Tips for photographing a total LUNAR eclipse

[Peterj]

Not exactly a tutorial.

1. Turn Image Stabilization / Vibration Reduction off on the lens.
2. Set your camera + lens on a stable tripod, point at the moon and lock it down. Since the moon moves fast, you might need to readjust the position multiple times.
3. Set camera mode to Manual for full exposure control.
4. Use remote shutter release or 2 sec timer delay.
5. Conventional wisdom is to use your camera’s base ISO, but in the case of a fully eclipsed moon use auto ISO and just accept the increased noise.
6. A fully eclipsed moon might not provide enough light for autofocus to work. Suggest manual focus.
7. The minimum focal length for getting a good-looking Moon is about 200-300 mm. With a 500-mm lens and a 2-second exposure you can probably get away with a camera on a fixed tripod, but longer exposures or focal lengths will require a tracking mount to prevent blurring due to the turning of the Earth.
8. Time in partial or full seconds and aperture (f#) control exposure.
9. Starting point f8, 1 sec - totality lasts ~1 hour take multiple shots. Use a larger aperture (smaller f#) on subsequent tries.

[pontiac1940]

Thanks PeterJ
Good advice. The normal full moon is very bright and exposures etc short i.e. higher EVs. But as you have noted, at totality and near totality, it emits very low levels of light. Evs very low. Of course, all depending on ISO.
Looks like we will miss it this go round...snow starting this evening. Oh well.
Clive

[Bailey]

Hi Pete,

I use back button focus. For those half pressing the shutter button to auto focus you can switch the lens to manual focus to lock in focus after auto focusing the full moon.

Focus will effectively be at infinity throughout the eclipse phases so you shouldn't need to refocus every time you take a shot.

Also be aware that the exposure at totality is about 12 stops longer than the full moon. At totality, the lens will need to be wide open and then keep bumping up the ISO until you get a shutter speed 1-2 secs.

The above applies if using a long focal length. I shot the total lunar eclipse in Jan 2018 at 650mm (960mm 35mm equivalent) using my Tamron 150-600mm.

[kdcintx]

Thanks for reminding us Peter. I had forgotten about the eclipse tonight.

[Sepiana]

Peterj , great tips! Thanks! Shooting a total lunar eclipse is definitely out of my league but I was going to give it a try tonight and put your advice to good use. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans -- plummeting temperatures, freezing rain, ice, snow, clouds galore.

[Peterj]

Sampling of my captures

[Bailey]

Jan 20, 2019 22:29:58 GMT Sepiana said:

....    Shooting a total lunar eclipse is definitely out of my league .....

I think you are giving up too easily Sepiana

Even if you choose to use a long focal length, it's still reasonably straight forward as I posted earlier here and in other threads.

Once you have the exposure set for the full moon, which is fairly simple to set, then as the moon slowly goes into total shadow you simply add exposure by opening the aperture and/or increasing ISO and/or slowing the shutter speed to max of around 2 secs to avoid motion blur due to the earth's and moon's motion.

We have to wait until 2021 to see the next total eclipse from Melbourne (but my view is if you have photographed one using a long focal length, you have photographed them all), so maybe just practise photographing a full moon in the mean time because the rest is fairly straight forward.

Good luck

[alexr]

Peter, great set of guidance notes, thanks for sharing and also great resultant images. I just thought I would add a note to your first point about turning image stabilisation off when putting your lens onto a tripod. I know this has been the accepted wisdom since stabilisation first came in, however Canon say that any of their lenses released since 2000 has a tripod detection capability which means that it recognises it it so still it must be on a tripod and deactivates the IS mechanism. I don't know about other manufacturers and I can't tell you whether Canon's solution is fail safe, but it might just be worth people checking their lens manuals before automatically turning IS off (and then forgetting to turn it back on again).
Hope that helps.

[Peterj]

One of my goals for capturing this eclipse was getting detail. Exposure times required to capture the detail I desired were WAY too long so that any detail captured was blurred by the earth's rotation coupled with the moon's revolution.

I decided to try a different technique - capture the full moon prior to eclipse to be blended with a decent eclipse capture. The results I obtained were pretty decent using my existing equipment.

Workflow:

   *Adjust both raw files in ACR

   *Apply On1's dynamic contrast

   *Blend (blending mode luminosity) and manually align layers using On1 PR 2019.1

Side by side screen shot ... after on left

[Bailey]

Hi Peter,

It's a pity you couldn't get a fast enough shutter speed.

Your Plan B to blend images is a good compromise option but the tricky bit then is to make the composite look natural.  The image on the right looks more natural to me and more closely resembles what I saw with the naked eye during the eclipse in January 2018.

For me, the blended composite has far too much contrast for something with very little light falling on it.  If you look at any object in very poor light or near darkness with very little light falling on it, its surface features will look very dull and flat with next to no contrast.

I feel the image on the left could very well be used in an "art" type image, but for realism I suspect most people would at least suspect it has been "photoshopped".

[Peterj]

Thanks Bailey , It is totally meant for "art", if I was attempting to document the right image is about correct.