Shoot for the moon: 8 lunar photography tips

Whether it's a glowing orange orb just above the horizon or the soft outline of a silver crescent set against a city backdrop, the moon – the brightest and largest object in the night sky – has long held a fascination for photographers. Full moons and phenomena such as the Harvest Moon, Blue Moon, Blood Moon and eclipses often prompt a flurry of social media shots. These are mostly close-ups of the moon on its own, but photographers on the hunt for a greater creative challenge can take inspiration from Andrew Fusek Peters' moon photography tips and techniques.

The British photographer, whose work regularly appears in national newspapers and magazines, prefers to photograph the moon as part of a wider scene, to tell a story. "I'm always looking for an interesting foreground – to put the moon within a landscape or a built environment," he explains.

He's developed this approach to such a level that people sometimes mistakenly assume he's used composites. In fact, every element of each image is captured in-camera, in RAW. And this is no mean feat, involving a lot of planning, using the right kit, and being in the right place at the right time. Here, Andrew offers his tips for capturing fresh and original photographs of the moon, all year round.

2. Choose the right time

You might assume that the best time to shoot the moon is when it's full, but Andrew says that isn't always the case. "Get out a couple of days before the moon is full," he says. "That means you don't have to do everything in silhouette: you can still get light on the landscape." He cites his shot of Clun Castle in Shropshire (below), as an example. "You can see that the moon is three-quarters full, it's coming up at dusk, and the camera's been able to capture a lot of landscape detail," he explains.

3. Think on your feet

However carefully you plan, when it comes to the actual shoot you have to think on your feet, says Andrew. "The moon is like a species, like wildlife," he explains. "You've got to understand its behaviour. It's extremely shy, and never appears when you think it's going to appear. A bit of cloud can ruin the shot."

Andrew's 2016 picture of the supermoon, which made the front page of The Times (main image), very nearly didn't happen. The weather had worked against him, he'd abandoned his shoot, and was heading home. "Then suddenly, driving towards Church Stretton in Shropshire, I saw the clouds clear," he says. "The moon was almost directly behind what I now know is a volcanic structure called Three Fingers Rock. I thought: 'Oh my God'.

"With my Canon EOS 7D Mark II, a Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens plus a Canon Extender 2x III giving me 1600mm, I knew I had as much reach as I could humanly get. I used a hedge as a tripod, and fired off three shots in a row. And because I knew my focus point – rather than stick the moon in the centre of your picture, it's better to have a leading line – the first shot was the one."

4. Take account of atmospherics

Andrew learnt an important lesson from The Times supermoon shot. "As the photo came out, the moon was all wavy and slightly blurred," he recalls. "And I thought 'Oh, that's because I'm a rubbish photographer.' But then someone said 'No, when the moon is just rising, there's a lot more atmospheric pollution that you're looking through, the atmosphere of the Earth, and that's why the moon appears wavy.' If the moon is high in the sky, you're looking at less atmosphere, and that's when the moon appears sharp."

5. Don't use a tripod

While tripods are central to star photography, shooting handheld is better when it comes to the moon, says Andrew. "The issue with setting up a tripod is that the moon might not appear exactly where you want it to," he explains. "You need to be able to respond very quickly, and move your position so you can place the moon exactly where you want it in the frame – just like with the distant sunset over hills. You don't have a lot of time, because the light that you want is the last light of the day: dusk light. So to get your shot, you just have to go handheld."

7. Use the right kit

When you expose for the moon, the amount of landscape detail you can capture will depend, in part, on the quality of your camera and lens. "With my Canon EOS 7D Mark II, I know I'm not going to have any issues with focus, and if I've got some light on the landscape, it allows me to recover a massive amount of detail in the shadows," says Andrew.

Looking to the future, Canon's new mirrorless cameras, the Canon EOS R5 and Canon EOS R6, offer excellent low light performance, and Andrew is looking forward to giving them a try. "It will be fascinating to see what the EOS R5 and the EOS R6 can do," he says. "I'm interested in the EOS R6 in particular, as it has the same sensor as the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, making it a very interesting proposition."

For lenses, meanwhile, Andrew uses the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM and the Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM with the Canon Extender 2x III, which suit his purposes perfectly thanks to their high magnification and pin-sharp accuracy. "You want a big moon," he reasons, "you want big lenses."

8. Spend time on post-processing

Capturing all the detail of your moon and landscape in RAW is only one part of the equation, stresses Andrew; you also need to do a lot of work in post-processing. "If you've got the exposure right, the moon will still look quite blown out," he explains. "So you pay attention to highlights, whites and shadows, you use radial filters [which allow you to make local adjustments], and you can bring out a ton of detail. And of course, you're going to do work on your foreground, which obviously involves work with shadows, but might also involve various graduated filters."

He adds: "You're doing everything you can to make that RAW file sing. Ansel Adams famously said: 'The negative is the score and the print is the performance', and the same thing applies in moon photography when it comes to your RAW and processed files."