This book was trying to cover both facts about the moon and a basic beginner’s guide to photographing it. If you’re into space and photography, this book is for you! I received this copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Interesting book about the moon and some of the beginning photos of it.

The Moon: A Beginner’s Guide to Lunar Features and Photography by James Harrop is a practical guide aimed at beginners interested in learning about the Moon and how to image our closest satellite neighbor. The book contains the complete photographic process including equipment, settings, capture techniques, stacking and image processing, each of which is vitally important to producing a good image. The information is laid out in a visual and easy-to-understand format so that even the dark art of image processing will not seem quite so daunting. There are many high-quality color photos of the Moon to help you learn about different lunar features and a list of 100 lunar targets identified as a challenge for you to find. All the targets have been captured by the author who provides a brief description of each feature and where it is located on the lunar surface. You will be surprised to discover the fine level of lunar detail which you can see from your back garden and once you start imaging, you will realize there is more to the Moon than meets the eye.

The Moon: A Beginner’s Guide to Lunar Features and Photography is a valuable read and resource for those looking to photograph the moon, and those looking to examine and explore the work involved in getting those photographs. The explanations are well done, and the information was accessible. The equipment, skills, and techniques are well described and the book offers solid insight for those interested in expanding their skill set. I have to admit, I have always been more interested in the images themselves than the ability to take pictures myself. However, I liked learning about what goes into taking the pictures that have also fascinated me. I think those interested in learning more about the doing, rather than just enjoying their hard work on our behalf, will get the most out of this book.

The Moon is a hybrid atlas and photography tutorial manual dedicated to Earth's own satellite. Due out 30th Aug 2020 from Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's 128 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

Author James Harrop is an experienced photographer and he provides quite a lot of specific information for readers concerning equipment, atmospheric conditions, and other criteria to reproduce or capture their own images.

The book itself follows a logical and accessible format. From the general photography terms and equipment he moves on to more specific detail of DSLR imaging, mobile phone images, sensors and image resolution, Sharpcap, stacking, image processing in Photoshop, composite images in ICE, and lunar features (with a cool checklist to tick off seen/imaged features). If those terms don't mean a lot, it might be reassuring to know that I am a complete newbie when it comes to photography and the author takes pains to make the concepts painless and understandable. This really is a mostly beginner friendly guide to capturing images better than I had thought possible with the equipment I had. I also liked the way the author used actual screenshots with specific programs to guide the reader through some of the software features. (Click here. The interface should look like this. Do this step, then that). I also liked the way technical terms are defined in highlighted sidebars on the pages on which they appear. It makes it *so* much easier than looking things up at the back of the book.

Well written, very interesting, and night-time astral photography is a hobby anyone can do at a beginning level (whilst social distancing). I gained an appreciation for the subject reading the book. This would make a superlative selection for astronomy fans, photography hobbyists, or anyone looking for a neat way to use up some insomnia hours. It's all ages accessible and virtually free to start, since everyone has a mobile phone.

Five stars. Quite comprehensive.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A practical guide aimed at beginners interested in learning about the Moon and how to image our closest satellite neighbour. The book contains the complete photographic process including equipment, settings, capture techniques, stacking and image processing, each of which is vitally important to producing a good image.

If you are looking for a book to get started on this, this is a really good book. Part photography book, part instruction manual, this book really gives you a place to get started on some of your own lunar activity. I do feel the writing is quite dense in this book with big chunks of writing throughout that I feel could have been broken down a bit more but overall I do feel the information is really informative and makes for a good primer in getting great photos and taught me alot.

Accompanying the writing as pictures of cameras but also of course, the moon. What I do appreciate is the variety of shots from different cameras that allow you to see the instructions in the physical particularly the section on using mobile phone cameras to take pictures - this was very informative and I used the information in this book to take pictures myself and will continue to. The photos really are so high quality throughout.

A really informative book that teaches you all you need to know about lunar photography, I’d recommend it for someone just starting out like I was!

As a fairly visual person, and an artist who works with photography, whilst I found this book insightful, it could at times be slightly heavy on the text side in technicalities such as field of vision, perhaps it's how I consumed it and it would work better in physical format being able to see it as a double page spread, but it was less effective than the lunar features guide, which was laid out in a way that was accessible and visual, with clear labelling.

You know when there's a full moon, you get really excited and try to take a photo of it? And when you take that photo, it turns out to be less than impressive and incredibly subpar? This book fixes all of that for you. Now, granted, it's not for the average iPhone photographer. This is for dedicated professionals, or even hard-core hobbyists. You definitely need to have at least a passing interest in photography in order to get any benefit from this book at all. It covers an incredible amount of detail for all the special considerations you need to make while photographing the moon. Any photographer interested in science or even night photography would love this book. I especially loved the detail it goes into on the geography of the moon's surface. The different craters and fields, and how to make them pop and detailed in your photos. The moon itself is incredibly stunning and this book tells you how to capture it. I did think that this would be more of a coffee table book with mainly photos of the moon and the odd technical specification on how the photographer achieved it, but that's not what this book is about at all - if possible, it's even cooler.

O livro é bem interessante e pertinente para os interessados em astronomia e pelos amantes da lua (que é o meu caso) e do universo como um todo. As imagens são lindas e o conteúdo, engrandecedor. Mesmo o tema sendo de cunho científico por ser um livro de não ficção, a forma como é abordada e a linguagem usada é acessível a qualquer púbico, ampliando, assim, o publico alvo da obra. Gostei bastante da leitura.