topic Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Lens ?

Miss2o9 — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 12:44:17 GMT

How do you take a picture of the moon using a Canon EOS Rebel T5 DSLR camera with 18-55mm IS Lens?

Please can someone give me directions cause i have looked everywhere .?

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

pjmacd — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 13:19:50 GMT

A lens with a maximum focal length of 55mm is probably not going to give you the results you want. There is a good discussion of how to photograph the moon here:

https://photographylife.com/how-to-photograph-moon

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

ebiggs1 — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 15:15:52 GMT

Of course any lens can be used to photgraph the Moon but with your lens it will be pretty small. Is that what you want?

Remember it may be night time here where you are but on the Moon it is daylight.

A few things you may want to invest in are ef-s 55-250mm f/4-5.6 is stm lens and Photoshop Elements. You also need to understand the "Looney Rule" or "Looney 11 Rule". With ISO 100 setting in the camera, you set the aperture to f/11 and the shutter speed to 1/100 or 1/125 second if your camera does not have 1/100. You can use any combination of this as long as it evens out. For instance ISO 400 and aperture at f/11, set shutter speed to 1/400 or 1/500 for most cameras.

A 250mm lens is probably the shortest focal length for a decent sized Moon as it relates to a 400mm lens on you camera. But an even longer focal length lens will be better. IE a true 400mm lens (640mm on your camera). That is where Photoshop Elements comes in to play. You can do some exposure corrections and crop your photo as you deem fit.

One more thought if you do go the PSE route, shoot in RAW mode not jpg. PSE will make that adjustment seemless for you and give way better results.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

TCampbell — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 19:23:04 GMT

The beauty of the Loony 11 rule is that if you use f/11 (and only at f/11 is this true) then the correct shutter speed is always the inverse of the ISO setting.

So if you use ISO 100, you'd use 1/100th sec shutter speed (at f/11)

If you use ISO 400, you'd use 1/400th sec shutter speed (at f/11)

If you use any other f-stop (aperture value) then you have to know how to trade stops of exposure... if, for example, I shoot at f/8 instead of f/11, then f/8 is one full stop brighter than f/11 (meaning I'm collecting twice as much light when the shutter is open). SO... I have to use a shutter speed which is one full stop faster than what I'd use at f/11. If I'm using ISO 100 and f/8 then I use 1/200th sec shutter speed.... you can start by selecting the same shutter speed that you'd use at f/11... then compensate by changing the shutter speed by the same number of stops that you changed the aperture.

The following was taken with my EOS 60Da... using the Loony 11 rule. But this camera is mounted to a telescope ... not a camera lens. The telescope is an f/5.4 scope (telescopes don't have variable apertures so there's no changing that). But I attached a 2x adapter (in my case it's a TeleVue 2x PowerMate -- you can think of that as a 2x Teleconverter for a lens... but these are designed for use on telescopes). That brings my f-stop to f/10.8 (which we round to simply "f/11").

When I took this, I was demonstrating how the rule works to someone at an astronomy event. I explained the rule. Connected the camera to the telescope. Set my exposure based on the rule. And took just ONE shot. This is that shot. The point was to show that there's no need to guess your way into the correct exposure if you know the rule. You'll nail the shot every time.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

Palomino — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 02:54:05 GMT

To bad no one answered your question , I have the same.
I want to take a shot of a full move over water with the 55. How to set Shutter and F stop? and to what valuers to start?

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

TCampbell — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 03:03:40 GMT

@Palomino wrote:
To bad no one answered your question , I have the same.
I want to take a shot of a full move over water with the 55. How to set Shutter and F stop? and to what valuers to start?

The exposure value was answered in my reply to this thread.

The only difference is that you're using a 55mm focal length so the moon will be tiny.

The 55mm focal length will produce an image with 23º wide (horizontal) by 15.5º tall (vertical.) But the moon itself is only .5º (angular dimension) so it wont be very big in the image created by a 55mm focal length lens.

