moonlight

[k.hendrik]

How do you 'measure' moonlight; or any very low light? at random or ....

 

[cliveh]

I guess.

 

[k.hendrik]

t'is almost full moon overhere but guessing can
be from 1'' untill one hour....aren't there any 'rules' ?

 

[Rick A]

http://www.moonconnection.com/night_photography.phtml
http://www.tzplanet.com/words/how-to-photograph-the-moon/50

 

[frank]

Dead Link Removed

 

[Sirius Glass]

I use a Jiffy calculator and remember that the Moon moves quickly.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2604955/jiffy Scenes 24, 25 and 26.

 

[BrianShaw]

http://home.earthlink.net/~kitathome/LunarLight/

Check out Kit Courter's moonlight photography and notes!

 

[RobC]

get one of these:

http://www.spectracine.com/product_2.html

 

[gone]

According to Ansel Adams, the known luminosity of the moon is 250 foot candles. This is brighter than one would think, which is why a shot of a dark night w/ the moon in the pic usually badly overexposes the moon. Keep in mind that higher altitudes will require less exposure, as the moon's light (which is simply reflected sunlight) has to travel through less of the earth's atmosphere.

Here's the article wherein Ansel describes how he used this formula to make his famous Moonrise, Hernandez shot

http://www.anseladams.com/ansel-anecdotes/

 

[RobC]

I think the OP was asking about photographing what is being illuminated by the moon rather than the moon itself.

We have all seen the moon in a daylight blue sky. Exposure for the moon itself is on a par with daylight exposure times.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The Moon is illuminated by the Sun and is about the same distance from the Sun that the Earth is. The Moon's albedo is somewhat less than 0.5, if ones uses Sunny 16 and adjusts it for the albedo, Sunny 11 or Sunny 8 will work for a full Moon. First and third quarters about about half that so Sunny 8 or Sunny 5.6. The Moon moves 0.25 degrees per minute, so keep your exposures short if you do not want the Moon's surface blurred.

 

[DWThomas]

Circa 1963 I bought a Gossen Lunasix (probably the beginnings of battery operated high sensitivity meters). I was seduced by the claims it could take readings in moonlight. It actually did, at least full moon or nearly so. It was a handful, but nice while it worked. Unfortunately the meter movement opened up after about five years. I had it repaired at the cost of buying a lesser meter, then the repair only survived about a month past the repair warranty, so I moved on.

On the rare occasion I've tried night shooting in recent times, I've used wild guesses. I suspect many of today's higher end meters;i.e., those that go down to -3, -4 EV levels of readings can probably read in some level of moonlight. Of course, the results can throw you into the land of reciprocity failure, but that may be partially offset by not wanting a full effective exposure because that might no longer look like night time!

And re: above, yes you can do Sunny 16 for the full moon itself.

 

[fdonadio]

Dead Link Removed

Based on this calculator, with f/1.4 and Delta 3200, if one can hold the camera really steady, it's possible to shoot handheld at 1/2"!

 

[frank]

subject lit by full moon: asa400, f2, 8sec.

 

[HiHoSilver]

There was a thread on another forum on this topic, where the question was which light meter, and the answer amounted to 'experience'. So one isn't completely reinventing the wheel, a few rolls of 35 and a jiffy calculator should have some nice results amongst the 'learning experiences'.

 

[John Koehrer]

I think the OP was asking about photographing what is being illuminated by the moon rather than the moon itself.

We have all seen the moon in a daylight blue sky. Exposure for the moon itself is on a par with daylight exposure times.

Yup, There's no foreground detail at all.

 

[k.hendrik]

Thanks all! it's full moon now so I'll give it a try with FM 1.4-50 80 asa(what i want is both; moon and .....)