HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH LANDSCAPES AT NIGHT BY MOONLIGHT

1. HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH LANDSCAPES AT NIGHT BY MOONLIGHT
Landscape photography by moonlight can provide a different way of producing
wonderful and mesmerizing photographs in both color and black and white. The
mood conveyed in moonlight photography can be quite different than in other
lighting circumstances.
Photographing by moonlight has its own set of challenges. But with a few setting
and technique adjustments to your normal shooting routine, it can produce
outstanding results.
PLANNING

2. TIMING
The best time to shoot is the night of the full moon, but a couple of days either
side of that date will also work.
An app that I found very useful in the planning moonlit shoots is PhotoPills. This
app offers 3D augmented reality views including times and from what direction
the moon will rise and set. You can also easily program it for a particular day and
time for help in planning dates, times, and locations to set up for the shoot. It also
shows paths of the sun and the Milky Way in the same manner.
During a full moon, fewer stars are visible than during a new moon. But if you find
a location with very little light pollution, then you’ll be able to capture more stars
(and maybe even a planet or two).
If you’re hoping to get great shots of a starry sky or the Milky Way rather than a
moonlit landscape, then schedule your shoot around the new moon rather than
the full moon. As always, aim for a location with very little light pollution, and use
the PhotoPills app to help you find the best positioning to capture the Milky Way
LOCATION
Areas that have the least light pollution possible have the darkest skies, and that is
most preferable when deciding on a location to shoot. A useful website to help
find “dark” locations is Dark Sky.
SCOUTING
If this is less than a well-travelled area or path I like to visit the location and first
walk the layout in daylight. Some of the places I have been are quite rugged and
desolate and I felt a lot more comfortable in knowing the trail beforehand. It is
just a little unnerving to be out in the desert or hills alone and lost at night. If
possible take a partner along with you and carry a physical map, as some remote
locations still do not have cell service so your phone’s map may not work. Also,

3. add a compass app on your phone, or better yet, carry a real compass.
In addition to a good quality camera and lenses here some additional items to
consider using.
A sturdy tripod – this is an absolute necessity.
Cable release or remote shutter release – a must to reduce camera shake.
If you do not have a cable release or remote shutter release you can use the
self-timer on the camera.
Extra batteries for your camera – as you may wish to use the Live View mode
during your shoot and that really drains the battery.
Cheat Sheets – listing maximum exposure times for each lens used to prevent star
trails and camera settings.

4. Lighting – in addition to a bright flashlight to use while walking you may find a
headlamp is useful so you have both hands free to use. Consider a headlamp that
offers a red light setting in order to help preserve your “night vision”.
CAMERA SETTINGS
Shooting moonlit landscapes is quite different from shooting using sunlight as
your light source. The moon reflects between 3 and 12 per cent of light from the
sun so you will be operating in a very low light situation. Some adjustments will
need to be made within the exposure triangle (aperture, ISO and shutter speed) to
achieve optimum results.
APERTURE
You will need to set the lens used to the widest aperture possible as you wish to
keep the shutter speed and ISO to a minimum. Realize that this may not be the
optimum setting of the lens used to obtain maximum sharpness (usually for most
lenses it is f/8 to f/11) and some depth of field will be lost so you may want to
adjust the ISO and shutter speed accordingly to increase sharpness and depth of
field.
ISO
It is recommended to keep the ISO settings low when possible, but with a good
quality camera sensor, amazing results may still be obtained with up to 3200 ISO
and even higher. I prefer to keep the ISO maximum setting at 3200. Lightroom and
other post-processing software greatly help with reducing noise that is inherent
with higher ISO settings but it is better to keep the noise down on the original
image.
SHUTTER SPEED AND HOW TO AVOID STAR TRAILS
Due to the earth’s rotation if an exposure is set beyond a certain time frame then
the stars will seem to be out of focus and appear as streaks or trails of light. To
avoid this you will need to keep your exposure time less than the time that star
trails will appear in the photograph.