To get a "large" moon requires roughly 1000mm (it would technically fit even at 1500mm but it would be a tight fit.)

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

ebiggs1 — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 07:50:45 GMT

"To bad no one answered your question , I have the same.
I want to take a shot of a full move over water with the 55. How to set Shutter and F stop? and to what valuers to start?"

To bad we didn't put it in bold face type? It was answered twice!

"You also need to understand the "Looney Rule" or "Looney 11 Rule". With ISO 100 setting in the camera, you set the aperture to f/11 and the shutter speed to 1/100 or 1/125 second if your camera does not have 1/100. You can use any combination of this as long as it evens out. For instance ISO 400 and aperture at f/11, set shutter speed to 1/400 or 1/500 for most cameras."

A 55mm lens is not going to make an impressive Moon shot unless you want a lot of landscape in the picture. The Moon will be tiny. On a Rebel a 250mm is about as small as you can go and still have a reasonable Moon picture. A 400mm is even better.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

Waddizzle — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 17:35:32 GMT

There are a couple of great tables at Wikipedia, under "Exposre Value", which is EV. The "Looney 11 Rule" seems to work out to approximately EV14. You will need to shoot with the camera in "M", manual mode.

But, I think that rule is supposed to be applied at night. If you are looking for a shot of the moon with some landscape in view, then those shots are best taken when the sun is just below the opposite horizon, which means the sun is behind you when you look at the moon.

Just before sunrise, or just after sunset, is good because the sky is partially lit up, almost with a dark blue tint to it, which will make setting your exposure easier. Learn how to read the exposure meter at the bottom of your viewfinder, in conjunction with the wheel next to the shutter button.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

kvbarkley — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 19:17:52 GMT

palomino:

There are two kinds of moon shots.

If you want a picture of only the moon, like the example photo, use the looney-ll rule as stated. (though the example is a little underexposed for my taste.)

If yoou want a moonrise/moonset shot with other things in view you have a problem. Unless it is during early dusk, like Ansel's famous shot, it is almost impossible to get a good exposure that captures detail in the moon and exposes the "foreground" correctly. The moon, being brightly lit, will tend to overexpose, or the "foreground" will turn black. Most of the shots you see with a detailed moon and detailed dark "foreground" are photoshopped or double exposure.

In your case, I would take two shots, one with the camera in auto exposure to get the "foreground" and another with the luuney-11 and combine them.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

ezpop — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 01:32:05 GMT

I agree that a long zoom lens will be necessary. As for the trick, you may have a look at this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cGbbSx-Mug&index=89&list=PL335CA023DA605386

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

kvbarkley — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 15:29:50 GMT

Guys:

We *don't* know if a long lens is necessary. Ansel Adams did not use a telephoto for "Moon rise over Hernandez", after all. The OP has to tell us what kind of picture they are trying to take.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

ebiggs1 — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 16:39:41 GMT

Ansel Adams was a master in the darkroom. Maybe more so, likely more so, than a photographer. After the correct exposure is obtained, I believe most of the magic is done in manipulation in a post editor. Just like Adams did for Moon rise over Hernandez.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

TCampbell — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 16:53:53 GMT

The moon is about 1/2º from edge to edge (it has an elliptical orbit and it's distance from Earth varies by nearly 10% over the lunar month so it gets a tiny bit larger or smaller...but not by much.)

The shot I posted on the previous page (and I've taken numerous such shots through several different scopes) happens to be taken at roughly 1080mm... but then I cropped in just slightly (it's not much of a crop.)

I did the math and it turns out that at 1500mm lens using an APS-C sensor works out to about .6 degrees in the narrow direction and .9 in the wide direction. You need .5 to capture the moon. So a 1500mm would be a tight fit... but it would fit. I suppose you could turn the moon sideways during a quarter phase and get even closer.

