How to Take a Photo of the Moon

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, everyone has moon fever. There has never been a better time to grab your camera and head outside to take a shot of our moon, and this excellent video will show you everything you need to know to do just that.

Coming to you from Karl Taylor, this awesome video will show you everything you need to know about how to take a great photo of the moon. Although astrophotography is a notoriously difficult genre, the moon is a bit of an exception, and given both that and its beauty, it is a wonderful subject for beginner and advanced photographers alike. Also, unlike other astrophotography, it doesn't take specialized equipment and tremendous amounts of time and post-processing work to take high quality images. All you need is your camera, a telephoto lens, and a decent tripod. Although Taylor is using a remote shutter release for this shot, if you don't have one, that's no problem at all. Instead, just use your camera's shutter timer and mirror lockup (if you're shooting with a DSLR) so you can minimize vibrations. Check out the video above for the full rundown! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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6 Comments

Don’t shoot till you see the wolf eyes

You can also use multiple images and process them in Registax or equivalent, it is not too complicated nor long to get some decent image. The image attached is low resolution one but is the result of 120 stacked images, the full process, shooting + editing took less than 1h.

And this is just a single image from an a7RIII. 1/640 f/7.1 ISO 250, 400mm, IS turned off, tripod, 10 second delay. Forgot to use electronic shutter though so there could still be some vibration from that.

Start by building a top-secret TV studio out in a remote desert location...

It's easy. Fly up to the moon, then use any camera! Surely gear doesn't matter when you're on the moon or the earth? 😁

The most important thing is to take the photo in the southern hemisphere because you lot up there see the moon the wrong way up