I own a tripod but rarely use it. I’m not a big fan of carrying my huge oh so heavy tripod anywhere. Anything I can do to avoid carrying more equipment is always the best way for me. Here’s a method how to get great picture of the moon just by hand holding your camera. This is just my method, it may not be the best but it works great for me.
Here’s what you need:
– A long telephoto lens. I own 70-200mm F2.8L IS II USM but any long lens will work.
– DSLR camera
– Your hands to hold the camera 😀
How to photograph the moon:
– Start by holding your camera very stable, the less movement the less likely you have blurry picture.
– Set your camera to Manual Mode
– Change your setting to “Spot Metering”.
– Set your focal point (That’s the red dot in your camera when you press your shutter half-way)
– Start your ISO at 500. You can increase it later on depending on how high your ISO can go.
– Start your aperture (the F stop) to something high like F8. The higher the number the more depth of field. Which mean more things in focus.
– Set your shutter speed 100 sec.
– Look at the metering and make sure it’s in the center.
– Press your shutter button half-way to focus on the moon and then press all the way.
The shutter, aperture and ISO setting varies depending on the rising of the moon. Which mean the moon could be brighter or darker. Play around with these settings until you get a good picture.
The picture below was taken at ISO 2500, F22 and 1/320 second. I cropped the picture so the moon doesn’t look like a small dot and sharpen for web. Let me know what you think!
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