Call me Hubble Jr.

December 22, 2005 6:39 PM

I want to photograph the night sky, and I don't know how with my camera.

I've got a Kodak Z740. It's my first real camera, and over the past 6 months I've gotten fairly adept, I think, at using it. The other night I noticed the moon looked good and big, and the night sky was clear, so I took my camera and tripod out but I couldn't get a decent shot off at all.
Now I'm going to my parent's place in the country for Christmas and would like to take some photos of the night sky. My camera is not a DSLR but its got a 10x optical zoom and the manual PASM mode allows me to set things like f-stops, shutter speed, ISO rating and the EV +/-. My camera-fu is weak when it comes to the manual stuff, and I'd like advice on which setting would be best for photographing the moon and the stars.

posted by thecjm to sports, hobbies, & recreation (14 comments total)

You'd better focus on infinity.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:46 PM on December 22, 2005

Yes I forgot to mention that I'm thinking the autofocus is going to be the biggest hurdle to clear. Even on landscape mode my attempted moon shots were not more than a big bright lens flare.
posted by thecjm at 6:50 PM on December 22, 2005

Set it on a steady platform, the longest shutter speed you can (like 30 seconds) and the widest aperture available.

You'll want to use a lower ISO speed and keep increasing if the pictures are too dark.

You definetly are going to need a tripod or some other steady surface to set the camera down while the shutter is open.
posted by Paris Hilton at 6:50 PM on December 22, 2005

To photograph the moon and stars you will need a long exposure, and in that case you will need to adjust the camera position to track them (unless you want trails.) In my days of doing this it was done with a homemade contraption involving a plank of wood and a dial marked off at certain increments made from a coffee jar lid. I have no doubt there is now a high tech solution to this, and possibly even a name for it. I always found photographs with trails (what you get when using a tripod) highly disappointing, which is why I persevered with crazy contraptions. Somebody should be able to expand on this..
posted by fire&wings at 6:54 PM on December 22, 2005

I'm going to break protocol and do some thumbnails to show ya'll what my moon shots would up looking like.

and

This in on a clear night with a more than 3/4 full moon. Is my exposure too long? The EV +/- set too high? I'm assuming that shooting the starfield will involve letting as much light into the camera as possible.
posted by thecjm at 6:56 PM on December 22, 2005

It's overexposed (thus losing all detail, and getting one big white spot). You need to use a shorter shutter speed, or a smaller aperture, or both. If you can't control these, then the best you can do is put it into "sports" or "action" mode, where it'll use a short shutter.

Note that you can't get the moon's details and the stars to show up in the same photo. The stars are too faint, you need a longer exposure to capture them, and the long exposure would overexpose the moon. So you have to choose which you want to see in your photo.
posted by knave at 7:05 PM on December 22, 2005

This is a pretty good tutorial for a beginner, if you want to shoot the moon as a part of a scene. It's mostly about shooting on film, but contains most of the basics you should know. Plus, it's a lot easier to compose good night shots on film.

If you want to shoot the stars, the advice of using a long exposure is good, because you need to soak up all the available light. But photographing the moon at long exposures will just give you more lens flare. Most people aren't aware of just how bright the moon can be. You might want to take a look at this guide as well.
posted by kyleg at 7:06 PM on December 22, 2005

Oh I see, your camera does have manual controls. Well it's going to be trial and error for you to get an exposure you're happy with, so I recommend tweaking the settings and experimenting. No one here is going to tell you "F/16 and 1 second shutter" because the amount of light in every situation is going to be different.

In manual mode, the camera should display a light meter, which will tell you when you've gotten to settings that the camera considers appropriate as far as a proper exposure. However, at night, things are not so simple. Going with the camera's recommendation will definitely overexpose the moon, and underexpose the stars. You're going to have to vary the settings in a way you find pleasing, either let more light in to capture the stars, or let less light in to get fine details on the moon. Example of an overexposed night scene, where the moon is way too bright, but you can actually see the stars.
posted by knave at 7:16 PM on December 22, 2005

One other tip is that if you don't have/your camera doesn't allow a remote shutter button, using your camera's timer to start the exposure will help keep your touch out of unwanted camera movement.
posted by starman at 7:38 PM on December 22, 2005

Another thing to remember when shooting the moon (pun not intended, in this case) is that the moon is illuminated by *direct sunlight*, and is a heck of a lot brighter than you would think. A good exposure to get detail of the moon will be very nearly the same exposure one would use on a sunlit day. It's surprising, but makes sense when you think about it.
posted by pjern at 10:16 PM on December 22, 2005

if you have enough time (a whole night or 2) then write down your camera's manual settings on a spreadsheet and only change one setting between shots
posted by suni at 4:34 AM on December 23, 2005

Your shots are way overexposed. starman's post above is correct: the moon is much brighter to a camera than it is to a person. Zoom all the way in, if you have zoom, and set the focus to infinity. Use the auto-timer to set the shutter so there's no camera shake. Changing the aperture settings and shutter speeds. Eventually you'll hit the right combinations. A bunch of different settings will get you a similar effect, so go ahead and experiment. (Obligatory showing-off: every one of these moon images was done on the same camera with a different combination of aperture and shutter.)
posted by cmyk at 4:57 AM on December 23, 2005

knave writes "No one here is going to tell you 'F/16 and 1 second shutter' because the amount of light in every situation is going to be different."

Actually if your shooting the moon the exposure is easy. The moon is a bright sun lit object and coincidentally almost a perfect 18% grey; the only variable is the amount of haze/smog/cloud between you and the moon. So start at F16 and 1/100 exposure and bracket down from there. I usually find F11 and 1/100 is right for my area. Also unless you can mostly fill the frame with the mooon set your white balance to sunlit. Otherwise you'll get colour casts from your camera compensating for the black sky in the frame.

If your wanting pictures of stars you'll need to experiment. This is one place where most digital falls down compared to 35mm though. You'll get a lot of noise from all that black sky.

solopsist writes "Another thing to remember when shooting the moon (pun not intended, in this case) is that the moon is illuminated by *direct sunlight*, and is a heck of a lot brighter than you would think."

Fun fact: It is possible to take pictures by full moonlight that appear to be taken at high noon. You need about four minutes of exposure at F1.8 on ISO400. It's very cool.
posted by Mitheral at 6:58 AM on December 23, 2005

If you intend to get star shots, it's important to allow your camera to cool down as much as possible before taking shots; once that CCD (or CMOS, depending on the camera) warms up, digital noise will ruin long exposures, so you might be limited to a handful of shots if the outside temps are above 60F or so.
posted by Merdryn at 8:20 AM on December 23, 2005