How to Photograph the Moon
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Photographing the moon can be easy--I walk you through the process and give you exact settings to use. For more advanced photographers, I'll also introduce you to Registax (sdp.io/registax) and show you how to get EXTREMELY detailed photos of the moon.
For more information, read the blog post at northrup.photo/..., and read Chapter 10 in Stunning Digital Photography (sdp.io/store).
SUBSCRIBE and like Northrup...
Buy the #1 book with 14+ HOURS of video on Amazon: help.tc/s
Worldwide use 10% off coupon 'UA-cam': sdp.io/sdpbook
Lightroom video book $10 on Amazon: help.tc/l
Photoshop video book $10 on Amazon: help.tc/p
Photography Buying Guide on Amazon: help.tc/b
Worldwide use 10% off coupon 'UA-cam': sdp.io/buybg
STARTER CAMERAS:
Basic Starter Camera ($280 used at Amazon): Canon T3 help.tc/t3
Better Starter Camera ($500 at Amazon): Nikon D5300 help.tc/d5300
Better Travel Camera ($500 at Amazon): Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II help.tc/em10ii
LANDSCAPE CAMERAS:
Good ($550 at Amazon): Sony a6000 help.tc/a6000
Better ($1,400) at Amazon: Nikon D5500 help.tc/D5500 & Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 help.tc/s35
Best ($3,150) at Amazon: Pentax K-1 help.tc/K1 & Pentax 24-70 f/2.8 help.tc/p24
PORTRAIT CAMERAS:
Beginner ($950 at Amazon): Canon T6i help.tc/t6i & Canon 50mm f/1.8 help.tc/c50
Better ($3,000 at Amazon): Nikon D610 help.tc/d610 & Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 help.tc/t200
Best ($5,300) at Amazon: Nikon D810 help.tc/d810 & Nikon 70-200 f/2.8E help.tc/n200e
WILDLIFE CAMERAS:
Starter ($1,100 at Amazon): Canon 7D help.tc/7D & Canon 400mm f/5.6 help.tc/c400
Great ($3,200 at Amazon): Nikon D500 help.tc/d500 & Nikon 200-500 f/5.6 help.tc/n500
VIDEO CAMERAS:
Beginner ($500 at Amazon): Panasonic G7 help.tc/g7 & Panasonic 14-42mm help.tc/p42
Better ($1,400 at Amazon): Panasonic GH4 amzn.to/2p5dAmD & Panasonic 14-140 f/3.5-5.6 help.tc/p140
Best ($4,300 at Amazon): Panasonic GH5 help.tc/gh5 & Metabones Speed Booster XL help.tc/mbxl & Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 help.tc/s35 & Sigma 50-100 f/1.8 help.tc/s100
DRONES:
Beginner ($400 at Amazon): DJI Phantom 3 help.tc/p3
Travel ($1,000 at Amazon): DJI Mavic Pro help.tc/Mavic
Better Image Quality ($1,500 at Amazon): DJI Phantom 4 Pro help.tc/p4p
⭐Some of our favorite tripods⭐
Dolica on Amazon: help.tc/dolica
Manfrotto BeFree on Amazon: help.tc/befree
📚 Buy Our Books on Amazon! 📚
📕Stunning Digital Photography: help.tc/s
📘Lightroom 6 Book: help.tc/l
📙Photoshop Book: help.tc/p
📗Buying Guide: help.tc/b
Tony & Chelsea Northrup moon
Tony & Chelsea Northrup How about these settings....... ua-cam.com/video/M6nZ29hA7_Q/v-deo.html
i guess it is kinda off topic but does anybody know a good website to watch newly released movies online?
@James Dayton i would suggest Flixzone. You can find it by googling =)
@Christopher Vincenzo Definitely, I've been using Flixzone for since april myself :D
Tony you have improved my photography skills so much. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills.
Glad I could help!
