Moon Critique/Advise Needed

So far I've made two attempts at shooting the moon. The first time I was given some bad advise and believed that I needed a ridiculously fast shutter speed. After getting some feedback on DA, I made another attempt tonight. The difference is dramatic.. but I'm sure there is still room for tons of improvement in technique and also post processing. ANY feedback is welcome on the second image.





First Attempt:


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"]<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Camera: Cannon EOS 7D<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 <span style="color: #ff0000;"]L USM<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" /><br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />F-Stop: f/8<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />ISO: 800<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Exposure: 1/2000 sec.<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Focal Length: 400mm<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" /><br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />This was on a tripod, live view, shutter lockup, with ten second delay on exposure. Should also mention that I zoomed in 10x on the live view to apply manual focus. I then cropped and converted to black and white.


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/600x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/13/5078.IMG_5F00_6827.jpg[/img]





Second Attempt:


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"]Camera: Cannon EOS 7D<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 <span style="color: #ff0000;"]L USM<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" /><br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />F-Stop: f/16<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />ISO: 200 D+<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Exposure: 1/100 sec.<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Focal Length: 400mm<br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" /><br style="background-color: transparent !important; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px !important;" />Second attempt using lower ISO and slower shutter speed with smaller aperture. Considerable less noise and more detail this way. I shot this with highlight priority mode enabled. Used a tripod with a ten second delay, manually focusing in live view mode. I tried with it disabled and an ISO of 100 but I liked these results better.


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"]All editing was done in LR3. A little sharpening and noise reduction around 45.


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"][img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/600x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/13/1738.IMG_5F00_6981.jpg[/img]


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"]


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"]Like I said, I KNOW there's a lot of room for improvement and any advise would be appreciated. :)


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"]Thanks,


<span class="Apple-style-span" style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #000000; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;"]Rocco

Nice shots. You didn

I second John

The best thing to do is experiment with different settings. A good place to start with a Full Moon is the Moony 11 rule and then you can work from there either increasing the aperture and reducing the shutter speed, or just changing the shutter speed.
You shouldn't need to use a high ISO for the Moon no matter what aperture you use. ISO 100 or 200 is plenty. If you were shooting faint Deep Sky Objects then a Higher ISO such as 800 along with a longer exposure will work. Then you would also be shooting and then stacking multiple exposures to increase your SNR.


http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/TRIPOD/TRIPOD4.HTM


The Moony 11 Rule was actually meant to work with film, but works well with DSLR's. Some people will argue that you don't need to use a small aperture like f/11. But that also depends on the lens and the conditions.


As with most astrophotography, a good clear sharp image of the Moon relies on more than just the quality of the camera or lens. If you can't seem to get a clean sharp image one night, then try again another. The Atmosphere has a powerful impact on how well your pictures will appear. Refer to Astronomical Seeing and Transparency.


One more thing a lot of people tend to ignore, especially when using large lenses: Just like with a telescope you should allow your lens a little time to acclimate to the outside temperature when taking it from inside the comforts of your home to the outdoors. You wouldn't need to allow nearly as long as you would a telescope with larger air spaces between optical elements/surfaces, but allowing the glass surfaces that are exposed to air to reach equilibrium would allow maximum performance from your lens. Additionally where and how you are shooting will matter as well. E.g. shooting over a black top road, or roof top that might be radiating heat back into the atmosphere.

A couple of more attempts. After some experimenting, It seems that f/11 has been the sharpest aperture for this lens with my camera.





[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/600x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/13/1376.IMG_5F00_7121.jpg[/img]


<span>Camera: Cannon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM

F-Stop: f/11
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/40 sec.
Focal Length: 400mm





We had a full moon on the 17th.. Unfortunately it had been raining all night and there was cloud cover.. heavy, dark clouds. <span>I was heading in when it peaked through.. I quickly set up and waited again, but not for too long as the clouds were moving extremely fast.


<span>
Simply upped the vibrance in Lightroom 3 for the color, applied a little noise reduction and sharpening, added some contrast, cropped a bit, and it was good to go. Lucky for me the clouds directly over the moon were thin enough that other than a slight loss in detail, they're all but invisible. Looks like the clouds are going behind the moon this way.


<span>I am SO glad there were clouds and I was forced to try something different rather than another heavy crop for surface detail. Not sure if the post editing made it over the top or not.. but it seemed appropriate for how the light was glowing from the left side. This sucker was bright. :)





<span>[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/700x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/13/1057.IMG_5F00_7372.jpg[/img]


<span><span>Camera: Cannon EOS 7D
Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM

F-Stop: f/11
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 400mm

I really like the cloudy one.

Hey Rocco,


I like the 2nd shot from the top the best (labeled 5/12/11 2nd attempt) . I really like the exposure, detail, composition and contrast. The Moon looks more round in that shot as opposed to flat.


Rich

I really like the last one with the clouds, it gives it an ether real look to it.


John.

The last one with the clouds is great, cool surreal feeling, very nice work!