Super moon, a super bust! Or was it?

It’s been all over the news…Super Moon this, Super Moon that! For two days, once in the morning for the setting moon, and once for the moon rise the next day, I got my camera set up to shoot this “Super Moon,” that everyone was talking about. As a photographer who has a fair amount of experience, I know that most amazing moon photos you’ve see, have been faked.

The moon, especially a full one, is very bright, therefore you would shoot it at a pretty fast shutter speed. The downside is that a fast shutter speed in low light will not expose the foreground. If you do a longer shutter speed to expose for the foreground, the moon will be blown out or blurry because the moon is moving. So, most amazing moon photos you’ve seen have been super-imposed, just like the one above.

How did I create this image? I used a 200mm zoom lens to get a good shot of the moon. 300mm or greater would be a better choice to capture more detail of the moon, but 200mm is my greatest zoom lens. Given the high resolution of my camera, I was able to zoom in on the moon in post production using Photoshop. I then used an old photo from Havasupai Falls near the Grand Canyon. I manipulated the Havasupai image to look darker than it was. The light you see on the rocks was actually from the sun, but in this photo it looks like it is from the moon.

I also have to say, that where I was in the state of Arizona, I did not really think the “Super Moon” was all that super. It seems to me that I’ve seen some Harvest Moon rises that looks much, much larger than the Super Moon of 2016.

I’d love to hear what your experience was like. Please leave a comment below.