How do I get a sharp photo of the moon?

Everyone's first moon photograph is a featureless white blob, because the camera exposed for the dark sky around it. Once you understand that the moon is a sunlit rock, the exposure becomes obvious.

What you'll need

• A camera with manual exposure
• The longest lens you have, ideally 200mm equivalent or more
• A tripod

Step by step

1. Expose for sunlight, not for night.The moon is lit by the same sun that lights a daytime landscape. A useful starting point is the reciprocal of the ISO as the shutter speed at f/11 — ISO 100 at 1/100 and f/11 — then adjust from what you see. Automatic metering reads mostly black sky and overexposes by many stops.
2. Use manual mode and manual focus.Any automatic mode will meter the sky. Autofocus can work on a bright moon and often hunts; magnified live view on the terminator, the line between light and dark, is far more reliable. Once focused, do not touch it.
3. Use the longest focal length available.The moon is small — about half a degree across. At 200mm on a full-frame camera it occupies a small part of the frame; at 400mm or more it fills a usable portion. Below about 200mm equivalent it is a bright dot in a large sky, so compose it in a landscape instead.
4. Keep ISO low and shutter fast.The moon moves visibly through the frame in seconds at long focal lengths, so shutter speeds of 1/125 or faster keep it sharp. There is plenty of light, so there is no reason to raise ISO.
5. Use a tripod and a timer.At long focal lengths the smallest vibration is magnified. Two-second timer, mirror lock-up or electronic first curtain where available, and let the tripod settle after touching it.
6. Choose the phase.A full moon is lit straight on, so there are no shadows and it looks flat. Around first or last quarter, the low sun angle at the terminator throws long shadows from crater rims and mountains, and the detail is dramatic.
7. Shoot when it is high or use the horizon deliberately.Low on the horizon you are looking through much more atmosphere, which softens and distorts the image — but that is also when the moon appears large behind buildings and hills, which makes a more interesting picture than a disc on black.
8. Plan a moonrise composition.For a photograph of the moon behind a landmark, use an app or almanac to find where and when it will rise, stand far enough back to use a long lens, and the compression will make the moon appear large relative to the foreground.
9. Sharpen carefully afterwards.Moon images take sharpening well because the subject is high contrast, but over-sharpening produces a hard halo around the disc. Increase contrast and clarity modestly and stop before the edge glows.

Tips

• Take a series and stack them if you want maximum detail — averaging several frames reduces the noise and the atmospheric wobble.
• The moon plus a landscape in one frame usually needs two exposures blended, because the brightness difference is enormous.
• Photographing a full moon just after sunset, while the sky is still blue, gives both a detailed moon and a sky that is not black.

Common mistakes

• Using automatic exposure — The meter averages a frame that is nearly all black sky and brightens everything, blowing the moon to featureless white. Manual exposure is not optional here.
• Photographing the full moon expecting detail — At full, the sun is directly behind the observer relative to the moon, so nothing casts a shadow. The surface looks flat and washed out. Shoot a partial phase.

If it doesn't work

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