7 Mistakes to Avoid when Photographing the Moon (And the Supermoon)

[@PhotoPills]

Need help when planning or photographing the Moon or the Supermoon? Comment below! 👉 To Download our Free Moon Photography guide: www.photopills.com/articles/moon-photography-guide 👉 To Watch our Free Moon Photography videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2myfYepgLl3rbs

[@gekiryudojo]

Okay, it’s one minute 1:22 seconds and I am scrapping this video! Your voice is doing my head in!

[@PhotoPills]

hahaha... you got this far?

[@J_Cham13]

Made the no subject mistake tonight :).. just practicing taking moon pictures. Still in my planning stage

[@PhotoPills]

Never stop learning!

[@dannydriscoll9744]

Thank you for taking the time to do your videos in English, it’s very much appreciated 🙂

[@PhotoPills]

Thanks so much Danny!!

[@andrewhayes4246]

Brilliant video Raphael. Thanks!

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you Andrew!

[@coolskydream]

As always, thanks for making this valuable contents for photopiller.

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you!

[@georgedeardorff4071]

Great video. thanks for sharing. Your website is the best in the world.

[@PhotoPills]

Thanks so much George!

[@photonsonpixels]

Great tutorial Rafael. Thank you.

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you Jorge!

[@samvelsargsyan77]

I have a two of your mentioned mistakes. 1 Is when I was on place of shooting there to late and dark. 2 Moon is it small than object. Many thanks for App and video to avoid them at this time!!!!!

[@PhotoPills]

Awesome! Thanks so much!

[@dietreueneishockeyfcsalzbu4395]

Perfect again thx a lot!!

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you!

[@brianreed9955]

usual fantastic stuff

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you Brian!

[@lesley9901]

thanks Raphael. I always forget about hyperfocal distance, thanks for reminder, according to Photopills the supermoon is 14 July here in Australia . Lee

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you Lesley! Yes, the exact date depends on where you are on the Planet. PhotoPills gives you your local info :)

[@jinakatakuto8141]

So Interesting!!!! Merci!!

[@PhotoPills]

:D

[@whoofoto]

Try and try again is a good motto because sometimes the weather will not cooperate. Here in Hawai'i the moon in June stayed hidden behind a bank of clouds far out at sea as the moon rose out of the ocean and though it came out later it was no longer an impressive photograph. Fortunately we get a second chance July 13th 2022 to try for the same shot of the moon risimg out of the ocean behind the edge an island 800 meters off the beach with people silhouettes inside the rising moon. Your suggestion for the ideal sun position I had to learn and would have been helpful when I was struggling with moon shots. Thanks for the great lessons.

[@PhotoPills]

Thanks so much Warren!

[@JDLVHIGHROLLER]

As always - valuable information. Rafa - you really should consider putting some sound absorbing material in your room that you are shooting the videos is - it will reduce the “echoing” you are getting and will make It much easier to hear and understand you. Hope all is well!

[@PhotoPills]

Hey John! Yes, I know... I need a better mic too

[@eladiofernandezsalas]

ME PARECE MUY BIEN, PERO DE INGLES, NADA. ¿ES POSIBLE OIRLO EN CASTELLANO?

[@PhotoPills]

Hola Eladio! Aquí lo tienes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4XRkphsmpukfbM

[@philroberts166]

I will be on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon next week. My hopes are high.

[@PhotoPills]

Plan & Pray!

[@jcaff6963]

Thanks, Raphael, we are photoing the supermoon at Coronado Bay Bridge on July 13. This video will help with the planning and execution. BTW, just photographed the Grand Alignment of planets just before sunrise on June 25th after a milky way shoot the night before. Oh my! Thanks, again. John

[@PhotoPills]

Awesome!! May the force be with you :P

[@gardeni]

Please post a link to your pics, if you can, John! Thx.

[@cguerrieri4866]

An additional thought (at least for canon users ) would be to use live view or mirror lock up to prevent the additional camera shake of the shutter mechanism.

[@PhotoPills]

Thanks for the tip!

[@Galaxie_Oursblanc]

Sa me for Nikon!

[@EdCatlett]

Weather is not looking promising at all near Manhattan, NY unfortunately but I have a plan just in case.

[@PhotoPills]

Plan & Pray!

