help with moon photo

Hi everyone i need a bit of help i.m in spain on holidays and i saw a red moon rising last two nights .i.ve tried a few settings on my canon 1100d but can.t seem to get it right .i.m taking the picture overlooking a resort so there is some street lights and house lights in the picture .any help would be appreciated thanks val

Hi Val

Getting a sharp moon without losing the red colour is tricky. These are my tips

Set the camera to manual.
Use the longest focal length you can depending on the lens you have
Set ISO to 100
Try say 1/100 second shot and look at the exposure. The histogram should be a bit left of centre. Adjust the timing ( 1/50, 1/40 until you get a good frame with the red colour)
You want to underexpose the moon shot to capture the colour. You can fix this later in Canon Photo professional
Most important-shoot in RAW mode

If you want to capture the foreground as well as the moon you will need to take two shots. For the foreground, set the Camera to Av and open up the F ratio to say F2.8 or F4 depending on your lens. For the moon shot follow the instructions above but keep the focal length the same and camera in the same position. Use a cable release if you have one on a tripod. You can overlay the underexposed moon on the foreground in Photoshop or Gimp etc...
Moon shots are good fun. Best of luck tonight

Thanks for the advice but believe or not it was a cloudy night in spain last night .hopefully we.ll have clear skies tonite the lense i have is an 18 - 55 mm which came with the camera .
Thanks again john and fingers crossed.

astroman145 wrote: Thanks for the advice but believe or not it was a cloudy night in spain last night .hopefully we.ll have clear skies tonite the lense i have is an 18 - 55 mm which came with the camera .
Thanks again john and fingers crossed.

With the lens you are using (kit lens) I would set the camera to Av and reduce the exposure compensation (-ve) a few notches on the camera menu so as not to overexpose the moon. That "should" work.