How to Plan a Photo of the Moon over a Mountain | Step by Step Tutorial

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If you wish to photograph a big Moon appearing behind a mountain, the first step is to plan the shot. This is to find the right shooting spot and right shooting date and time the Moon will be right where you want it to be relative to the mountain. You’ll find how to do it step by step in this video.
TIME INDEX
01:01 Find the shooting spot
05:29 Find the shooting time
10:06 Check natural light
11:37 Plan the field of view and the depth of field
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[@MrBigbike55]

thank you so much, what a great video

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you!

[@drshawnie]

Thank you so much Rafa, I forgot about the dashed line for indicating obstruction of view.

[@PhotoPills]

Cool! Thank you Shawnie!

[@philcaffrey]

Thanks as ever Rafa. I learn something new with every video. 👍👍

[@PhotoPills]

Thank you Phil!

[@sukantasarker159]

Thank you for sharing. I am very new to photography but this tutorial was very useful to get an idea. I think I will be able to use the information in the coming future.

[@PhotoPills]

Hi Sukanta! Glad it helped!

[@LeeMansfield]

Superb tutorials 👍

[@PhotoPills]

Thanks so much!

[@Kyotodreamtrips]

cool, gearing up for the next full moon

[@PhotoPills]

Yeah!

[@edwarddebruyn8717]

Hi thank you for sharing and Friendly greetings But if you don't know well the place: How can you check if there is a mountain in front or after the spot where you want to see a moonrise (or moonset) ?

[@PhotoPills]

We use the Black Pin. Moving it along the Moon position to see if the azimuth line of the Moon turns dashed. In the future we wish to implement a way to do it automatically.

[@dorbeas]

Great video. I’ve watched several of your videos including moon placement behind a building/structure but have a question. I understand if you know the height of the building you can find a moon at that elevation and the center will be at the very top. But what if you wanted the moon to sit on top of the building? Would you use the technique you described in this video of the mountain and add half the radius? I hope my question makes sense.

[@PhotoPills]

Yes! To calculate the height of the center of the Moon I need= Height of the building + Moon radius. Using the info on Panel 2 is key :)

[@rogerbarnett8412]

See what y'all think about this. Two reasons I had to move the camera a few times: The moon's rise angle didn't match the mountain's slope angle. And, I was using a 500mm lens. It made for several great still's, even if the TL isn't smooth kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJKldZaupt9kfLs I nailed the previous full moon rise (actually one day prior, for better mountain lighting) perfectly, however! I had three cameras set up and going! kzbin.info/www/bejne/laS7qaqjo7Z-lcU

[@PhotoPills]

Thanks for the videos!

[@jcben]

Hello Rafael One big question (probably a beginner mistake): how do you search for a particular place in photopills ? Right now i have to open google maps alongside and try to find the place i'm looking for by comparing maps

[@philcaffrey]

Just go to "Load" in the planner and start typing your location like you would in Google maps. Super easy when you know how, but I was the same at the beginning. Enjoy.

[@PhotoPills]

Yesss! Thanks Phil!

[@jcben]

@@philcaffrey Thanks that will change my life

[@drshawnie]

you could also grab the GPS coordinates from google maps and enter them in PP. ==>load==> and enter coordinates

[@fcapixio]

Hi Rafa, great video! Can you clarify something for me? I was a little confused when you set the moon at 0m and 47m. I thought “well that’s not a very tall mountain”. A google search says that Monte Toro is 358m tall. So wouldn’t you have to set the moon to 358m? I’m very new to all this so I’m really confused haha.

[@WakoJacKooo]

The black pin is adjusted to that ground level. So if your on top of everest for example the pin will state it will be 0metres high but when working along side the red pin will state if you are higher or lower in perspective to the red pin. So red pin at sea level and black pin at everest height black pin should say +8000metres . Etc

[@fcapixio]

@@WakoJacKooo hey thanks for the reply Joe. I’m not sure I understand completely. I understand that if the red pin is at sea level and the black pin is at the top of Mount Everest, I would have to adjust the time to make the moon +8000m (I think). So In the video at 9:42, what information am I looking at in photopills that will let me know that the red and black pin are at the same elevation? I think that’s where I’m a little lost.

[@PhotoPills]

Hi Fitz! PhotoPills takes automatically into account the terrain difference between the Red Pin and the Black Pin. Panel 2 is giving you the height of the center of the Moon over the Black Pin Ground level. So forget about the 358m.

[@fcapixio]

@@PhotoPills ohhh, so if we are shooting mountains and landscapes, we can forget about the height of the mountains. But if we are shooting a building, then we have to factor in the height of the subject. Is that correct?

[@PhotoPills]

@@fcapixio Yes, if there is a building on the mountain, then you can compare the height of the Building with the height of the center of the Moon given on Panel 2.

[@flameout12345]

Why is my blackpin showing the height of the sun when its already dark and the moon height at the very end?

[@PhotoPills]

Because you have the Sun aligned with the Black Pin. Align the Moon with it and it'll show you the Moon height :)

[@EliFleming]

There’s no way you shot those 3 moons from Earth-we only have one. What planet was this taken on?

[@PhotoPills]

Hey Eli... That's a good one. It's a composition showing the Moon rising.

[@EliFleming]

@@PhotoPills really cool image! Nice work!

[@travaglini_brandpolitics]

Can't you make these videos in Italian too? Or at most underlined in Italian?

[@PhotoPills]

I wish I could speak Italian...