I took Robert Watcher's advice

[Jim Olson]

Nobody until Robert has ever given me this easy set up for shooting the moon.
He said
It is normal for a camera to overexpose a lighter subject on a dark background. The exposure meter is attempting to have the dark background show as 18% Neutral grey. So more light is allowed in to brighten the large dark area, and as a result that also lightens (overexposed) your small brighter subject. The same thing happens when shooting pics or video at a nighttime concert.

With this example, you have obviously realized the need to underexpose from the cameras meter reading. That is accomplished by minus exposure compensation, or with the moon it is often easier just to manually set your aperture/shutter speed/iso. This is one of those situations, where you simply cannot let the camera determine the correct exposure for you. It doesn’t have the ability.

Having the knowledge that the moon is roughly the same exposure as midday on earth - in Manual Exposure Mode I can work from a starting point of something like f11 @ 1/500’th @ 400ISO (Sunny16 rule would be f16@1/400’th@400ISO), and then leaving the Aperture at f11, take several exposure variations by adjusting the shutter speed, until the moon shows detail on the camera screen.

So I did take some shots last night and was very happy.
Both images are right out of my camera with no editing.
TNX again Robert

 

[Asher Kelman]

Where’s the American flag, approximately?

 

[Jim Olson]

Where’s the American flag, approximately?

My lens isn't good enough to see it but maybe the next one I buy will be better

 

[Asher Kelman]

My lens isn't good enough to see it but maybe the next one I buy will be better

For sure, Will Thompson has two of them in his safe!

 

[Jim Olson]

For sure, Will Thompson has two of them in his safe!

I almost forgot about is 800mm he just bought

 

[Deleted member 55]

Which one, the RF 800mm f11 or the FD 800mm f5.6?

 

[Deleted member 55]

1600mm f22

 

[Jim Olson]

Now that's how you get a shot of the moon

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jim,

The 600mm and 800mm lenses for the Canon R series of cameras are very reasonable in price but the aperture is fixed. Unfortunately they don’t work on the Canon 7D mark II!

Only Will would add a 2x teleconverter and the result is, so to speak, stellar!

Asher

 

[Deleted member 55]

I love how the tree looks like a asian symbol on the moon!

 

[Jim Olson]

I used an on-line website called Vance AI like Topaz

AI Image Upscaler: Upscale Image Up to 40x Losslessly

VanceAI Image Upscaler is an AI tool to upscale images losslessly. The AI image upscaler can make image bigger by up to 8x online and 40x on software.

vanceai.com

Not sure if it did much to enhance the imageView attachment enlarge_BV6A4023_DPP4.JPG

 

[Asher Kelman]

I used an on-line website called Vance AI like Topaz

AI Image Upscaler: Upscale Image Up to 40x Losslessly

VanceAI Image Upscaler is an AI tool to upscale images losslessly. The AI image upscaler can make image bigger by up to 8x online and 40x on software.

vanceai.com

Not sure if it did much to enhance the image

View attachment 9672

Jim,

AI image enhancement is based on libraries of textures and patterns of millions of things. So if an Iris is recognized it will look at its libraries, find the nearest of perhaps a hundred similar eyes and pain that texture with the required brightness, hue and saturations found in the existing pixels.

Same with beards, trees, fences and cigarette packages and suits.

It’s unlikely that it’s efforts in these common earthbound objects are matched by any substantial library of the moon.

But now I wrote that, it’s servant BOTS will report back and within a year, Topaz library of moonscapes will be second to none and Will’s lenses will no longer be needed!

Asher

 

[Jim Olson]

I was out taking more shots of the moon on Wednesday night the 13th when it was 100% full.

 

[Robert Watcher]

So glad that information helped Jim.

Like you, I don’t have a really top notch long lens. My long lens does give the equivalent of 600mm when zoomed in. That focal length does still require significant cropping to not be too small in the frame.

