Moon Photography

The Looney 11 rule start here

The sunlit moon is far brighter than the night around it. At f/11, set the shutter to match your ISO — ISO 200 → 1/200 s. Use Spot metering for exposure compensation, Manual Focus with Peaking, and bracket to be safe.

Core settings

Setting	Value
Aperture	f/8–f/11 (sharpest; detail on the surface)
Shutter	1/125–1/250 s (freezes atmospheric shimmer, avoids blowing the disc)
ISO	100–200
Focus	Manual, near infinity — refine with magnified live view on the craters

Use a tripod and a remote/timer, and shoot RAW to recover highlights.

Which lens

Tamron 28-300mm — zoom to 300mm to fill the frame with surface detail; centre the moon to minimise distortion; a tripod is essential at that reach. Sony 24mm GM — the moon is small, so use it for wide dramatic scenes: moon rising/setting near horizon objects, off-centre on the thirds, or its reflection over water. Bracket to balance a bright moon against a dark foreground.

Composition tips (Joshua Cripps)

• Put a subject in the distance sticking into the sky (e.g. a lighthouse) for context and scale.
• Shoot at sunrise/sunset so there's light on the landscape too — narrows the dynamic range.
• Use a long lens (200–700mm) to make the moon large relative to the scene.
• Plan with an app like PhotoPills (augmented reality) — the moon moves fast.

Picking the night

• The most usable moon frames come when a full moon rises or sets while the sun sits between +0.5° and −6° in elevation — the moon and the landscape are then close enough in brightness for a single exposure.
• Once the sun is above +0.5° the moon is faint and much less interesting; long after it's below −6° the brightness gap becomes a blend job.
• Blue hour (civil twilight) is therefore prime moon time, not an afterthought.
• Use the PhotoPills Moon calendar to find those dates, and the Planner to check the azimuth against your foreground.

For dark-sky work where the moon is the problem rather than the subject, see Milky Way Planning.

Consolidated from notes: Moon shots luna 11 rule; Star & Moon photography; How to use the Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM for full moon; How to use the Tamron 28-300mm for full moon