LearnGuide · 5 min read

How to photograph the Moon

The Moon is one of the easiest subjects in the night sky, and one of the hardest to get right on a phone. It is a sunlit landscape against a black background, and that fools the camera’s automatic settings.

Moonposition.com editors

Updated October 2026. Times and altitudes in the guides are for Stockholm unless stated otherwise.

Why does the Moon turn into a white blob?

The camera measures the light across the whole frame. Almost everything is dark sky, so it raises the exposure, and the small, brightly sunlit Moon gets overexposed. The fix is to force a shorter exposure.

With your phone

  1. Turn off night mode. It stacks long exposures and makes the Moon even brighter.
  2. Tap the Moon to focus, then drag the exposure down (the sun or slider next to the focus box) until you see detail on the surface, often −1 to −2 stops.
  3. Use the optical zoom (2×, 3× or 5× if your phone has a telephoto lens). Digital zoom only enlarges the pixels.
  4. Rest the phone against something, or use a small tripod and the self-timer so the picture doesn’t shake.
  5. If you have a pro mode: ISO 50–100 and a shutter speed around 1/250–1/1000 s.

With a mirrorless or DSLR camera

  • Focal length: 200 mm gives a small but sharp Moon, 400–600 mm fills more of the frame.
  • Tripod and a wireless remote or 2-second self-timer. Turn off image stabilisation when the camera is on a tripod.
  • Starting values: f/8, ISO 100 and 1/250 s for a half or full moon. The old rule of thumb “Looney 11” says f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/ISO at full moon.
  • Focus manually in live view, zoomed in on the terminator.
  • Shoot in RAW so you can bring out detail afterwards.

The half moon beats the full moon

At full moon the Sun is straight behind us and the surface looks flat, with no shadows. Around first and last quarter the light falls at a low angle across the terminator, and craters and mountains cast long shadows. That is when the Moon looks most three-dimensional. See the craters along the terminator tonight.

The Moon with a landscape

A big orange Moon over a skyline needs the Moon to be low, so check the moonrise time in the calendar. Shoot in the blue hour after sunset, when the sky and foreground still have light and the exposure difference to the Moon is small. Use a long focal length and stand far from the foreground, so the Moon looks big next to it.

Mind the air

Air turbulence (seeing) blurs the image, especially when the Moon is low. If it shimmers, wait until the Moon has risen, or take a burst and pick the sharpest. Cold, clear nights after a shower are often best.