most pleasing overall scene exposure and not worry about detail on the Moon.

 

[scott492010]

nevermind....clouds came in out of nowhere....just in that part of the sky.....go figure....

i will just have to photoshop it.

 

[Meta4]

I am using a Air 2s .... I have noticed others with a Air 2s get great shots of the moon where you can actually make out details of the moon in the photo.... I am curious what others are using for settings for their photos?

If you were to shoot for the moon, you'd need to understand that the camera's metering is giving you an exposure setting for the whole frame.
But the moon is something like 1/2 of 1% of the frame and (at night) is much brighter than the rest of the image.
So to properly expose for the moon, you'd need to use exposure compensation and adjust for 2 or 3 stops less than the camera's suggested exposure.
Then check the results to see if that's enough and shoot manually for an even lower exposure if necessary.

Here is an example of the no detail moon photos i am getting.

More like no moon.
Your drone has about the worst possible camera to use to photograph the moon,.
Forget the drone and use an SLR with a good long lens and a tripod if you want to see anything of the moon.

 

[Drbobk]

FWIW, I shot this last night using a LUMIX G9 handheld with a LUMIX 100-300 F2.8 lens at -2 EV.

 

[Kilrah]

If you want the moon with some detail AND some landscape the key is to catch it as it crosses the horizon with a long lens, ideally there is still some light around, and shoot RAW so you can equalize things a bit... Drone won't be a great option.

 

[hank970]

Moon photography can be tough because detail can be blurred by refraction due to atmospheric turbulence. This shot is a composite of several different exposures merged using a freeware program called Registax. Registax sorts through contributing images, discards the poor ones, and merges the good shots. 200-500mm Nikkor lens at 500mm on a Nikon D7200 body. The final image was cropped so the subject would fill more of the frame. You might need to exceed the 400' altitude limit by about 225,000 miles to get a shot like this using a drone.

 

[New England Droning]

nevermind....clouds came in out of nowhere....just in that part of the sky.....go figure.... View attachment 177682

i will just have to photoshop it.

View attachment 177683

Yeah, that screams photoshop. You need a telephoto to shoot the moon correctly Here are several drone shots with my Mavic 3 Pro. The explore 25x is not a great answer and I wish they would have given me instead a 30x prime tele lens but you work with what you have. The first three are the moon at various focal lengths and the last is the April eclipse. I left it pointed at the sun because I couldn't take the time to keep it centered on the sun zoomed in, so I shot video to get the overall feel of the eclipse event.