You’ve seen them. Those grainy, blurry, orange-ish blobs on Instagram that people swear are the moon. Honestly, taking decent images of blood moon is way harder than it looks, and most of us end up with a glowing pixel that looks more like a streetlamp than a celestial event. It’s frustrating. You’re standing out there in the cold, your hands are shaking, and the moon looks like this massive, haunting, copper orb to your eyes—but your screen says otherwise.
Lunar eclipses aren't just "red moons." They are the result of Rayleigh scattering, the same physics that gives us red sunsets. Basically, the Earth blocks the sun, but the atmosphere bends the red light around the edges and projects it onto the moon. It’s a giant shadow play happening thousands of miles away.
The physics behind those images of blood moon
If you want to understand why your camera struggles, you have to understand the light. During a total lunar eclipse, the moon isn't producing its own light; it's reflecting the sunset/sunrise light of the entire planet. NASA scientists, like those at the Goddard Space Flight Center, often point out that the "redness" depends entirely on what’s in our atmosphere. If there’s been a recent volcanic eruption—like Tonga in 2022—the moon can look dark, almost like a bruised purple or charcoal gray, because of the extra ash and aerosols.
Most people think they can just point and shoot. They can't. Your phone's light meter is literally hallucinating. It sees a giant black sky and thinks, "Wow, it’s dark! I should make this image really bright!" Then it overexposes the moon, turning that beautiful deep crimson into a bright, featureless white circle. You’ve probably noticed that. It’s annoying.
To get a real shot, you need to manually override your phone’s ego.
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Equipment you actually need (and what you don't)
Forget the $5,000 rigs for a second. If you’re just trying to capture the vibe for your memories, a modern flagship phone is fine, but you need a tripod. It’s non-negotiable. At the peak of an eclipse, the moon is significantly dimmer than a full moon. We’re talking about a massive drop in luminosity. If your shutter stays open for even half a second to catch that dim red light, and your hand twitches? Blurry mess.
- A Tripod. Even a cheap $15 one from a drugstore.
- A Remote Shutter. Or just use the 3-second timer on your camera app so you aren't touching the phone when the photo snaps.
- Clip-on Lenses. If you’re on a budget, these "telephoto" clips for iPhones sort of work, but they add a lot of chromatic aberration (that weird purple fringing on the edges).
Now, if you’re a pro using a DSLR or mirrorless camera, the game changes. You need a long lens. I'm talking 300mm minimum. 600mm is better. At 200mm, the moon is still just a small part of the frame. You want to see the craters. You want to see the "Man in the Moon" covered in that rust-colored shadow.
Stop using Auto Mode immediately
Digital cameras are smart, but they are also kind of stupid when it comes to space. When taking images of blood moon, the "Looney 11" rule (a classic photography trick for the moon) completely breaks down. Normally, for a bright full moon, you’d use f/11 and a fast shutter. But a blood moon is dark.
You’ll likely need to push your ISO up to 800 or 1600. Keep your aperture wide open—maybe f/2.8 or f/4. The shutter speed is the tricky part. Because the Earth is spinning and the moon is moving, if your shutter stays open longer than a second or two, the moon will actually start to look like an oval. It's trailing. You’re literally photographing the rotation of the planet.
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Why does the moon look so small in my photos?
It’s the Moon Illusion. Your brain tricks you into thinking the moon is huge when it’s near the horizon because you’re comparing it to trees or buildings. Your camera lens doesn't have a brain. It just sees the actual angular diameter, which is tiny. This is why professional images of blood moon often look "fake" or composite. Photographers will take a wide shot of a city skyline and then layer a zoomed-in shot of the eclipse over it. It’s technically "cheating," but it’s how you get those "National Geographic" style shots.
Honestly, some of the best shots aren't even of the moon itself. They’re of the environment during the eclipse. The light is weird. It’s eerie. It feels like someone put a sepia filter over the entire world.
The Danjon Scale and why it matters for your shots
In 1921, an astronomer named André-Louis Danjon created a scale from 0 to 4 to describe how dark an eclipse is.
- L=0: Very dark eclipse. Moon almost invisible.
- L=2: Deep red or rust-colored.
- L=4: Very bright copper-orange or orange.
When you’re preparing your camera settings, you have to adjust on the fly based on this scale. If we’re at an L=0, you’re going to need a tracking mount (a device that moves your camera with the stars) or you just aren't getting the shot. If it's an L=4, you can actually get away with a handheld shot if you have steady hands and a stabilized lens.
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Most of the viral images of blood moon you see on Reddit or Twitter are actually "stacked." This means the photographer took 50 or 100 photos and used software like PIPP or AutoStakkert! to merge them. This cancels out the "noise" or graininess and brings out the sharp details of the lunar surface. It’s a lot of work. It’s a hobby that turns into an obsession very quickly.
Real-world tips for the next eclipse
Don't just look at the moon. Look at the stars around it. During a total eclipse, the sky gets dark enough that stars suddenly pop into view right next to the moon. It’s one of the few times you can photograph the moon and the Milky Way in the same frame without one being totally blown out.
- Check the weather. Use an app like Clear Outside. It’s more accurate for cloud cover than your standard weather app.
- Location. Get away from city lights. Light pollution won't ruin the moon, but it will ruin the contrast of the red shadow against the sky.
- Focus. Set your focus to "Infinity." Most cameras struggle to autofocus on a dim red circle in the dark. Switch to manual focus, turn on "focus peaking" if your camera has it, and dial it in until the craters look sharp.
- RAW format. Always shoot in RAW. If you shoot in JPEG, the camera "bakes in" the colors and shadows. With a RAW file, you can rescue the red tones in Lightroom later when you realize the photo came out too dark.
Processing your images of blood moon
When you get home and look at your files, they might look disappointing. They’ll look flat. That’s normal. Digital sensors aren't great at capturing the nuance of red light. In post-processing, you’ll want to bump the "Vibrance" rather than the "Saturation." Saturation just dumps red paint over everything; vibrance specifically lifts the muted colors.
Also, watch your white balance. If your camera is set to "Auto White Balance," it will try to "correct" the red moon back to white. You have to manually set it to "Daylight" or "Cloudy" to preserve those deep, bloody tones.
Actionable Next Steps
- Check the lunar calendar. The next major total lunar eclipse won't happen every month. Find the exact date and time for your specific "totality" window.
- Download a manual camera app. If you're on a phone, get an app like Halide (iOS) or ProShot (Android). You need to be able to control ISO and Shutter Speed manually.
- Practice on a regular full moon. Don't wait for the eclipse to learn how to focus on the sky. Spend ten minutes tonight trying to get a clear, non-blurry shot of the moon.
- Buy a simple phone-to-tripod adapter. It’s the single biggest upgrade you can make for under $20.
- Identify a foreground object. Find a cool tree, a lighthouse, or a church steeple. A photo of just a red circle is okay, but a photo of a red moon hanging behind a silhouette of a mountain is art.
Capturing images of blood moon is essentially a lesson in patience. You’ll probably fail the first three times. Your battery will probably die because the cold drains it faster. You might get clouds. But when that one frame hits—the one where the focus is sharp and the red is deep and you can see the curve of the Earth's shadow—it's worth it. Stop relying on "Night Mode" and start taking control of the sensor. The results are significantly better when you do the work yourself.