I have always been amazed by the fantastic pictures of moon taken by my friends, like the one shown above. Whenever I see a full moon while walking back to my room after office hours, I used to curse myself for not taking my camera along. After a couple of misses, I was waiting for my next chance. Next time, oh, the next time I made sure I clicked one (As a matter of fact, many). This post is about this attempt and the lessons learned thereby.

Necessity

A moon!

As you might have guessed you will need a moon to start with. The fuller, the better. Mount your DSLR on a tripod and attach the best zoom lens you have got. I was using Nikon D90, Tamron 18-250mm and Harrison Tripod for the shoot.

On The Field

Being a newbie has its advantages. Newbies are always ready to experiment and learn even if it is the hard way.

Myth

Its 11PM. So I need a slow shutter to capture the moon.

Shot 1

EXIF Data ExposureTime: 5s FNumber: 6.3 ISO: 200 FocalLength: 250.0 mm Obviously I am wrong. My settings are all wrong!

Shot 2

EXIF Data ExposureTime: 1s FNumber: 6.3 ISO: 200 FocalLength: 250.0 mm Hmm. Is photographing the moon just like the ‘day light’ photography?

Shot 3

EXIF Data ExposureTime: 1/100s FNumber: 6.3 ISO: 200 FocalLength: 250.0 mm Yes! Full Moon photography is indeed like the day light photography.

Shot 4

EXIF Data ExposureTime: 1/400s FNumber: 6.3 ISO: 200 FocalLength: 250.0 mm Ok. I am almost there. Now I need a steady shot and then I can pack my bag.

Learn The Basics

Later I found more details of the phenomenon I observed from the DPS article titled “Moon Photography Made Simple” where a user named ‘bmc’ gives the following explanation. (Reproduced here with the permission of DPS)

The Moon is giving off more light than you think!

Here’s a few tips if you’re just trying to capture a ‘moon shot’. The Moon is giving off more light than you think. Even during the darkest time of night, capturing a full moon and it’s details without blowing it out requires settings pretty close to “daytime” conditions.

Looney 11 Rule

There is a “Looney 11″ rule that gives you a starting point with your settings: f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/ISO. So, if using an ISO of 400, use a shutter speed of 1/400. Just fine tune from this starting point. If you want to use a larger aperture, your shutter speed will be shorter, a smaller aperture and shutter speed will be longer. When The Moon is less than full, your shutter speed will become longer as The Moon becomes ‘less’.

I think for most of us, our natural reaction at first is to get a shot of the full moon. These can be some great images with nice detail of the light and dark areas.

But the full moon is the time when the Sun is hitting the Moon straight on, flattening out all of the 3D details (think pop-up flash). At half moon and less, the 3D details of craters really start to show, especially along the line between the shadow and light and near the edges of the Moon.

Just remember that you will have to increase exposure from your full moon starting point as less of The Moon is ’shining’.

Following pics illustrate the point.

f/5.6 1/80 ISO100 300mm © Bryan Michael Cousineau	f/11 1/100 ISO100 300mm © Bryan Michael Cousineau

Now my click!

Guest Author

Ashveen Maheshwari is a Product Designer from IISc Bangalore. He is a great photography enthusiast. Thanks to Ashveen for contributing this article. He is available in Twitter as @ashmec

Many people I know are worried that they don’t have a good camera. To be precise, any camera is not a limitation. Photographers such as Terry Richardson (a well known fashion photographer) have made their career starting with cameras no better than a Kodak KB10. Great photography is not limited by the instruments at your disposal. Instruments do give you more options, but that is no limit for an artist’s imagination.

Photography: An art or craft?

When photography was started in late 1800s, it was not considered as an art form. By and large it was thought as a craft. Photographs were not even considered to get a place in art museums. Eventually, after a long series of efforts by artists, it got its place and was regarded as an art form.

Some pointers for better photography

Errors are of two kinds- either deliberate action or careless mistake. Calling a careless mistake an art is what I don’t find very convincing. Even that can become an artistic expression. On the other hand, deliberate actions are the ones that add value to the overall picture and its emotion. Many photographers and artists use them extensively throughout their work so much so that the work is identified by the kind of error it has in it.

Here are some pointers that I observed over time doing photography and watching others do it. I hope these will help.

