I didn’t realize it before you mentioned it, but I agree, that the moon doesn’t need to be tack sharp. I think it just needs to be at the very least “recognizable”

You made a really interesting point about sharp foregrounds creating the illusion of sharp background elements. I never thought about this before. And, now that I think about it, I have a few images where this is definitely the case.

Your point #4 is also very interesting.. even though I was aware of such natural phenomena, I never thought about heated air distortion while taking photos before.

It’s funny you mention the bottom square as an abstract, cause when I first opened this photo, that’s exactly what I did: crop the bottom. It looks okay, but I think it would’ve been better if I got closer with a wide-angle lens for that type of shot.

The moon does not have to be tack sharp.

It’s pretty easy these days to expect that everything be super sharp in the frame. When you’re dealing with a subject that is near (relatively) and one that is 238,000 miles away (the moon) its seldom the case. In fact much of what we think is sharp in photo backgrounds is often an illusion. Sharp foregrounds provide a clear anchor of focus and provide a lasting mental image that we then bleed over in relation to other background elements. This isn’t always the case, but for subjects that take up a smaller portion of an image like the moon it is often the case.

That being said there are things you can do to get the moon as sharp as possible:
1. Focal Length
A longer focal length is going to help magnify the moon. Balanced with the right foreground element you can create some rather dramatic images.

2. Shutter Speed
The moon is a sun lit object so finding the right time of day and using the Sunny 16 rule as a starting point you can get some sharp photos when photographing the moon in the early morning/evening. 1/5th of a second is too short to get optimal sharpness of the moon in the scenario you took this photo.

3. Optimal Aperture Balancing DoF & Sharpness
This was discussed prior… shooting at the smallest aperture can soften your image, but given other factors may not be the only reason for softness of the moon.

4. Conscious of Atmospheric & Heated Air Distortion
You were in the desert so beyond normal atmospheric distortion that may have lost sharpness due to heated air distortion. With the moon low enough on the horizon and if the sand was hot enough you could have been shooting through heated air distortions (similar to mirage like distortions you see above hot pavement).

5. Use Mirror Lockup
Minimizing vibration of the internal working of your camera is a sure fire way to minimize risk to introducing softness of your subject.

6. Use a Cable Release
The longer the lens the greater impact slight movements will have to the sharpness of your image. Using a cable release will help take you out of the equation in negatively impacting image sharpness.

As for composition. I think the bottom square of your photo is a great abstract. Leading lines or complimentary subjects always help with moon photos. Food for thought the next time you go out looking to get your moon photo.

I’d also like to get into making short films of stuff I see (i.e. hummingbirds collecting nectar from flowers), so I went ahead and bought that awesome camera. I’m loving it so far, and it’s amazing at higher ISOs (I can shoot at ISO 800 without any noticeable noise–awesome!).

@Zack – This shot was barely cropped. I cropped just a little off from the bottom (which was sand). I did take some shots like this that were horizontal, but they looked really weird to me, so I kinda like this vertical composition better. I really like simple landscape images like this, so I think it would’ve been okay if I had the moon larger and it was sharp.

Your idea of including more sky and less sand would definitely fall in line with the laws of color harmony, and I did try a few shots like that too, but for some reason whenever I look at those shots, I feel like I need to push up the sand like it’s not covering enough of the photo. I like your idea about sharing the original file, so I’ll plan to do that for the next post like this, thanks for sharing that

@Eric – I’ve always thought that being my own worst critic has helped me grow in photography more than anything else. I really only have like 4 photos that I really think are great, so that strong self-criticism has really helped motivate me to improve.

Anyway, you make a lot of great points. I’m not sure if diffraction was a huge problem though: the smallest aperture on that lens is f/45, so I was still a little under that (which I did on purpose). I should do more research on this lens though to find out where diffraction becomes a problem.

But, I agree that the shutter speed could have definitely contributed to the problem. I didn’t think of that before you mentioned it, so I just realized it was shot at 1/5, which might be a little slow for the moon.

I agree, photography should always be enjoyable And, I did have fun that night even if I didn’t capture it as I would have liked. Hiking through dunes at sunset, and especially after sunset is always glorious (with or without a camera)

@Dave – I shot this at 1/5, and I didn’t really consider that until now. I think that’s a little too slow for the moon, so that definitely could have helped cause the problem too. Thanks for pointing this out!