Shooting the Supermoon? Here are 5 tips to help make the most of it.

Shooting the Supermoon? 

Here are 5 tips to help make the most of this extra rare event.

1. Pick your spot. It's probably a good idea to research good locations beforehand. The Photographer's Ephemeris is an excellent tool to help work out exactly where the moon will be. This will help you figure out a good vantage point. You'll also be able to plan for some foreground interest. In this case though your foreground will need to be a long way away.
2. Use a LONG lens. You'll be wanting a nice long telephoto lens to really get in and see the detail. 600mm to 800mm will work well. Don't forget that your sensor size will make a difference too. A 400mm lens on a Canon 7d or 80d or other Canon crop cameras will behave like a 640mm lens due to the 1.6 crop factor. On a Nikon DX camera 400mm will be like a 600mm lens and if you are shooting with a 4/3 system such an Olympus OM-D that 400mm lens will behave like an 800mm lens. A short lens will leave disappointed with just a white dot in your shot.
3. Use a sturdy tripod. It is important when shooting with a long lens to minimise any possible movement. A strong tripod is going to help enormously. Make sure you turn off your Vibration Reduction or Image Stabilisation when on the tripod.
4. The trickiest bit is exposure. The moon is a lot brighter than you may think. Try using spot metering on the moon and see how you go. You want to be getting a reasonably fast shutter speed because the moon is also moving very quickly. Use an aperture around f/8 to f/11 and experiment with your iso settings to try and give a shutter speed of 1/400s to 1/800s or better. 
5. The best time to shoot the moon is as it rises above the horizon through the twilight. Once it gets dark you'll still be able to get great moon shots but any foreground features will become silhouettes.

So get out there tonight and have some fun. Remember, if you don't nail it tonight then you can always have another go in 2034.