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

[SignifDigits]

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.

[Peter]

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

[ebiggs1]

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.

[ebiggs1]

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

[kvbarkley]

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

[Waddizzle]

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. 

[SignifDigits]

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!

[SignifDigits]

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

[ruby3]

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.

[ruby3]

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.