topic Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ruby3 — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 13:25:17 GMT

I was shooting the eclipse last night in manual mode 125 shutterspeed, 100 ISO F5.6. I would see the moon in the viewfinder take the picture but on looking at the picture it was just a black screen, and same with the pictures on the card. The lense was set to manual focus and VC was shut off on the lense. What could I have done in the settings that would not cause no picture being taken.. I switched over to bulb and tried pictures and though it wasn't fine tuned it did take pictures. I'm stumped in what I could of done to cause no picture to be taken. I heard the shutter take the picture but no picture showed up. It was taking good pictures in manual earlier before the eclipse

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

shadowsports — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:11:58 GMT

Greetings,

f5.6 is pretty slow for astrophotography.

What lens were you using?

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

kvbarkley — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:12:19 GMT

What was the focal length of the lens?

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

kvbarkley — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:15:26 GMT

the looney rule *for a full moon* says to use f/11 at a shutter speed of 1/100 at iso 100. You are not far off from that.

However, if you were trying to shoot in the middle of the eclipse, these settings will way underexpose.

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

SignifDigits — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 21:36:09 GMT

Many lenses would have produced black with those settings during the eclipse I think? Did you take a look in DPP and try to manipulate it? Might still have been too dark for that. I was shooting multiple seconds to get an exposure and had to run the ISO up to like 16000, and it was still blurry. Of course I was shooting a very long lens.with a tele, so I was asking for trouble. Still caught the moment, but it just wasn't sharp. I need a new and better lens I think :)!

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ruby3 — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 01:00:06 GMT

I was using a Tamron SP150-600mm F/5-6.3 I had a wonderful view in the viewfinder, and used the same settings that I had earlier before the l eclipse. The shutter fired it took the picture I was using a shutter cable so i didn't move the lense when I snapped the picture.

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ruby3 — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 01:05:17 GMT

I have a year to work out the kinks. Next one is March 2026. After that many years after, so I will be practicing. I got a different tripod that I was using cause I couldn't get the angle to shoot it getting another that I got way more choice in angle. The thing was every thing was working fine earlier when I did test shots of the moon. That is what has me baffled.

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

SignifDigits — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 01:24:56 GMT

The viewfinder in the DSLR is not exactly what the sensor sees nor is it affected by the shutter speed like it is for a mirrorless camera. In other words, what you see in the viewfinder is NOT always that you will get on your shot. I think what happened was that your shutter speed, ISO and lens combination meant not enough light got to your sensor to get an image during the eclipse period when the output from the moon was much lower. I'm sure there is a way to get to a shutter speed with some math. A quick search found that the normal ~10,000 lux output drops to ~900 lux in the eclipse. That's .1 as much light, so your settings would have to be adjusted to compensate for that. Additionally, you'll also have to take in account the rule of 500. So, if you were at 600mm, your maximum exposure time to not have the moon move at your focal length would be 500/600, or .8 seconds. At the SAME time, you'll have to increase your ISO to compensate for getting .1 the amount of light. The online search says that would 3.32 stops or an ISO of 800. It's a tricky combination and I am just learning about this myself! Others more expert than I can, I'm sure correct and improve on what I'm saying. But at 1/125 (instead of the max 1/8) and ISO 100 vs 800 I think you just didn't get enough light to the sensor. I was disappointed in my shots too (didn't obey the "rule of 500") but I'm glad we'll have another chance in a year or so (weather permitting)!

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ruby3 — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 07:34:14 GMT

So my settings should have been ISO 800 … F3.32 and shutter at 8 instead of 125 at at least a starting point? So i was able ti get good shots of the moon earlier just fine at the settings I had but the eclipse was totally black pictures. Any suggestions on how to practice during the year to get my settings right. Something that would be a comparable subject. I got photos of the end of the eclipse but the light side was washed out some but the red part came out really good. But I used bulb setting on that in desperation cause the manual setting wasn’t giving me anything. Did anyone shoot with that size of lense, what settings on manual was anyone successful with??

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

Waddizzle — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 07:46:12 GMT

“ the looney rule *for a full moon* says to use f/11 at a shutter speed of 1/100 at iso 100. You are not far off from that. “

The Looney 11 Rule applies regardless of which phase the Moon is in. Try it!

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

SignifDigits — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 11:01:39 GMT

I did try it, but light drops off much more significantly at full eclipse. Just like you CAN shoot the sun's corona during a total eclipse without a filter .001% ND filter I believe it is safe to say that you CANNOT apply this rule when the moon is at full eclipse and 10% of it's regular luminance. And now that I think of it the "rule of 500" applies to the stars, but not the moon, which moves across the sky much faster than the stars. So - bad news - we're looking at a shorter shutter speed to prevent blurring and, thus higher ISOs, . When I do the math I come up actually needing a moon tracking astrology gimbal to do this right. Then we're into real astro photography! Or perhaps, much wider lenses and cropping and taking advantage of those megapixels. As a first-cut suggestoin I'd say we need to get a 10% filter (3 or 4 stop ND filter) and just practice on the moon. They sell ND (neutral density) filtering in sheets, so that would be the on-the-cheap way to us experiment. Again, I'm a novice (as you can see) but the experts haven't really addressed anything other than the looney rule, which clearly doesn't apply given the loss of lunar reflected luminescence during full eclipse.

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

Peter — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 11:47:01 GMT

I took this picture 2015 with a 7D and used ISO 6400, f/5,6 and 0,8 seconds.

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ebiggs1 — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 14:34:53 GMT

Always shoot raw never jpg. Turn off image stabilization. Set ISO to 100. Set aperture to F/11.

You can use your camera's spot meter and then meter on the Moon's surface. Bracketing is critical especially during the partial phases of the eclipse.

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ebiggs1 — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 14:41:27 GMT

Canon 1DX with Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports.

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

kvbarkley — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 15:12:46 GMT

I should have been more clear, I meant before the eclipse.

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

Waddizzle — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 16:28:54 GMT

I know what you meant. Your were describing a starting point only.

it really doesn’t matter what phase the Moon is in under more normal circumstances.

Ernie is correct about bracketing. The ExpSIM mode and the wider dynamic range in MILC bodies makes it easier to estimate a bracketing sequence.

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

SignifDigits — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 20:24:01 GMT

This was F16 (best my lens would do - RF 100-400 and 2x Extender), ISO 6400, 2 seconds. Blurry because of the 2 seconds required to get a decent exposure. Ok as a snapshot, but NOT sharp. Looking forward to getting a RF 200-800 someday and a camera with IBIS to lower the f stops a bit!

Re: shooting eclipse last night with 90D

SignifDigits — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 21:04:44 GMT

And for comparison, same setup with the full moon at ISO 100, 1/100, F16. MUCH better when the moon has 10x the light!

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ruby3 — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 22:48:31 GMT

I was going to try to layer several stages but I didn't even get the stage I wanted. Love your shot. Did you have to change settings for each stage to get the stages.

Re: EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

ruby3 — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 23:30:53 GMT

I did have the image stabilizer shut off since I was doing manual. I had ISO 100 F5.6 and I did try the F11 using as shutter cable doing like a few seconds and released once with the same result at the peak of the eclipse and I saw it clear in the viewfinder and the picture came out pitch black. I am reading as much as I can and I'm seeing that I should of had like a ISO 1600 and at least F 2.32 or 1/2. Picture I got of moon before eclipse, not perfect but fair than the picture I got after the eclipse and one side is pretty washed out and I think i shot that in desperation with bulb setting at ISO 100 at either 5/6 or 11 was just happy I got a picture instead of a black blank picture. I just would think something would of showed up if I saw it in the viewfinder as clear as could be.