@TCampbell wrote:
@Waddizzle wrote:
@ebiggs1 wrote:What most folks fail to realize is, it is always daylight on the Moon. It isn't night time up there!
You read my mind. So, what WB settings should be used?
I shoot everything in RAW. But if using JPEG, just set it to Daylight (Sun).
My astrophotography camera (Canon EOS 60Da) is about 4-5x more sensitive to "reds" than a typical camera, so all the images come out looking very warm and I always have to adjust the white balance in post processing.
That's just it, though. When I dial in "Daylight", the Moon turns orange, way too warm.
BTW, I've always thought the Moon was a near ideal reflector of sunlight, meaning that it reflects visible frequencies uniformly.
@Waddizzle wrote:
@TCampbell wrote:
@Waddizzle wrote:
@ebiggs1 wrote:What most folks fail to realize is, it is always daylight on the Moon. It isn't night time up there!
You read my mind. So, what WB settings should be used?
I shoot everything in RAW. But if using JPEG, just set it to Daylight (Sun).
My astrophotography camera (Canon EOS 60Da) is about 4-5x more sensitive to "reds" than a typical camera, so all the images come out looking very warm and I always have to adjust the white balance in post processing.
That's just it, though. When I dial in "Daylight", the Moon turns orange, way too warm.
BTW, I've always thought the Moon was a near ideal reflector of sunlight, meaning that it reflects visible frequencies uniformly.
My images of the moon always look too warm because that's the result of my using a camera that is significantly more sensitive to reds (desgined that way because emission nebulae tend to have a lot of hydrogen alpha wavelength light -- which is red). So I always have to adjust the white balance manually (using custom).
However, since I do shoot RAW, I opened the .CR2 in DPP (DPP will generally apply the same correction that you would have had if you set the adjustment in-camera). I found that nearly all settings resulted in an orange moon except for Tungsten (which was very blue) and Florescent (which was grey with a slight cold blue/purple cast) EXCEPT for "Auto". Auto generally has a bad reputation because usually it guesses wrong, but for the Moon ... it actually came out with a fairly neutral. As I move my mouse around the image while reading off the pixel values, they're extremely close to being a decent neutral gray.
So I'd have to suggest using 'Auto' if you shoot JPEG in camera... assuming you prefer to shoot JPEG (I do everything in RAW).
The "Looney 11 Rule" applies to a full Moon. You will need to adjust the exposure settings for less than a full Moon.
1/100, f/6.3, ISO 100.
Nice image!
The percentage of the illumination of the disk shouldn't matter to the exposure. E.g. a crescent moon vs. a full moon would use the same exposure -- it's just that the image of the moon is hitting fewer pixels on your sensor (of the pixels that are being illuminated the brightness would be about the same.)
Atmosphere will change things... if the moon is low in the sky vs. high in the sky. This is the same reason why the sun appears dimmer when at sunset - you're looking through more atmosphere.
Also, keep in mind that most people tend to overexpose the moon. It's true surface brightness isn't as bright as what you see in most photos.
Here's a gibbous moon that I shot a few years ago following the Looney 11 rule. The final adjustment seen here is boosted by about 2/3rds of a stop (and technically it's a bit bright but it looks better and it's what most people probably expect.)
Here's a version from the same image, except with no adjustment to the exposure:
The dimmer of the two is probably more accurate based on the relatively poor surface albedo of the moon, but the image where I pushed up the exposure probably looks more appealing. Remember... it's true surface brightness is rougly that of a worn asphalt road or the gray sidewall of an old tire.
If you own a photographic "gray card" then that's probably 18% gray (18% of the light that hits it will be reflected back). You'll find most sources list the moon's albedo (it's reflectance) at .12 (12%). The albedo is an average across the surface but you'll find darker or brighter areas. More recently I'm seeing measurements that are putting the moon's albedo at .136 (13.6%). But both of those values (12% or 13.6%) are darker than a tpyical photographic gray-card (usually 18%).
If the exposure you're getting out of the camera is matching the dimmer of the two exposures I posted above, then you're probably getting a fairly accurate exposure.
EOS 7D Mark II, "Daylight" WB, 1/100, f/11, ISO 100, 600mm. "Straight Outta Da Camera"
There was lens compensation applied by LR, along with whatever default sharpening and noise reduction it uses for RAW to JPEG exports. It has been cropped roughly 50%, or so.
