EOS 90D Lunar eclipse photos come out solid black

[ruby3]

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

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

f5.6 is pretty slow for astrophotography.

What lens were you using?

[kvbarkley]

What was the focal length of the lens?

[kvbarkley]

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.

[SignifDigits]

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 :)!

[ruby3]

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.  

[ruby3]

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. 

[SignifDigits]

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)!

[ruby3]

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??

[Waddizzle]

“ 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!