The Secret To Big Moon Photos
I love big moon photos partly because they have a certain level of shock value. It’s common for them to get comments like, “That can’t be real, the moon is never that big!”. Today, I’m sharing the secret behind how these types of photos are captured.
Before we dive into that, some important notes as preface. Firstly, those that follow my work know that sometimes I do double exposures, in which I use a camera trick to resize and\or reposition the moon. I will not be talking about those today. The photos you see here are single shots, with no resizing or repositioning of the moon. Anytime I share a moon image, I include in the caption whether it’s a single or double exposure, so you never have to wonder if it’s real or not. On that same note, I always recommend people view big moon images with a healthy dose of skepticism. It is not uncommon to find composite images where the moon has been pasted in from a different photo, and\or enlarged in Photoshop, with no mention of such manipulation. If you’re ever curious, ask the photographer, or, if you tag or message me I’m happy to give my opinion.
So, regarding real photos, how’s the moon so big? Before we answer that, we should make sure we really understand the question. Below, we have a photo of a not-so-big moon on the left, and on the right I’ve used my zoom lens. Boom! There it is, that’s the trick, right? While having a nice zoom lens is good for the photos we’re talking about, it is not the zoom that gives us the big moon effect we’re asking about. The same can be said for cropping in on a photo. So what’s the real question then?
When people ask, “How’s the moon that big?”, they’re usually wondering about the moon size compared to something in the foreground, be it a mountain, a building, or a person. Consider the photo above and on the right, and the picture with my dancing friend. Nobody is asking questions about the moon size when it’s by itself, even if it fills your entire screen as you’re scrolling on Instagram. They’re asking on photos like the one with my friend, because it’s not something people see every day.
While zooming in or cropping does in fact increase the moon’s size within your frame, those methods are not what gives us the effect that we’re talking about, because in both those cases, everything else is magnified equally along with the moon. So how do you achieve the effect then?
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about all sorts of ways of explaining big moon photos, and I think it’s one of those times when asking additional questions is extremely helpful. In this case, two questions:
QUESTION 1) If you move away from or towards the moon, does it seem to change size in any noticeable way?
QUESTION 2) What about something on the ground, say your friend who is standing next to you. As you move away from them, does their apparent size change? (It may be helpful in this scenario to hold your thumb and index fingers out in front of you and play the game where you pretend they’re pinchers. Imagine “squeezing” your friend in between those fingers and then walking away)
If you put the answers to these two questions together, well then, you have the secret to taking big moon photos! Hint: 1=no, 2=yes. My hope is that makes it all click for you, but let me know in the comments, and if it seems it deserves further explanation, I’ll do a separate post soon to go more in depth.
The trick to “big moon” photos is actually never about changing the size of the moon, because we can’t. It’s about changing the apparent size of what’s on the ground, and we do that by moving farther away, so the moon will appear larger, only by comparison. The farther away you move from whatever is on the ground, the smaller it appears, so therefore the moon appears larger - again, only by comparison. Make sense? Now, we could have a completely separate discussion around what distance you want to be away from your subject for the exact shot you’re looking for, but as a starting point, it’s good to know that if you want a person to “fit” within the diameter of the moon, you’d want to be about 250 yards away from them. If you have any questions I’m happy to answer in the comments, and definitely let me know if it clicked for you with the two questions!
