Mt. Sneffels and the Sneffels Range by Moonlight.

This image was taken a little after midnight by the light of the moon. With a long enough exposure, you can use moonlight to make night look like day (except for the stars streaking across the sky). I didn’t want to go quite that light, but I did want the moonlight to light up the landscape.

Mt Sneffels and the Sneffels Range are in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. This photo was taken along Colorado Highway 62 west of Ridgway, Colorado. This is a popular spot, at least in the day time. To find it, from the intersection of U.S. 550 and CO 62 go exactly 6 miles west on CO 62.

To create a photo like this, put your camera on a tripod, manually focus your lens on infinity (autofocus won’t work), put the shutter on B (for Bulb), and lock open the shutter for however long you want using a cable release (which is preferable), or just hold down the shutter button (but you risk jiggling the camera during the long exposure).

The exposure time for this photo was 98 seconds so the stars are trailing across the sky due to the rotation of the earth. You can use the photo data information (below) as an exposure guide. The moon was not full on the night this image was created. If there is a full moon, cut the exposure time down to about 30 – 45 seconds.

So the next time you have a beautiful moonlit night with no nearby city lights, get out there and have fun!

Photo Data: Canon 5D Mark III. Canon EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens at 29mm. 98 sec,  f/5.6,  ISO 1600.

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For more tips on night photography, read the night and low light chapter in my book Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies. It is one of the highest rated photography books on Amazon.com. Learn more here and order it at Amazon.