Lunar Eclipse Photography

Blood Moon photo by Jeandvmeulen complied photos of lunar eclipse

Nighttime lunar photography needs to be in manual mode since your camera's light meter is often fouled by the amount of darkness present. In reality the only light you wish to expose for is the light from the moon. Since the moon is rotating around the earth, higher shutter speeds are encouraged to prevent a blurry moon. Manual focus will also be necessary since most cameras have difficulty focusing in the dark. Need to know the best place to view the eclipse https://photoephemeris.com/

THE BASICS

• Preferred Equipment

  • Tripod

  • Camera that can go to manual focus and manual exposure

  • Strong Telephoto lenses are the best

• Manual settings

  • Manual focus set at infinity

  • Manual ISO (not auto iso)

  • White balance setting at daylight

  • Shoot both in RAW and FINE JPEG

  • When the moon is full in the night sky, the looney 11 rule is often applied.

    • F-stop or aperture at F11

    • Shutter speed will equal 1/iso

      • shutter speed 1/400 at iso 400

      • shutter speed 1/800 at iso 800

    • if the image appears too light

      • increase your aperture number

    • if the image appears too dark

      • decrease your aperture number

    • Start getting your correct exposure on the full moon prior to the eclipse

  • As the eclipse starts, the amount of light present will drop.

    • to adjust for the light lost decrease your aperture number. Conversely when the moon begins to reappear increase your aperture number. An alternative to changing the aperture is to use the exposure compensation setting.

    • What is exposure compensation?

      • Exposure compensation allows you to override the camera's light meter or current camera setting to either lighten or darken the image.

        • plus (+) adds light or lightens the image

        • negative (-) substrates light or darkens the image

      • What does this mean in terms of the lunar eclipse?

        • as the full moon begins to fade add light

        • as the full moon begins to reappear substrate light

    • For more advanced users, consider using the famous Fred Espenak (Mr. Eclipse) chart of manual exposure for each phase of the lunar eclipse

      • https://www.mreclipse.com/LEphoto/image/LE-Exposure1w.GIF

    • Or visit https://www.nikonusa.com/learn-and-explore/c/tips-and-techniques/how-to-photograph-a-lunar-eclipse

      
      

    • Happy shooting. Just make sure you take time to enjoy and watch the eclipse and not miss the wonderous event.