>>4246798>Why does your moon come out that nice, but mine is just a ball of light?There's a process I use. Took a little while to get where it is now.
Obviously, use a tripod. Use several different settings and take a couple shots each. That way, you'll find at least ONE that came out well.
My settings on that shot, you can see in the exif, were f/10, 1/100, ISO 100. That's a great starting point. If the moon's really bright, take some shots dropping down to your maximum aperture. Then go back up with different shutter speeds. 1/100 should be the absolute slowest you go. At any real focal length, the moon moves fast across the sensor.
Use the live view on your camera and zoom in, so you can nail the focus. Turn OFF any image stabilization. It will only mess up the shot.
Put your shutter on a delay. I use 10 seconds. Press the shutter release, step back, and everything will have a chance to stop vibrating. A remote shutter release will work, too. Your goal is to have zero movement on the camera and the fastest shutter speed you can.
Finally, you have to do some post-processing. Adjust the exposure so it's not blown out. Ideally, you SLIGHTLY overexpose the shot, then bring it down in post. Underexposed can't be fixed on a moon picture. Do slight tweaks with highlights and shadows, give texture a slight bump, and conservatively apply a little sharpening. Go too far on any of these and it will look like grainy shit.
I always convert the shot to B&W, but some people work their moon picture to bring out the tiny bit of color that's present. For that, you have to work the color levels, the color temperature, hue, etc. I tried it on the same picture I posted. There's potential there, but there's some color artifacting I don't like. So, work in progress.
Bottom line... keep practicing.
