Awe Inspiring Moon Photos

By Light Stalking on 5 Mar 2009 in Cool Photos, Featured[ 16 Comments ]

A full moon sends everyone a little crazy, but capturing good moon photos is an extremely difficult photography art to master. A well done photograph of the moon can add atmosphere to a photo like nothing else, but most shots of the moon tend to be bland and disappointing.

So we decided to go and see what we could find in terms of fantastic moon photography.

Once again, the good Creative Common folks from Flickr have produces some exceptional photos of what is really an over-done, but usually poorly-done subject. They certainly seem to buck the average trend with these awe inspiring moon photos.

As always, you can find some more information at the end of the post about photographing the moon and how it should be done to produce results like these.

We’re sure you will agree after seeing these photos that moon photography is a facet of this skill that you might like to learn someday!

Tutorials on Lunar Photography (Note – Some are on moons as part of a landscape and others are on moon photos exclusively):

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Tags: lunar, moon

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16 Comments

Ilan:

Most of these are just photo manipulations, and not really “Moon photo”

March 6, 2009 at 3:18 amReply
Jenny:

Maybe so, Ilan, but they are stunning nonetheless!

March 6, 2009 at 6:34 pmReply
LightStalking:

I have to agree with Jenny on this one. I mean, in photography if we discard “manipulations” , then we discard a huge portion of the most famous photos in history.

March 6, 2009 at 6:41 pmReply
dcclark:

Not to mention that it’s virtually impossible to get a good “moon photo” without manipulation — if you can see the moon, you probably need a long shutter speed to see anything else — and then the moon will be blown out. There’s nothing wrong with photo manipulation!

March 8, 2009 at 4:29 pmReply
LightStalking:

I agree wholeheartedly with dcclark here. I have always found the backlash against photoshop to be completely misplaced. Photoshop really only does things that can also be done in a darkroom.

For example, everyone probably knows James Nachtwey’s famous photo of the child in the street in Chechnya (his face from eye level up with the bombed out street as the background). If you watch the documentary “War Photographer” you get a bit of an idea about how much darkroom “manipulation” that photo actually had. Yet, I don’t think many people would call “fake” on that photo.

Now maybe there are degrees of manipulation and in an editorial or journalistic context there are probably good points to be made, but in the realm of artistic photography, I really don’t see a huge issue.

March 8, 2009 at 5:04 pmReply
- Karl Sanchez:
  
  I agree. Fine art photography – you can edit to death..
  
  Documentary photography MUST NOT be edited such that information in the photograph is not FACT anymore.
  
  December 14, 2011 at 5:10 pmReply
Aggie Villanueva:

I totally agree. Just last week I went on a full moon shoot in Ghost Ranch, NM. As magical as it is in person, it doesn’t always translate well in lens. I had to use manipulation, but came out with some shots I believe will sell well. Most of us don’t care if it’s for real. In my photo art I stress that I use PS and post processing to allow others to see life as I see it, not as my camera sees it.

May 15, 2009 at 4:08 pmReply
David:

I agree also that these are amazing “photos.” However, not only are most of these manipulated beyond anything remotely realistic, there are a couple that couldn’t even be shot and pasted into a picture without 3d graphics. While beautiful, the title of the blog is “moon photos.” It’s a little deceiving.

August 24, 2009 at 5:42 pmReply
- LightStalking:
  
  Yeah, I don’t know how I sleep at night. ;)
  
  August 25, 2009 at 2:53 amReply
Jodie's Camera Straps:

Beautiful moon shots!

August 29, 2009 at 10:52 amReply
How to Photograph the Moon (With 10 Great Examples) | Light Stalking:

[...] Don’t forget to check out our other collection of inspiring moon photos. [...]

April 8, 2010 at 3:50 pmReply
Tips for Improving Your Beach Photos!! « Dianex's Blog:

[...] separate issues in incorporating the moon into a photo but the results can be great. Check out our moon photos post to get some more [...]

June 24, 2010 at 8:48 amReply
jah:

First, thanks for including my shot! Second, I agree with most of the comments. I do invite you to check out my process for getting crisp moon photos such as above without photoshop or equivalent by clicking thru to my Flickr profile http://www.flickr.com/people/jahdakinebrah/ and scrolling to the blind pan process description. It’s all in-camera. Of course it’s manipulation, but not thru software and there is a difference in my mind.

October 26, 2010 at 10:07 amReply
Debb:

I love the moon and these photos (even if they aren’t totally genuine). I spent ages sitting outside photographing the moon – in particular in cloudy conditions.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs159.ash2/41264_427922468302_677813302_5170153_8249262_n.jpg

This photo was taken of the reflection of the moon through a double glazed window. The brightest one is the actual moon. No manipulation involved.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs650.snc4/61022_127488060634824_124972257553071_153588_7144756_n.jpg

November 17, 2010 at 7:42 pmReply
Linda:

While some of these images are beautiful, I find it offensive that they are labeled photographs. They are illustrations that have been created in some graphic program. It’s not the images that bothers me (although some are over the top), but the misnomer.

March 19, 2011 at 9:44 amReply
- +3 LightStalking:
  
  You’re easily offended then.
  
  March 19, 2011 at 2:02 pmReply