[@bekanav]

Seems like you are having some misunderstanding of hyperfocal distance and what focusing to it means. In the old days all prime lenses used to have a depth of sharpness (DOF) scale (BTW a Finnish invention from which Leica gave Vilho Setälä a lens. Setälä was a kind of giant of different hobbies including photography. In 1930 he wrote, or was an editor, a massive over 1200 page book "Book of Skills" among other things like many books of photography.) That scale allows to focus - at chosen aperture - to such distance (=hyperfocal distance) which maximizes (acceptable or some criteria fulfilling) sharpness from some distance (not hyperfocal distance!) to infinity. So to get both foreground object and Moon sharp you always do best by focusing behind the foreground object. How much it depends on many things, mainly distance to object and focal length. And like always having a smaller aperture increases depth of sharpness (DOF). After stopping down you also have to focus to a new hyperfocal distance - if you want to do it optimally. The distance from which acceptable sharpness begins when other end is at infinity is not hyperfocal distance but half of it.

[@PhotoPills]

Maybe this helps: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ope7kHutaZ2dotE

[@bekanav]

@@PhotoPills Well, I was correcting yours misunderstanding of hyperfocal distance in this video.... I don't need any help because I have photographed using hyperfocal distance focusing first time about 30 years ago when I got my first SLR camera

[@vitorazinheira2195]

I have the app and find it very hard to understand. We need to get a college degree to get everything correct. Have to find another app

[@PhotoPills]

Hi Víctor! It is easier than it looks. I'm sure this masterclass will help you a lot: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJOummipmbZra5o

[@Galaxie_Oursblanc]

Thx Raphael. One question so far. When you shoot the moon and the country at night or early in the morning, I've something I cannot solve : if the first plan is quite clear, moon is to bright to have structure, if you use a faster speed (even under 1s) the moon has structure, but the first plan is darker, and sometimes black... Any suggestion ?

[@PhotoPills]

Hi Laurent, after the blue hour (if your subject is not lit) there is not enough light to capture in a single exposure detail on the Moon and Foreground. You'll have to go for a full moon silhouette (exposing for the moon) or shoot a double exposure. The alternative is to plan your Moon shots for the golden hour and blue hour. Here you'll find all you need to learn how to do it (check the planning section): www.photopills.com/articles/moon-photography-guide

[@zonibjd]

Another way to make sure your moon AND subject are in focus, is to focus on the moon instead of the subject. Everything HALF the distance from the hyperfocal distance will be in focus. (Sometimes you may not know the distance of a subject (for instance, a mountain range).

[@PhotoPills]

Hey DJ! Thanks for your tip. Yep... it all depends on what you want to have super sharp in the photo... your subject or the Moon :)

[@bekanav]

No that is wrong. First of all if you focus to infinity (Moon) what is the half distance of it where you claim sharpness begins? Half of the infinity? Hyperfocal distance is always in front of infinity, if you focus to infinity you always lose some depth of sharpness (DOF). However it is true that sharpness starts from the half of the hyperfocal distance (when lens is focused to it) and reaches to infinity.

[@gcarmichael]

3:52 - fake shot, right? No way is the moon ever that large.

[@ppww6076]

It's forced perspective. Watch more videos. Of course you need a long lens too.

[@PhotoPills]

no fake! The further you are from your subject, the larger the Moon will be vs the subject. Check our Moon Photography guide to learn more on how to get this shots in a single exposure:www.photopills.com/articles/moon-photography-guide

[@BobWebb1066]

Disappointed first experience using planner....including out scouting location. Even with visual calibration your app let us down tonight by showing the totally incorrect information for where the supermoon would be rising. It was approximately 15 degrees off in a westerly direction. Completely ruining the planned captures...But all was not lost due to this, as the clouds did not even allow us to see the moon, just the lower half & for less than a minute too. If there had been no cloud though we would not have been able to move to a new location further up the road in time, as we would lose the composition due to the moon rising away from our foreground subject. Paul McCartney's windmill recording studio which sits on a slight hill in the correct orientation for our rising moon. Photopills showed me perfectly where to be .... a few feet from a very ancient pub carpark on an opposing hill 20 meters lower than the mill according to PP. When we eventually did see the orange glow of the moon rising..it was through the trees approx 15-20 degrees to the right of where the planner had me set up with both black pin & red pins in place. I also zoomed in the make sure the dotted line was central to my positioning for the tripods, as well as to see how large the moon should appear as the AR showed it enormous during my daytime scouting to the location...sadly 4 times smaller in reality though. I may not be doing something correctly here as this is the first time I have used the planner I did however follow along from your tutorials on how to plan a shoot.

[@PhotoPills]

Hi David! Planning the Moon is the most difficult thing to do. Please, don't get frustrated, it's a matter of practice. Send us your plan via [e-mail], and we'll have a look at your plan and give you feedback.

[@Mr371312]

Samsung can take fake moon photos for you these days, no planning required.

[@PhotoPills]

Hey! We're not into faking, we're into living ;)

[@gekiryudojo]

Sorry, can you speak normally?

[@PhotoPills]

I can't!