I almost want to cry! THANK YOU!!! I just purchased a Nikon Coolpix p510. Never in my life have I been able to take a photo of the moon that didn't look like a lit up cottonball...until just now. I've watched so many videos, and my brain was almost mush. lol They went all over the place and made it SO confusing!! You made it so easy, and I can't thank you enough!!!!
I know this is an old video but still very useful for a beginner like me. I tried it out last night, followed all the steps and it works perfectly! It really took my moonshots to the next level I was looking for.
Like you?, I wanna hug you guys so much that you won't believe me...I'm "flabbergasted" by how much I've been able to grasp from your videos. WHERE have you guys been all my life???? LOL Thanks a lot from the bottom of my heart!!!
Thank you for your amazing tutorials. I make video courses as a side job, and dabble with photography as well. Your videos have improved all aspects of my videos/photographs. I really appreciate what you do
This video is pure joy. A great example of how great this channel is.
Thanks!
YES YES i wanted a tutorial on this as i was going for a photography night out next week. Good tutorial.
Omg I can listen to you talk for days.... you have a unique calming speech manner and your voice pitch is hypnotizing. You would make a killing on Audible!
The moon is best photographed when it isn’t full. The best results are gotten when the moon is around half full. You also want to set your camera to spot meatering and focus on the bottom part of the moon where there are more mountains and craters with greater contrast. This will give your cameras AF system something to grab on to and will result in a sharper image. A lens of about 400 to 500 mm is ideal with a tripod and cable release or handheld if you can do it with out shaking. Once you hit about 700-800 mm in focal leagnth you will need to use an astrological type gimbal tripod that tracks the moon at the same speed and arch so you can keep the moon in frame. At that magnification the moon will enter and exit the frame so quickly that obtaining sharp focus becomes next to impossible. The one thing you must understand about photographing the moon is that even though it is at night and it is dark out side you shoot the moon like you are shooting in daylight.
Just use manual focus with IS off if you've gone to all the work to put it on a tripod. Use the magnifier tool and peaking.
I learn more from this comment than the actual video
Thanks for the advice!
I don't think the moon being full largely affects the image quality, I'm no pro but some of the best shots I've taken have been full moons (with the right settings of course)
Thank u for this🙏
I’m a novice photographer, im practicing on taking moonshots...
An older video but still holds value! Thanks Tony!
Thank you from the UK for taking the time to explain things so clearly.
man your channel is so good and difference than the other ones out there good topics !
tHANKS!
so true !
This is by far one of the best channels I ever encountered for photography
This video was so calming. New subscriber :)
Love your Digital photography book. Bought myself and my partner a copy off of the google play store along with the Photoshop guide!
Thanks Tony....That moon scheme worked out just great for me.... :)
I wanted to learn and I fell asleep 30 seconds into the video. The voice and music is so soothing
Thanks Tony, didn't knew about this software, so, for the info on their webpage I assume this can be used for any kind of images where we need higher quality stacking for sharpness, right?, What is the main advantage of stacking here vs Photoshop?... also, when I shoot the moon I always use *spot-metering* and that gives me better results
+Areku San Photoshop doesn't do this type of stacking. If spot-metering works for you, that's great--however, it will tend to expose the moon as middle grey, and you actually want the moon to be exposed as close to the right side of the histogram as possible.
+Tony Northrup Ahhh, great advice, thanks so much for replying!
+Tony Northrup you are full of awesomeness
+Areku San Registax doesn't only stack the images but also aligns them. I'm not sure if photoshop aligns the images or not. Also the real magic of registax is it's wavelets function. That's what makes the image so much more detailed.
+Nadim Mayar Thanks, I want to try it with some landscape and architectural photos too, Have anyone used it for that?
I love your voice and the combination of the soothing music . Very informative video !
This clip was so very useful last night and today with our #supermoon excitement! Cheers on all your good work, T&C! :)
just LOVING your channel. as a baby photographer i'm just learning so much!! thanks for making it so easy to learn!
