Moon Me

[Joezilla]

Now that I have your attention...

Last night we had a fonderful full moon here in the land of Oz. Nice detail and everything. So I immediately grabbed my camera and took a few shots. When I look at them on the computer I get a black backdrop with a white ball. No detail, nothing. I shot it in RAW format, but I cannot adjust it to more than a light blue ball on a black background. So (Newby), what am I missing? I used a 70-3oomm lens on my rebel XT.

[Newby]

Hey JZ,

How long was your exposure???

[Joezilla]

Settings were 259mm, f5.6, 1/1sec, @ ISO 100.

[Newby]

OK JZ,

Start out around 1/50sec and play around up to 1/100sec. As for the F-stop your DOF needs to be higher. Try starting out at f8 and work up to f16

I think the problem ended up being that the sensor was flooded with light from the moon given the long exposure. So it lost it's details.

[Joezilla]

See, I always thought in low light situations longer exposure was better. Learn somethin new everyday.

Thanks again Newby.

[Dave]

Well you can't ask your subject to take a couple of steps back can you? :)

"Gimme the moonlight ...."