Photographing the Milky Way usually requires a long, high-ISO exposure, while the moon needs a short, low-ISO exposure. These subjects cannot share one reliable recipe: stars are faint points of light, but the moon is sunlit rock reflecting intense daylight.
Use the following ranges as starting points, not guarantees. Adjust for your lens, moon phase, sky brightness, focal length, and the result shown by the histogram.
Photography exposure for night-sky work: stars versus the sunlit moon
Photography exposure is controlled by three settings: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Shutter speed controls how long light reaches the sensor; aperture controls the lens opening; ISO changes the sensor’s amplification and the visibility of both detail and noise.
For the Milky Way, open the aperture, lengthen the shutter speed, and raise ISO because the star field is extremely dim. For the moon, do the opposite: use a relatively narrow aperture, fast shutter, and low ISO. The sunlit lunar surface is vastly brighter than individual stars, even though both appear in a dark sky.
If a frame includes both subjects, exposing for the stars will normally overexpose the moon into a white disc. Exposing for the moon will often leave the Milky Way nearly invisible. A carefully timed composition can show a crescent and some stars, but a bracketed or composited result may be needed for strong detail in both.
Photographing the Milky Way: starting settings and star-trail limits
Mount the camera on a sturdy tripod and begin with manual settings: aperture around f/1.4 to f/2.8, shutter speed around 10 to 25 seconds, and ISO around 1600 to 6400. A wide lens, such as 14–24mm, generally permits the longer end of that shutter range. Use RAW capture and disable long-exposure noise reduction if it prevents you from making consecutive frames.
The Earth’s rotation makes stars trail during long exposures. The familiar 500 rule is only a rough limit; sensor resolution, pixel density, focal length, and how closely you inspect the image all matter. The NPF rule is a more refined estimate, but it is still not a guarantee. At 20mm, try 15–20 seconds first. At 35mm or longer, begin closer to 5–10 seconds if you want sharp stars.
Review the image at high magnification. If stars look like short lines, shorten the shutter speed and compensate with a higher ISO or wider aperture. If the sky is too bright, lower ISO or shorten the exposure. A bright foreground may need a separate exposure rather than a compromise that sacrifices star detail.
Taking pictures of the moon: starting settings and clipping checks
Begin around f/5.6 to f/11, 1/125 to 1/500 second, and ISO 100 to 400. For a full or nearly full moon, f/8, 1/250 second, and ISO 100 is a useful first test. A thin crescent may need a slower shutter or higher ISO, while haze and bright surroundings can require less exposure.
Use a telephoto lens for lunar detail and keep the shutter fast enough to counter lunar motion and vibration. At long focal lengths, 1/250 or 1/500 second is often safer than 1/125. Do not apply the long, high-ISO Milky Way recipe to the moon; it will usually clip the illuminated surface.
Spot metering on the moon can provide a useful reference, but manual exposure gives more consistent results across a sequence. Check the craters and bright edges, not just the dark sky around the moon.
Focus, histogram, and field corrections: manual focus, star trailing, lunar motion, and clipping
Set focus manually. For stars, use live view at maximum magnification on a bright star and turn the focus ring until it becomes the smallest, sharpest point. The infinity mark is only a starting reference. For the moon, magnify a crater edge and focus on its detail. Tape the focus ring if it moves, and recheck after temperature changes or lens adjustments.
Use the histogram and highlight warnings as exposure checks. A Milky Way histogram may sit heavily toward the left because most of the frame is dark; that is not automatically underexposure. Avoid pushing the entire graph hard against the left edge, and watch for a bright sky glow that overwhelms the stars.
For the moon, clipped highlights mean lost lunar texture. If the histogram or blinkies show clipping, shorten the shutter speed first, then lower ISO or narrow the aperture. If stars vanish, lengthen the shutter within the trailing limit, open the aperture, or raise ISO. Make one change at a time so each adjustment remains predictable.