The approach of the Full moon of 11 June 2025the first weather renamed journalistically “Full moon of strawberries”represents a wonderful opportunity to try your hand at the photograph of our natural satellite. The Moon will reach the full phase at 9:43 am on Wednesday 11 June but will be visible as full from 10 and until 12 June. The advice is to photograph it when it is in the evening after sunset. In this article we will give you a series of tips to try to take the “perfect photography” of the moon. Given its brightness, the moon It does not need a particularly dark skyso you can try your hand at lunar photography also comfortably from the balcony from the house. All that is necessary is a easel To stabilize the smartphone or camera, an app to monitor where and when the moon stands and a lot originality in exploiting the elements of the landscape to give depth to the scene.
Where and when to photograph the moon
The moon is the celestial body closest to the earth e reflect about 14% of the light coming from the sun, then making it thebrighter object of the night sky. Given this feature, photographing the moon does not require necessarily go to a place without light pollutionalthough it helps to completely remove those reddish shades due to artificial pollution.
Lunar photography requires one certain dose of creativitysince taking photos of our natural satellite during the full moon phase when the latter is high on the horizon soon makes the moon soon a boring subject. A full moon, illuminated frontally by the sun, appears flat and free of three -dimensionality, so it is advisable to photograph it during the first or last quarterwhen the radiant sunlight creates a magnificent play of lights and shadows along the “terminator“, The line that separates the day from the lunar night. It is here that the craters, mountains and valleys give depth to the photograph of our satellite.
Another advice is to photograph the moon when it is low on the horizon. Shortly after its rise, in fact, the lunar light finds itself crossing one major fraction of atmosphere which disperses the blue light component by giving the moon one characteristic orange or reddish shades. In addition, the atmosphere acts as a sort of lens that makes the apparent size of the Moon greater. This is the perfect time to include in the frame Landscape elements Like trees, buildings or mountain profiles, creating a suggestive composition that gives depth to the scene. To do this, it is essential to plan. In fact, there are numerous apps for smartphones that show precisely where and when the moon will rise, allowing you to find you in the right place at the right time.
The technical characteristics of the shot
Whether you photograph the moon with a smartphone or with a reflex camera, an essential tool you have to end up is a easel to stabilize the camera. Lunar photography requires one generous dose of zoombe it digital (as in smartphones) or optical, which makes the smallest movement also generates a blurred photo. Once the camera is stabilized, it’s time to choose the right goal (if we are using a reflex). The common 18-55 mm objectives are not equipped with the necessary zoom, making the moon appear as a small luminous dot in the image. Unless you want to create a composition in which the landscape is preferred, it is better to turn on Telebjectives of at least 200 mm of focal. The latter will not only allow you to capture details of the lunar surface, but will also help in the event that you want to exploit the environmental elements to give depth to the scene.
Being very bright, lunar photography It does not require an ISO high sensitivitywhich can therefore be maintained on 100-200. To this setting a depth of field between f/8 EF/11 and exposure times that are around 1/200 of second, whose short duration is due to both the lunar brightness and the need to avoid the moved effect due to the movement in the sky of our satellite. These are good starting points, but the exact values are the result of experimentation through different shots. Most of the rooms are equipped with automatic focus. For astronomical subjects, given the angular dimension, it is always better use manual focus. The latter must be done by not observing the object through the viewfinder, but using the function Live View of the camera screen that allows you to digitally zoom the object allowing a careful manual focus. Last detail is that of always shoot in raw modea sort of “digital negative” that preserves all the information captured by the sensor, offering greater flexibility during the post-production phase for regular exposure, colors and details.
Advanced techniques: Cinerea Luna and Mineral Moon
Once the “classic” lunar photography has been mastered, it is possible to raise the bar of the difficulty of shooting and try their hand at two advanced lunar photography techniques: capture of the cyrean light and mineral moon.
With cinerea light It refers to the sunlight which, after hitting the earth, reflects and goes to illuminate the shaded part of our satellite weakly. One might think that to catch it, just increase the exposure times. Although this is technically correct, in doing so we will satisfy the light coming from the illuminated side of the moon, creating a widespread light effect that affects half in the shade of the satellite. Here comes the technique ofHDR (High Dynamic Range). Keeping the camera immobile on the tripod, they are made More shots with different exhibitions. The first shot will be short, to correctly expose the bright sickle. The subsequent ones will be progressively longer, to gradually bring out the weak ciner light from the shadow side. In the phase of post-productionthese shots are then merged together With special software to create a single image in which both the sickle and the shadow of the moon are visible and rich in details.
The second technique, the Mineral mooninstead it should be done when the moon is high in sky in order to minimize the atmospheric diffusion effect on colors. Normally, the dark surface of the moon, with a brilliant similar to that of the asphalt just lying, shows no chromatic contrasts that we see instead on other celestial bodies like Mars. They go “extracts” from the image through the technique of the mineral moon which also consists in shooting hundreds of photos identical in RAW format. The frames come aligned and combined Through specific software, eliminating the yellowish component of sunlight that reflects on our satellite. The next step is that of drastically increase the saturation and vividness of the colorstransforming the imperceptible chromatic shades into a visible mineral mosaic. It is not a realistic vision, but a scientific interpretation that shows red (older) poor iron areas and the blue (more recent) areas rich in titanium.
