How to photograph the supermoon: 8 tips for out-of-this-world moon photography

The Moon continues to be a captivating subject for photographers around the globe, especially at those rare times when it appears as a supermoon or even a blood moon. However, it can be tricky to do it justice. It can be challenging shooting a bright subject that's very far away in low light, as well as framing and focusing at long focal lengths. But with the right photography kit and exposure settings, you can shoot wonderfully detailed lunar photos and atmospheric moonscapes. Here, we show you how.

At certain times during the Moon's 27.322-day orbit, it's closer to the Earth. When this coincides with a full moon – the time of the month when the Sun, Moon and Earth are all in alignment – we're treated to an enlarged full moon or supermoon. A blood moon is even rarer. This is when a regular supermoon coincides with a total lunar eclipse. This means the Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon and only refracted light from the Earth's atmosphere remains, causing the Moon to appear a faint blood red.

Photographing the Moon is not only a fun test of your camera skills, it's also a fascinating way to get to know the movements of the Earth and its satellite. We can tell exactly where the Moon will rise, where it will arc through the sky and where it will set, every night for years to come. There are several useful phone apps that can help you plan your angles with precision, and you can track the phases of the moon online. As a rough guide, a full moon will emerge directly opposite the setting sun.

Automatic exposure modes may not work consistently when shooting the Moon, so it's best to use manual exposure. Essentially the intensity of sunlight hitting the Moon stays the same, so there's a simple exposure rule we can use as a guide – the 'looney 11' rule. Set aperture to f/11 and match shutter speed to the inverse of the ISO, so at ISO 100 we use 1/100 sec, at ISO 200 it would be 1/200 sec, and so on. This isn't set in stone, though – you can vary your shutter speed and aperture around these values until the image looks right.

A long lens is a must for close-up Moon photos, but a fast, expensive lens isn't essential because the Moon is so bright that you don't need the widest apertures of top-of-the-range long lenses. Even a standard zoom like the Canon RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM can work – it might not let you fill the frame, but you can always crop into the area later. This is where cameras with a high resolution like the 26.2MP Canon EOS RP show their worth.

If you want to fill the frame, a very long lens like the Canon RF 800mm F11 IS STM is ideal. The aperture of f/11 is perfect for Moon photography, as it fits with the 'looney 11' exposure rule. Lens extenders like the Extender RF 1.4x and Extender RF 2x can also be very useful for increasing your reach.

A supermoon is perhaps most impressive when it first appears on the horizon. The light has to travel laterally through the Earth's atmosphere to you, so the Moon takes on a warm reddish quality. It's also the moment when the Moon seems at its largest, although this is an illusion – the size stays the same throughout the night, but the curvature of the atmosphere acts as a magnifying glass.

We can get creative with our lunar compositions by including eye-catching details on the horizon. You need to be in place and act quickly, though – in a matter of minutes, the Moon will have cleared the horizon and arc upwards into the sky.

While a full moon is spellbinding, it may not actually be the best time to take photographs if you're interested in capturing surface features such as craters. In much the same way as a camera's pop-up flash lights a face, the frontal sunlight during a full moon eliminates a lot of the shadows. At other times of the month the sunlight is more side-on, which creates the highlights and shadows necessary to show off the contours and details of the lunar landscape.

Take your moon photography to the next level with further tips and inspiration from professional photographer Andrew Fusek Peters*.

*Available in selected languages only.


Written by Phil Hall