5. There is a way to calculate this maximum exposure time and that is the “500
Rule”. Here is the formula.
For a full-frame sensor simply divide 500 by the focal length of the lens and that
will tell you the maximum shutter speed to avoid star trails.
Example:
Lens focal length – 25mm
500 divided by 25 = 20
So the maximum shutter speed for that lens would be 20 seconds.
For a cropped sensor you will need to calculate the equivalent focal length used in
a full-frame camera. To do this, multiply the focal length of the lens for a cropped
sensor camera by 1.5.
Example:
30mm lens for a cropped sensor equals 45mm
500 divided by 45 = 11.1
So the maximum shutter speed for that lens used on a cropped sensor camera
would be 11.1 seconds.
My camera has a full-frame sensor so these are the calculations for maximum
exposure times to avoid star trails with my lenses rounded down to the nearest
second and I try not to push the time frame to the limit.
14mm – 35 seconds

6. 18-35mm zoom – 27 to 14 seconds
24-85mm zoom – 20 to 5 seconds
70-200mm – 7 to 2 seconds
OTHER SETTINGS FOR MOONLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Image Stabilization (also known as Vibration Reduction) – if your lens or camera
offers this feature it is recommended to turn it off when using a tripod as this will
sometimes add blur to an image.
Auto Focus – set to off as some cameras have a difficult time autofocusing in low
light situations.
If you wish to check the focus, turn on the Live View and “zoom in” using the
viewing screen to review the image or scene.
Flash – off.
White balance – I set to auto and adjust if necessary in post-processing.
RAW or JPEG – no debate, RAW. If you are serious about producing photographs

7. and not snapshots, RAW is the only way to shoot.
Manual or M or B setting – you will need to set it to one of these modes as more
control is needed of the camera than the other settings can provide.
Mirror Up or MUP – shoot in the “mirror up” mode or MUP as this reduces camera
vibration.
TECHNIQUE
Start with some test shots and check your focus, settings, and histogram.
When checking exposure in the histogram don’t necessarily trust it. Remember
this is night, i.e. dark photography. You will find you will need to expose the shot
to the “left side” of the histogram. I always bracket a few shots with different
exposure, shutter speed, and ISO settings, so I have a few shots to choose from in
post-processing.
Focus stacking is a way to add control for sharpness and depth of field. Focus
stacking is just what it sounds like, stacking or combing different focus depths to
achieve optimum focus. There are different software programs for this;
Photoshop is the probably the most popular. Software used.
Check the sky for planes as they will make their own trails with their lights. If you
are not able to wait them out, then their light trails may be able to be removed
with a spot removal tool in post-processing.
If there are clouds, extra exposure times will help smooth them out and provide
an interesting look or “feel” to the photograph.
You may also consider “light painting” some foreground objects. There are special
flashlights made for this purpose but you may find that a bright LED flashlight may
work as well. You may only need to “paint” the foreground objects for just a
couple of seconds on 15-30 second exposure. You will need to experiment with

8. the amount of time and “painting” used for the shot.
Note: You may want to cover the viewfinder eyepiece on the camera when
shooting as light from the moon (or any other source such as a flashlight) may
come through the viewfinder and interfere with the exposure. Some cameras
come with a viewfinder eyepiece cap or cover that slips over the eyepiece
viewfinder but as I lost mine the first time out I just cup my hand over the
viewfinder eyepiece (without touching the camera body).
POST-PROCESSING
This topic deserves a whole other article but just one important note here. You
may be surprised to see a row of spots or streaks of light that you did not see
during the shoot. These are caused by the blinking lights of a plane and the streaks
are caused by satellites or “falling stars” and are easily removed using the spot
removal tool. I start in Lightroom in my post-processing routine and use the
“Visualize Spots” option in the Spot Removal tool to help look for these items.

9. CONCLUSION
You may find that a new avenue in your photography journey with
“moonlighting”. And spending time in nature in moonlit landscapes, enjoying the
quiet and beauty while creating wonderful photographs is an added bonus.