Tony you are bad ass, if I had the funds I would love to have a private tutorial with you and Chelsea...very new to photography, but thanks to your videos I have learned so much, stuck between choosing dslr or mirrorless. I usually shoot dog shows and horse shows. I notice the dslr is noisy, I have seen judges or show officials ask the photographer move back or please step outside. I was almost kicked out of a show for using flash, super rookie mistake, I gravitate towards the Nikon d500, just a bit concerned about that big clunking sound. I want to do events and so on, I have the a7ii, seems to lag and the buffer fills up quite fast. I have narrowed it to d500 or the new a6500, can you please offer any suggestions. Greatly appreciate it.
Mind BLOWN when you busted out Registax. The results are incredible!
You need to halve the cores used in Registax if your CPU has hyper-threading, this will stop it crashing.
Thanks that worked for me
Dude thank you so much!! Tried this months ago but Registax just froze. Went back to this video to try it again and saw this comment. Saved my life :D
I don't get it. What does "halve the cores" mean?
When I first opened the RegiStax software, it said it was using 8 cores in the CPU setting (next to about at the top right). The software was constantly crashing, couldn't get an image out of it. I halved it to 4 as @Sigma Octantis suggested. The software has worked great since.
Dale Boettcher Top right corner it says CPUs and a number with two arrows, up and down. Put it to half of whatever is there, if you have 8, take it down to 4. If you have 4, put it down to 2.
I had problems with Registax locking up and giving me the "out of memory" error. After searching online, I found an astronomy forum that stated you must use images less than 3000 pixels wide by 2000 pixels high. After resizing my images, Registax worked great and my final image looked stunning! Thanks for all of the great content Tony and Chelsea!
Can you please make a video about how to photograph the stars with a long exposure?
I second that
He has done that already. Look it up in his video upload.
+Aaron Yang I can only find a video about star trails, that's not what I mean. Unless there's another video?
+헤일리 You should try that one, it has tons of info on taking long exposures of the stars. What are you trying to do?
+헤일리 If you want to take longer exposures of the stars to see the milky way and all that, you need a tripod, a wide angle lens, a remote shutter release or timer, and preferably a camera body with mirror lock up. Higher clean ISO capability also helps. you want to keep the shutter speed down to avoid motion blur of the stars. With a 24 mm lens, I try to keep my exposures under 30 seconds. The more zoom you have, the more obvious motion blur will become and the shorter exposure time you can use.
The other way is use of a telescope and a properly aligned tracking fork mount with an equatorial wedge or a German equatorial mount tripod with a motor drive, but that's a whole other ball of wax.
I take my moon shots with my DSLR or cell phone camera through a 1200 mm f/6 telescope.
That sequence of the lunar eclipse... the one where the moon comes out of the shadow. Pictures like that are the ones that make you go 'oh wow' when you're post-processing :) Love it!
How does stacking improve the sharpness of an image? (scratches head)
And how much better results do you get with that software in comparison to optimising exposer/contrast/... and sharpening in lightroom etc.?
Stacking works because it aligns the images to correct for movement, that's the whole point! And there is no perspective change when photographing the moon - well not in a single night anyway, if you were to do it over months then there might be noticeable change due to precession...
Ja okay, that's how you keep the stacked images from blurring out. But that still doesn't explain how you actually GAIN sharpness by stacking over single images.
It's a combination of the reduced noise by averaging out lots of images, together with some magic done by the wavelets function in Registax (which I think is specific to that software, which is why he recommends using it - you will find that some photographers also use Registax's sharpening on non-astro photos because it's so useful, albeit often masked to just certain areas of the photo using Photoshop).
Stacking works in three ways...
First it raises the signal to noise ratio, increasing contrast and detail.
Second stacking compares each pixel in each image in the stack, favoring those with real signal and adding them together.
Third by comparing pixels from multiple image it uses wavelet turbulence algorithms to increase detail and sharpness.
Registax is an older, simple freeware program... doing simple things like the moon are mostly all it's good for. There are a few others out there like AutoStakkert and WinJupos that do the same thing. These programs are primarily for lunar and planetary photography.