Anne and I headed to a clear vantage point on July 13’th, to watch the Super Buck Moon rise above the horizon at 10:54pm as timeanddate.com stated. I was intent on grabbing a couple of Timelapse’s - which I did get.

Once I was done, I wanted to try a different technique than just taking one image of the moon. I used the timelapse feature on my camera to gather 20 frames - which I stacked together and aligned in Affinity Photo when I got home. This method really reduces noise artifacts and well as intensifies the features (although there aren’t many with the flat lighting of a full moon). Here is the final result, with a touch of Topaz AI Sharpen applied:

Before heading home, we grabbed this selfie in the pitch black, by turning on the car headlights. Shot was snapped handheld with an old iPhone - so was more about the record than the quality

 

[Asher Kelman]

Robert,

You are having yourselves a great time! Your kids must be happy for you!

The stacking of the images in Affinity Photo was a smart trick. How long was each exposure?

What ISO did you use?

Asher

 

[Robert Watcher]

Robert,

You are having yourselves a great time! Your kids must be happy for you!

The stacking of the images in Affinity Photo was a smart trick. How long was each exposure?

What ISO did you use?

Asher

Exposure for each shot was f8 @ 1/400’th —- 400ISO




————-

 

[Asher Kelman]

Exposure for each shot was f8 @ 1/400’th —- 400ISO




————-

Very conservative for your camera. Wouldn’t expect much noise!

 

[Robert Watcher]

Very conservative for your camera. Wouldn’t expect much noise!

Not a lot of noise at 400ISO. The advantage of stacking like I did, where the moon is in a different location on the sensor with each capture - is that when the moon is aligned on all the frames, the noise patterns or any jpeg artifacts are in different locations and cancel each other out with a Median setting. Certain features become clearer as a result as well. Stacking is a common method used by astrophotographers who take hundreds of images of something like a nebula and stack them to bring out the details and reduce noise. Thought I’d experiment on this limited set of images.



———-

 

[Jim Olson]

Thank you for giving me more info about stacking and I'm thinking about getting Topaz AI. I get alerts from an app "My Moon Phase" as to when a super moon is coming & it has azimuth. Then I have another app called compass so I know where it will be coming up at. And lastly I use two apps (Sky View & Sky Map) to track the rising Moon. And then I take photos with my phone and can see the glow

 

[Jim Olson]

So glad that information helped Jim.

Like you, I don’t have a really top notch long lens. My long lens does give the equivalent of 600mm when zoomed in. That focal length does still require significant cropping to not be too small in the frame.

Anne and I headed to a clear vantage point on July 13’th, to watch the Super Buck Moon rise above the horizon at 10:54pm as timeanddate.com stated. I was intent on grabbing a couple of Timelapse’s - which I did get.

Once I was done, I wanted to try a different technique than just taking one image of the moon. I used the timelapse feature on my camera to gather 20 frames - which I stacked together and aligned in Affinity Photo when I got home. This method really reduces noise artifacts and well as intensifies the features (although there aren’t many with the flat lighting of a full moon). Here is the final result, with a touch of Topaz AI Sharpen applied:

View attachment 9684​

Before heading home, we grabbed this selfie in the pitch black, by turning on the car headlights. Shot was snapped handheld with an old iPhone - so was more about the record than the quality


View attachment 9685

Now that I'm on a PC & not my phone, I can really see the moon shot... OMG That is awesome...

 

[Asher Kelman]

Now that I'm on a PC & not my phone, I can really see the moon shot... OMG That is awesome...

Jim,

It’s great that you are so inspired. It means a lot to me that OPF is working for you as it should.

What’s noticeable is that here, Robert Watcher has, over many years, totally mastered use of his Olympus Micro 4 Thirds system. With it he takes images that can’t be bettered with other cameras very easily unless one seeks birds far away in dark trees!

What’s so important is having one camera and it becoming an extension of one’s body and mind!

Asher