Attempt at full moon shot

Ever since I saw some cracking shots of the moon taken by some great experienced forum members here I have been tempted to try some myself.

With my limited abilities and experience have been pretty embarrassed to post them here, but on the other hand if I dont do it then I won't be able to improve based on the great feedback and excellent help from the forum members.

So here it goes. Quite a coincidence my little one who is a year and half decided really on the very same night that its a full moon to wake up at odd hours and wander around the house pestering poor mum and dad wanting to munch and then watching cartoons on the TV ha .

As I couldn't sleep obviously with all the havoc I decided to look through the study room window and lo and behold the moon was invitingly staring at me .

I get the feeling that it should have been much sharper. Would it be due to the limitation of my 55-300mm? I read on the forum that a 500mm is really needed for a better shot at the moon.

But as my first one it still leaves me with a satisfied smile. Hope to improve from here and hopefully think of a teleconverter.

Ideas and suggestions greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Amin

That's a great effort Amin, tiny bit of shake evident but good tones and detail.
I think a teleconverter will not necessarily produce better results, although the moon will be bigger, the optics will be degraded and the lens will be slower - so more shake to deal with.

Mark
Thanks, you are right, TC is out of the list, I dont see any much use at least at the moment.

Help me out here a little please, as I dont have a photographer's sharp analytical eyesight , how did you detect the image having a tiny bit of shake? or what particular characteristics or parts of the image you eyed at to notice that? Its just for my understanding thats all.

I had a bunch of shots and found quite hard to compare and decide which one to go for and work a little on PSE. With my limitations in both, taking the shot and editing also I wouldn't be even surprised that I picked up the wrong one, spent ages comparing between them ha .

And you are absolutely right, must be a bit of shake because I was struggling with the tripod. Its when I try to take these shots and the macros ones and I try to minutely focus that I realise how the tripod is definitely the culprit, when I get the spot and tighten all the screws it moves, and shakes and God knows what else lol. Its a cheap Velbon one, so perhaps money will be better spent on a good sturdier tripod.

Thanks

Amin

It's great fun shooting the moon isn't it? I know it's been done a million times before, but it such a buzz pulling off a good shot with limited equipment
The shake seems to be sideways - just a slight double image rather than just being soft.
The halo on the bottom left and top is caused by the sharpening I think. You could perhaps try going over that with the history brush to lessen the effect.
The tripod should be ok as long as you have a remote or use the 2 second-mirror up facility (or both preferably). If that doesn't work, try catching the moon earlier (when it's lower) and use a bean bag instead of a tripod.

Don't get too down hearted with your first attempt. There's lots of factors at play when imaging the moon.

If it's a poor night with unsteady seeing it won't matter what equipement you have or how careful you are taking the shot, it will come out 'soft'.

Also, the 55-300 may not have the resolution for a super sharp image at it's max focal length. Did you stop the lens down a bit? You can up the ISO to compensate, don't worry about noise.

Perhaps try imaging the moon when it's near a quarter phase. There's far more detail on show which makes it far easier to focus and also more impressive as a photo.

When you are happy with the focus fire off a sequence of shots. 20, 30 or even 50. You will have more chance of catching a moment of steady seeing by doing so.

regards
Russ

Russ

Thanks for your advice. I will take them on board and keep a look out on the moon.

Amd Mark, you are absolutely right, is great fun . Definitely enjoying it

thanks for all your help and advice

Great moon shot

I can't see a moon shot!