High end programs like PixInsight use complex multi-algorithm calibration and stacking routines to process many hours of sub-exposures of dim celestial objects like galaxies and nebula. This is what I use for my astrophotography images.
You remind me of Mark Hemmings, you both talk so clear and slow...
Makes it easy for non native English speaker like myself to understand.
You earned yourself a new subscriber 😊
Just saw this video after supermoon. 😥
yeah, there was a supermoon "Wolfmoon" last night and TONIGHT it was super big again.
Me too. I was wondering why my photos were a bit lame. Next time I'll be stacking, in Photoshop though, because I can. huaharhar!
I just saw this after the blood moon
Same 😭😭😭😭
@@gregorygrigoriadis same here, i was bummed my pics looked bad hahaha
Hi Tony and Chelsea, thank you both for your amazing video series. As a novice photographer, I have found a new lease of life with my creativity and skills with your instructive and informative videos. Please keep up the great work from a new fan in the UK!
OMG Tony you taught Peter Lik to fake his moon photo! LOL
i like the way you speaks. you are very kind and humble. I liked that video.
You should try to photograph the moon when it's in the first or last quarter phase, it actually looks more impressive. You can see much more detail on it. On a full moon the surface details kinda get washed out due to all the light hitting it from the sun.
Nadim Mayar
right, but to photo the full moon, you must manually lower exposure.
This video, by far, was simple and to the point. Now I have a better grasp of lunar photography. Thanks for all you do! Keep up the great work!
Full moon is not actually the time to get the sharpest images. You get more contrast on the craters and mountains when the light comes from a lower angle during the other phases of the moon. The best detail is near the "terminator" between the light and shadow.
Tony, you are the man! I just followed your instructions to make a moon picture, shared it in the family whatsapp and guess what, they are impressed. Thank you!
Tony, I ordered your how to create stunning digital photography, looking forward to advancing m,y skills on my Canon 70d #Novice
Thanks! Enjoy it!
Tony knows photography and explains it so most everyone can understand.
What mic do you use to record your voice?
Is it a lapel mic?
+PyroDrone Yes, sdp.io/g3
+Tony Northrup thank you for this
$630....and suggestion for a budget friendly mic?
Michael Blosser try looking at the boya lav mic it is 20$ and sounds decent
I admit that all of tbe videos you do are very educational. But this one is the best so far. Thanks
Why am I seeing this now??? 🤦🏻♂️ I could’ve used this at last night’s Super Blood Full Wolf Moon Zombie Bunny Rabbit 😭😭😭😭
Same here. I accidentally took photos with 1 + second shutter except one 1/1.3 that turned out a little dark but usable.
Yep, I am seeing after last night's failed attempts.
the video is just so calming and the way you explain is just magical
The lenses! They're gonna fallllll!
+NJA2k8 hahaha! I was thinking the same: "the dog will bump on them!"
+Areku San I would be the one dropping them as I reached for them in the night lol
So glad I found your channel. It's one of the most professional and neutral photography channels on UA-cam. I really like your videos!
I will have to try this out... but no matter what, i still think re sizing the moon like that must have something wrong with it becsuse it feels unnatural to see in composites like that.
Fantastic! My end result is just sensational. I found that by reducing the number of sync points, the application was finally able to chew through my imagines and provide a gorgeous end product. Love the channel, and look forward to continuing to learn along the way!
you should rename this video to the "How to Peter Lik Tutorial"
Thank you very much Tony. I'll try this the next time I see a nice moon and a clear sky...Cheers
Anyone else here for the super blood wolf moon 2019?
Jacob Cacho yes but it’s not working for me
@@Untitled.blisss Unfortunately this video won't help you. On Tony's web site he suggests setting shutter speed at 1/4, your lowest possible f/stop number and ISO at 6400 for a lunar eclipse. I've taken pictures already. Yes you will get noise in your photo unfortunately.
I figured it out but thanks man!
Whats a good lens for moon shots ? Im looking at the 75mm-300 or 55mm-250 and even a Canon FD 100-300mm old lens .
