Tonight is the night of a lunar eclipse, and I'm curious, what kinds of tips do you guys have for photographing one? I'd like solutions for both consumer-grade equipment, as well as DSLRs, so that everyone can benefit from the information.
For those who would like to see the eclipse, see Wikipedia.
Answer
I've only shot one, and that was with my Canon 350D with only a 17-85mm lens.
Given that I didn't have a particularly long lens, I knew before I went out that I wouldn't be able to get any brilliant close-ups. What I decided beforehand was that some of collage was the most likely option for me.
I ended up with just over 20 individual frames of the moon at different stages of the eclipse, and then I used Photoshop to place all those shots in one image, showing the progression of the moon during the eclipse. You can see the results here if you're interested: http://gallery.ildica.com/v/Huntsbury/Eclipse/
The difference in exposure between full moon and full eclipse is massive. E.g. one shot of the full moon that night was 1/200, ISO100, F11, while one fully eclipsed was 4s, ISO800, F5.6, which was about as long an exposure as I wanted before the movement of the moon would be apparent.
Given the exposure challenges, I'd recommend shooting raw, which gives you plenty of latitude for adjustments after.
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