Anything shorter and you'll just have more room. If you want a shot of "just" the moon then you'll be cropping in more aggressively with shorter focal length lenses.

If you want landscape in the foreground... that's fine... just be aware that depending on lighting conditions, the foreground may need a LONG exposure to get much revealsed... and that will blow out the moon.

One technique is to take advantage of the fact that wen the moon is near a 1st quarter phase all the way up to just one night before the actual night of the "full" moon the moon will rise BEFORE the sun sets. That means you can get into position just after sunset as the sky transitions through dusk to darkness and take the shot when the light of dusk is still providing foreground illumination. If you're planning to make a color image then often a rich blue sky is more attractive than a black sky anyway (and light pollution tends to just create a muddy sky that looks even worse.)

You can use tools such as the Photographer's Ephemeris (they have a website and an app) to calculate precisely where the moon will be located in your landscape on any given night. That way if you want the moon in your shot, you don't have to get lucky... you can figure out precisely where you need to stand and when you need to be standing there to get the composition you want.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

Waddizzle — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:20:25 GMT

I use the web site TimeAndDate dot com to find the moon.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

RobertTheFat — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 16:56:33 GMT

@ebiggs1 wrote:
Ansel Adams was a master in the darkroom. Maybe more so, likely more so, than a photographer. After the correct exposure is obtained, I believe most of the magic is done in manipulation in a post editor. Just like Adams did for Moon rise over Hernandez.

Ansel Adams, were he alive today, would likely be one of the world's foremost users of, and advocates for, Photoshop.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

TCampbell — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 23:06:39 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
Guys:
We *don't* know if a long lens is necessary. Ansel Adams did not use a telephoto for "Moon rise over Hernandez", after all. The OP has to tell us what kind of picture they are trying to take.

Also, Ansel Adams didn't even wait for night. Moonrise was shot during the day. He darkened the sky in the darkroom.

The story of the making of the photograph Moonrise, Hernandez , New Mexico is legendary. Ansel’s description in Examples: The Making of Forty Photographs is oft repeated, and quite dramatic. We have brought together several vignettes that put a little more perspective on what let up to the dramatic moment on a lonely highway at 4:05 PM (local time), October 31, 1941.

From: http://www.anseladams.com/ansel-anecdotes/

On that day in Hernandez, NM the sun wouldn't set until 5:09pm.

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

Hades_Kane — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 19:15:11 GMT

I know this is a reply to a very old thread but I ran across this wondering the same thing and thought some actual examples of moon pics w/ an 18-55mm lens would be useful. Hopefully this will be helpful for anyone else that comes across this in the future.

I used the f/11, ISO 100, 1/100 "looney 11" rule as suggested, and used a Canon EOS Rebel T7i with 18-55 lens at full zoom, no tripod (hand held), in JPG mode, and no post editing other than cropping the picture, so this is about as basic / point and shoot as you can get.

Original picture:

Same image, cropped to just the moon:

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

ebiggs1 — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:34:47 GMT

What most people don't realize, it it is daylight on the Moon. If it weren't you would not be able to see it. Anyway not as brightly as we know it. The fact that it is dark here has no bearing on the Moon but somehow people relate to that darkness here.

You need a bigger lens, my friend!

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

wq9nsc — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 00:36:20 GMT

You can get some very nice moon photos with other items in the foreground for context with a short lens but for detailed photos of the moon itself, focal length is your friend. If you are using a shorter focal length lens like the 18-55 then try to compose a photo with interesting foreground items to tell a story.

These photos were shot with a Canon 1DX III using in order of photos: EF 800 f5.6 lens, EF 800 plus 1.4X, EF 800 plus 2X, and using a Celestron CPC 1100HD telescope as the camera lens (equivalent to a 2800MM f10 lens).

Rodger

Re: How do you take a picture of the moon using Canon - EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Len

kvbarkley — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 01:23:57 GMT

You mean like this: