How to photograph the Moon, with your phone or a camera

To photograph the Moon, steady your phone or camera, zoom in as far as it really goes, focus on the Moon and turn the brightness down. Those are the core tips in NASA's own guides. The Moon is bright and small, so the camera's automatic settings usually turn it into a white blob in a big black sky.

The next full moon is the Hunter's Moon (26 October 2026, 04:12 UT); on the evenings of 25 and 26 October it rises close to sunset, a good time to try (see below).

Why is photographing the Moon so hard?

Two reasons. First, the Moon is small: our calculation from NASA's figures (a radius of about 1,740 km at an average distance of 384,400 km) gives a width of only about 0.52°. Second, it is bright against a dark sky (NASA advises a low ISO "since the Moon is so bright"). Automatic settings try to brighten the dark sky and so burn out the Moon.

How much of a 3:2 picture the Moon fills, by focal length (in full-frame terms):

To fill the picture from top to bottom you would need about 2,650 mm. That is why NASA's first tip is to "zoom in on the Moon as tightly as your equipment will allow", and why a nice foreground helps so much.

How to photograph the Moon with your phone

NASA's Lunar Photography Guide gives these smartphone tips. They work on many phones, although the controls and zoom options vary:

1. Keep it still. "If you don't have a tripod, prop your phone up on something steady." 2. Turn off the flash and focus on the Moon, "usually by touching it on your screen". 3. Lower the brightness "to avoid a blown-out, fuzzy, white image". 4. Use a timer so you don't shake the phone when you take the picture. 5. Zoom wisely. NASA notes that some phones have a genuine optical zoom, while others "just perform a crop" with digital zoom. 6. Try twilight, when the Moon is "not too much brighter than the sky". Around full moon, moonrise is another good moment (NASA: it "tends to appear larger"); check the local time, because it can be before or after sunset.

On an iPhone, Apple's camera guide (iOS 27) explains how: tap the Moon on the screen to focus, then drag the exposure control next to the focus box down to make the picture darker. To keep those settings for the next shots, touch and hold until "AE/AF Lock" appears. You can also set and lock the exposure from the camera tools menu, turn the flash off there, and set a 3, 5 or 10 second timer. Apple's guide describes no special Moon mode; these tools are what you need.

If it still doesn't work: Apple says Night mode switches on automatically in low light and makes photos brighter; you can turn it off with its button, which is worth trying if the Moon keeps turning into a white blob. If you leave it on, Apple says to hold the iPhone still while it captures, because Night mode pictures take longer, and suggests a tripod. If the picture is blurry, steady the phone and use the timer; if it is white, lower the exposure further. To find out whether your phone has a real optical zoom, check the camera specifications for your exact model on the maker's website. If it has no optical zoom, the Moon will stay small: lowering the brightness cannot add detail that is not in the picture, so make the scene the subject instead, with a tree, building or skyline in front.

Camera settings: the f/11 rule

Three settings control how bright a camera picture is: the aperture (how wide the lens opens, written as an f-number), the ISO (a setting that changes how bright the camera makes the picture) and the shutter speed (how long the picture takes). With a camera that lets you set these yourself, NASA gives a simple starting point: "set the aperture at f/11, and make the ISO and exposure time the same." In other words, use f/11 and a shutter speed of 1 divided by the ISO: ISO 100 → 1/100 second, ISO 200 → 1/200 second, ISO 400 → 1/400 second. Then adjust. NASA adds to "aim for a low ISO since the Moon is so bright".

More tips from NASA's guides:

• Use a tripod and the self-timer or a shutter release cable, so you don't shake the camera.
• Set the white balance to daylight, as NASA suggests.
• Shoot in raw if you can, which gives more room to edit later.
• Take a range of exposures ("bracketing"): a few darker and lighter, then keep the best.
• Take lots of pictures. NASA's advice is that planning and experimenting are your friends.

If you use a telescope, NASA says you can even point your phone or camera into the eyepiece, and that a faster shutter speed usually works best.

When to shoot: twilight, moonrise and the crescent Moon

The full moon is not always the best time. NASA says a full Moon is "beautiful and extremely bright, but also quite flat". At other phases, shadows of mountains and craters make more interesting pictures, especially along the line between the lit and dark parts of the Moon.

For a full moon, try twilight, when the sky is not yet black, or the moonrise. A full moon rises around sunset, sometimes before and sometimes after it. For the Hunter's Moon we calculated these sunset and moonrise times (local time, flat horizon):

For other dates, our full moon calendar lists every full moon of 2026 and 2027, and our Tonight page shows when the Moon is up where you are. NASA also suggests trying a daylight shot of the Moon. Never point your camera at or near the Sun.

Add a foreground, and the Moon illusion

NASA's tip for a creative picture is to tie the Moon to something on the ground: trees, mountains, buildings or streetlights. A rising Moon behind a landmark is the classic shot, like the photos in this article. Scout your spot in daylight, NASA advises, and arrive early.

You may notice that a rising Moon looks huge to your eyes but small in your photo. NASA explains this Moon illusion: the low Moon is not really bigger, it only looks that way to our eye and brain. In photos, Earth's atmosphere can make the low Moon look slightly squashed and warmer in colour, NASA explains. NASA suggests a test: photograph the rising Moon and the high Moon with the same equipment, and compare their widths.

That is also why photos of huge Moons behind buildings are taken from far away with long lenses: from farther away the building looks smaller, while the Moon stays the same size, so the Moon looks big next to it.

Does a supermoon look bigger in photos?

A little. The Moon's distance changes during each orbit. Of the 25 full moons of 2026 and 2027 in our full moon calendar, the closest (24 December 2026, about 356,700 km away) appears about 14 percent wider than the farthest (31 May 2026, about 406,100 km): 33.5 against 29.5 arcminutes (an arcminute is 1/60 of a degree), in our calculation. Side by side with the same lens, you can see the difference; on its own, without a comparison, it is hard to tell.

So for a dramatic Moon picture, the lens, the foreground and the timing matter more than whether it is a supermoon.

Moon photography FAQ

What's the best way to take a picture of the Moon? Steady the camera or phone, turn off the flash, focus on the Moon, lower the brightness and zoom in with a real (optical) zoom. Try twilight for a brighter sky; around full moon, also consider moonrise, and check the local moonrise and sunset times.

What is the 11 rule for moon photography? NASA's starting rule for cameras: set the aperture to f/11 and use a shutter speed of 1 divided by the ISO, such as ISO 100 at 1/100 second. Then adjust.

What size lens do you need for moon photography? The longer, the bigger the Moon. In our calculation, the Moon fills about 11.3% of the picture height at 300 mm and 22.6% at 600 mm (full-frame terms). A wide angle shows it as a tiny dot, so add a foreground.

Why can't my phone take a good picture of the Moon? The Moon is small and bright, so the phone exposes for the dark sky and the Moon turns into a white blob. Tap the Moon, lower the brightness and use optical zoom; digital zoom only crops.

What is the Moon setting on an iPhone? Apple's camera guide describes no special Moon mode. Tap the Moon to focus, drag the exposure control down, and lock it with AE/AF Lock.

What is photography of the Moon called? Lunar photography; NASA calls its guide the Lunar Photography Guide.

What are the best settings for photographing the Moon? With a camera you can set by hand, try f/11, ISO 100 and 1/100 second, then adjust and take a few darker and lighter shots. On an iPhone, tap the Moon, lower the exposure, steady the phone and use the timer.

Why does the Moon look bigger to my eye than in the photo? That is the Moon illusion: NASA explains it is how our eye and brain see the low Moon, not a real change in size.

How we checked

The tips come from NASA's Lunar Photography Guide (updated 18 February 2026) and NASA's How to Photograph the Moon (updated 5 November 2024); The iPhone steps come from Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 (camera tools and Night mode). The Moon illusion explanation comes from NASA's Photographing the Moon Illusion page. The Moon's size and average distance come from NASA's Moon facts.

Our own calculations: the Moon's apparent size and how much of a full-frame picture it fills for each focal length (with a radius of 1,740 km and a distance of 384,400 km), the sunset and moonrise times for the Hunter's Moon (Astronomy Engine, city-centre coordinates, sea level, flat horizon), and the comparison of the closest and farthest full moons from our full moon calendar (US Naval Observatory times, distances calculated with Astronomy Engine).

The photos are from NASA's image library (public domain); we resized them and cropped two. The charts and the method diagram are our own. None of the images is AI-generated.