The setting here did not work at all for me. I say another video where trhe guy said set the shutter speed to the ISO. So ISO 100 = 1/100th or ISO 200=200th shutter speed. That worked for me. Now post processing. I could not get that stacking program to work at all so far. Constant crashes out of memory no matter what I do
Amazing! Thanks so much for the Registax tip. I tried it tonight, and can't believe how much sharper the stacking result is. Your wavelet scheme file helped at LOT too.
IM HERE BECAUSE OF THE SUPPER MOON
Is that the moon you eat after lunch but before bed?
nicodimus2222 😂😂😂
I got some absolutely awesome pictures of the moon in the clouds. They turned out to be some I'd the best pics if the moon I have taken
That's no moon! It's a space station!
It's a trap!
It's TOO big to be a space station!!
That's no moon, that's your mother! - Robot Chicken Star Wars ( I may have that quote wrong :)
@@goproman3504 Its an artificially hollowed-out object parked in orbit. Its an ancient space station, get with it or stop spreading false information.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Your videos have been a huge help for me. I'm new to the photography world. You give off a very calming vibe in your manor of presentation. Thank you.
You have said,that you take a picture of the moon with kit lens 135mm at f8 1/60th sec and bla bla bla,but later on,you said,that you will take that picture and show how to do stuff in photoshop,but you took different photo for photoshop,which was taken with different lens 500m f4 ,2x converter ,so 1000mm and settings for the photo 1/60th sek f22,iso 200
I hope next time you will not to cheat :)
OK... you win... I've just subscribed.
I really found this video most informative, and you have a really nice, easy going style which I fell makes your tutorial videos really easy to follow and understand.
Incidentally, I'm the guy who emailed you asking about which book I should buy to learn about exposure and photographing the Aurora Borealis. I took your advice and ordered "How To Create Stunning Digital Photography" this afternoon (from the UK). If it's half as good as your videos, it'll be money well spent!
This guy should be a dark arts teacher in Hogwarts.
I can't thank you enough for all of the information and experience you provide here on UA-cam. I am buying your books and videos to help support your efforts. Keep up the great work!
Or just get a Nikon P900 and you'll get even better shots then this
Josip Baresic
must use manual exposure with any cam to shoot the moon
I’ve just done the stack using your scheme and it’s incredible
I herd photoshop and nope ... sorry just no
Thanks for sharing this tutorial. I have a basic bridge camera and tried and failed numerous times to photograph the moon. I Used auto mode and expected good results! Having listened to your advice, and can't wait until the next moon phase. I have 'played', with photo stacking before so this is not unfamiliar to me. Thanks again.
challanged myself a few months back by trying moon photography and was unhappy with how flat it looked, ill definitly try stacking like that to get those details. looked great!
Great Tony! I have learned mor from your videos over the last 2 weeks than I did in an entire semester in college. I will be buying the books and videos.
Thanks for the tips... Got some beautiful shots of the Christmas Full moon tonight!
Thanks for the help. I have been getting better with stacking but every little bit of advice helps. I also did not know there was a Mac version for Rigistax. Cheers Keith
Thanks, Tony you provide so much value for the novice photographer. I really appreciate your channel.
You are one of those guys who's explanation is very simple and understandable for everyone ✌️✌️
Thanks for the tip! My girl was just playing with my 750D tonight trying to take a photo of the moon with the 18-135 IS STM. So cool to see you use a T6i/750D. I will buy your book soon after seeing all the great reviews.
This guy is very well spoken, easy to follow and descriptive
Thank you very much for passing on your knowledge .The way you explain everything makes it so much easier.
Thanks Tony. I was very interested in what you had to say because I wrote my own personal tutorial after several failed attempts at photo-ing the moon. Your recommendations are much simpler than mine. But then you are so much more experienced.
Thank you so much for your straight forward explanation on dropping the Moon into a landscape Gary From Western Australia
Thank you, that was almost too informative, in such a short video... But I made sure to like it, so I can see it again, and savor the details... But that concise, manual settings portion was fabulous!!!
