I need some help with night shots please

[jtharvie]

I was trying to take a picture of the moon last night but I could not get it to focus. I used RAW, set focus to infinity and set the apeture to f11. I have seen photos where the moon and the other static elements are in focus while the moving elements are blurred. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Here is what I got.
Cheers,
jth

[vic vic]

john -
the 1st photo is overexposed for night shot
the 2nd looks good in terms of exposure. but with camera shake from what i see.

no, u dont neeed f11 if u dont want to make blurs.
blurs are very tricky question. sometimes it is better to give some additional blur and not get unsharp image. so u have to find the balance that u like.

[bradreiman]

ive not had much luck with moon shots but...this seems quite overexposed. to expose the moon properly you probably will not see the rest of the image. it is very bright.

[stuny]

John -

The moon is very reflective OF THE SUN and therefore over exposes when you try to get car light movement with long shutter speeds. Compounding the problem is camera movement, blurring the moon. To get a sharp, properly exposed moon requires a faster shutter speed, and to better balance the exposure, and MAYBE get enough car headlight movement you might want to shoot a bit earlier in the evening, and use a tripod and self timer for the shutter release. I've attached a shot scanned from a print of Trujillo, Peru, that I shot leaning out of our hotel window in the early evening. Other than needing to straighten the horizon, the mood and church came out well.

[andybarton]

IIRC, a correctly exposed moon requires 125th at f16 at ISO 100, or something very similar.

The "Sunny 16" rule applies, since it's basically an object illuminated by full sunshine.

(This assumes that you want the moon itself to be correctly exposed, rather than a scene illuminated by the moonlight, of course)

I can't see any reason why a lens set to infinity would not have the moon in focus.

[jtharvie]

Thanks all for the input.
I am embarassed to say that I was using the TrekPod but it was windy so that may account to the bad blur. I have a steadier old StarD from the '70s that I will try. This was a practice for the night when the cresent moon rises just off to the right of the minitars of the church. I have been waiting to get that shot for the past 6 years and have yet to get all ellements in phase (clear night, moon in the right positon etc.) The church is 5 city blocks from my house so getting to there is easy.
Cheers,
JTH

[tobey bilek]

Sunny 16 works for a full moon, maybe add one stop depending on atmosphere.

1/2 moon requires another full stop. 1/4 moon requires another additional stop. a crescent another stop.

Easiest thing is to photograph the moon and combine them with a proper night scene with photoshop.

So go out and make some moon shots and save them.