Unwanted objects

While we shoot in real life, there are always unwanted objects in a frame that can spoil the picture. Here is my tip: Either take the picture in a way that all the clutter becomes a part of the scene or you reconfigure the angle to avoid them.  Yes, Photoshop is always there.

There are many objects that do not directly relate to the subjects.

This looks better and has more impact.

Improper perspectives

When we take pictures at an angle, the perspective gets affected. Try to avoid perspective distortion using tilt shift lens. If the subject is small and you want them to look as they are (no cartooning), then taking pictures at right angles is a good idea.

Here, as the perspective is wrong, the figure looks clearly distorted while it was not intended to be.

Unwanted Shadows

To avoid shadows like this, you can also use flash.

Subject not emphasized properly

Care should be taken so that the original subject gets enough attention.

Here, the person goes to the background and the big projection screen becomes the subject.

Lighting

• Natural lighting will give you great pictures if the light source remains on your back. You may do exactly reverse of this to get silhouette effect which is equally cool. Sometimes, angular lighting may also add value.
• While shooting with flash and studio light, it’s all in your control and you can get whatever effect you want.
• Best time for taking pictures in natural light is between sunrise and 10.00 AM or between 5.00PM and sunset. Weather is also to be taken into account.

Abstract

• True abstract pictures are pictures that can’t be directly related to any worldly object. They usually convey a mood or an overall meaning. This meaning may differ from person to person.
• Just look around you and you will be amazed to see how much possibilities are there for abstracts. You may introduce deliberate errors for getting some abstract pictures.
  
  This image was taken with a long exposure. The three colors from three t-shirts that I was waving along with my camera. The image conveys ‘American Dream.’

Other Points

• All simple principles that are related to graphic design like Gestault theories are relevant to photography as well. You can make use of them while taking pictures.
• Your work may have an objective.  So you may give it a little thought, sometimes this happens during the shooting process itself. The idea keeps evolving as you move forward with the photo shoot.
• Don’t be shy as you take pictures. You may need to touch your models and ask them to do crazy things, you yourself might need to be in odd positions while you take pictures. Just do it.
  
  This model’s hair is pinned on to the notice board and he is made to do all sorts of crazy poses. Model: Urvesh
• Photographers pursue beauty. Beauty is not Angelina Jolie; it is in everyone and everything you see. You just need to have the right eye for it. None of your models or objects can be ugly or filthy, at least they should not look like that to you while you stay behind the camera.I found this doll in the junk yard.
  
  To me the picture says “Recycle before They Haunt You.”
• It’s a good idea to make the models feel at ease. Start a conversation, crack jokes and refrain from criticizing them if something goes wrong.
• The number of best pictures in any shoot will be usually low. You will take lots of pictures and very few from them will satisfy you. So don’t worry, just shoot. Digital memory is very cheap compared with raw film rolls.
• Shoot everything that is around you. You can get amazing pictures from objects that look just ordinary. Ordinary objects may produce extraordinary impact.
  
  This is a mineral water bottle filled with water. There is a yellow Gold Flake cigarette pack behind it. The camera flash made an effect of fire in the bottle.
• Yes, your cameras are costly equipments. But if you are too cautious about the camera’s safety, you may miss a lot of great pictures.
• Experiment, experiment, experiment… You will get nice pictures.

Here are some of my favorite photographers.

• Steven Meisel
• Philippe Halsman
• Lee Miller
• Nobuyoshi ARAKI
• Terry Richardson
• Margaret Bourke White
• Spencer Tunick
• Ellen Von Unwerth
• Man Ray
• And of course, National Geographic guys — so many amazing and amazing pictures.

Hope you liked this blog post. And, congrats to AnasKA | antzFx for his long lasting blog.

On 30-March-2009, I presented ‘PORTFOLIO – A Quick Start Guide’ to my friends at CPDM. The main presentation took 30 minutes to finish. An informative discussion followed and some interesting ideas came up.
You can download the presentation ‘PORTFOLIO – A Quick Start Guide’ from here (PDF, 1.98MB).

All the websites I referred are acknowledged in the presentation. The copyright of the text and images rests with the original owners. Thank you.

I hope that this Quick Start Guide will be helpful to you.

Software: Microsoft PowerPoint, Photoshop, GIMP
Design Dates:
Presentation — 23-March-2009
Promotional Poster — 24-March-2009