Absolutely amazing video tutorial and smooth simple guidance that is becoming quite rare on UA-cam these days. Well done you really inspired me to get a camera and join this amazing photography world.
Thank you so much Tony, I can't believe I waited all this time to think of UA-cam and learn not to shoot the moon like a light bulb. I watched quite a few of your videos this past week, I love your calm manner while explain everything in such clear informative manner.
I use a fujifilm hs50 exr for moon photography, with a 24-1000mm lens. Smart zoom doubles to 2000mm.
Nice! Another idea to contrast your idea of of shooting on a clear sky a cloudy night with gaps in the clouds so you shoot the moon when its peaking out of a cloud or surrounded by clouds when it's in a gap looks really pretty.
Really great tips (especially with the stacking)! I have been trying to figure out why I nail my moon shots about half the time and they are never too sharp. So much to play with! Thanks
I did this with my 70mm-300mm lens and it worked sooo well! Got some super dope shots! Thanks for this super helpful video!
This was a really great little tutorial! I tried a much earlier version of Registax around 12 years ago with my D200 and Sigma 100-300 f4, with and without a 1.4x TC, trying to get amazing moonshots. I got some that pleased me at the time, but I'm really curious now how much nicer they can be with a D500 (twice the resolution) and much later versions of the software. I'm really glad I came across this tutorial. It was short, sweet, and to the point. Very well done!
Superb video. Thank you for the helpful tips. I'm going out tonight to give this a try. Might have some luck, clouds are rolling in.
I took some pictures on Sunday evening (Monday was cloudy here in Surrey, UK). I managed the following with a single JPEG and a little bit of lightroom. I think it is OK and I am a REAL beginner at regular photography. Camera is 80D plus Canon 100-400L II, with a tripod. Time delayed shutter. I normally use Registax for astro (yes I am a nerd) and it works well for planets with hundreds of video frames (in combo with Autostakkert). Just use the wavelets in Registax.
I have never heard of Registax before. Used it once and wow! Takes a bit of tinkering with variables but damn the crisp detail it finds is amazing!
I’ve seen a few of your vids, but this one earned my subscription. Thanks for your work!
Thank you so much for your video. I followed and took a picture of the moon. Took a picture yesterday and got amazing feedback.
Wow! This video was just amazing! I just bought my entry-level camera (a Canon 250D) and I was struggling to get any image from the Moon. This video helped a lot! I still need to practice more, but now I do now what to look for and how the settings really work. Thank you very much indeed!
Thank you so much. I went right outside tonight and got a great picture for the first time of the moon
Your Sunny 16 rule is a good place to start with exposure. His is about a stop over exposed on the first try with Manual.
Tony, I have actually had quite a bit off success shooting the moon with a basic Superzoom-Panasonic Dmc-FZ150 spot metered, Iso 100 and digital zoom enabled to bring it to about a 1400mm equivalent . The Power OIS along with the burst mode gives a surprisingly good and detailed result for a small sensor..
I followed your steps on shooting a good moon picture and I was able to get an AMAZINGLY clear shot worthy to put in my work slide show that I present to my customers in my shuttle business I have here in the Tampa Area. Thank you for a great video. :)
I cannot wait to try this. Thank you so much for all these videos. I will definitely be purchasing the rest of my camera equipment through your links to Amazon. You have a great way of teaching.
Thanks so much for your books, and videos. I love learning from them. This is my first DSLR camera.
Wow, what a great video. Thank you so much. Your short videos are always the best.
Agh! Why have I just now found you!! This video was so helpful!! Hope to use more of your videos in the future! Thank you so much!
awesome video. this is exactly what i needed to make my moon pics better. thank you soooo much.
Thank you so much Tony. Your instructions are truly helpful. Every little comment counts.
Well us in the UK have a strawberry moon coming up on June 5th 2020 so I'm now learning to getting ready to take photos using this tutorial. Should of be using a trypod or not when shooting the moon. Thanks so much for this awsome video