Super Moon Rising

We’re going to have a super moon this weekend, so the nearly-full moon will be at peak size (closest point to earth in its elliptical orbit). I’m going to attempt to photograph it, although I don’t have much successful experience with moonlit landscapes/cityscapes. In the past, I’ve tended to overexpose the moon, resulting in an indistinct white blob in my photos.

This time my strategy is to catch it just after moonrise, and before sunset turns to dark, so as to balance the exposure between foreground and moon. I’m also going to bracket exposures for possible PS blending. I’ll use a mid-low ISO so that I can shoot somewhat faster exposures and avoid blurring the moving moon.

I have a vantage point picked out overlooking the Syracuse University campus from a 7-storey window, and the Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) indicates that the angle of moonrise should put it somewhere behind the creepy old Hall of Languages. So if things go as planned, I should be able to capture a large, warm, nearly full moon rising behind the Hall of Languages. Goth-o-rama.

I have found two useful resources to help me in this attempt. One is a brief tip sheet for photographing moonrise/moonset by Tom Field. The other is a TPE tutorial video on moonrise photography.