Mar 20, 2024

Why does the Moon look so HUGE in photos (Brighton edition)? ?

For a gallery of all of my HUGE MOON photos around Brighton and Sussex, please click here.

HUGE MOONS IN PHOTOS:

I'll begin by explaining how you achieve a photo with an unbelievably large Moon in it and then provide some examples to hopefully make it easier to visualise. I will then go on to try and explain what's going on for this to be possible and why the Moon appears larger nearer the horizon to the naked eye.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOON LOOK BIGGER IN PHOTOS:

The trick to getting the Moon to appear larger in a landscape/Moon photograph is down to the distance you are from the subject (the subject being a windmill, a pier etc.); i.e. a Moon is going to look much bigger if you're 1 km away from your subject as opposed to 50 metres. Note that a telephoto lens is required to zoom into your subject so that it doesn't look as if it is in the distance of the photo.

The other factor that can affect the perceived size of the Moon is the size of the subject you're photographing, e.g. a smaller subject will make the Moon look bigger in contrast to a larger subject.

EXAMPLES OF THE MOON BEHIND LANDMARKS IN BRIGHTON AND THE DISTANCE I WAS FROM THEM:

The following photos include the title, distance I was from the subject when I took the photo and a rough approximation of the comparative Moon size. This should give you a good visualisation of how distance and also the size of the subject affects the perceived size of the Moon.

Crescent Moon over the Brighton Palace Pier - Distance from subject 85 metres (Moon size 0.8 metres)

< Click here to buy this photo >

Pink Moon and the Peace Statue - Distance from subject 460 metres (Moon size 4.3 metres)

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Solar Eclipse behind the Brighton i360 - Distance from subject 740 metres (Moon size 8.6 metres)

The Moon obscuring 90% of the Sun works on the same premise as the Huge Moon photos.

< This photo can be found in my Brighton Calendar 2027 - Night and Day >

[Click here to watch a video of the Solar Eclipse in this photo!]

< Contact me to buy this photo >

Supermoon behind the Rottingdean Windmill (Beacon Mill) - Distance from subject 2.4 km (Moon size 22.8 metres)

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Huge Moon rising behind the Palace Pier - Distance from subject 4.2 km (Moon size 36 metres)

[Click here to watch a video of the Moon rising in this photo!]

< Click here to buy this photo >

Gigantic Moon over Brighton's Skyline - Distance from subject 14.8 km (Moon size 136 metres)

[Click here to watch a 4K timelapse video of the Moon rising in this photo!]

< Click here to buy this photo >

VISUALISING WHAT'S HAPPENING:

The easiest way I can think to explain what is happening is to try and put yourself on location.

So, let's say you have a windmill on the top of a hill and you're standing next to it - the windmill is going to appear very large to you and in comparison the Moon will look small in the distance.

However, if you're many kilometres away from the windmill then the Moon is still going to look small, but the windmill will look small also - meaning that comparatively the Moon will look much larger next to the windmill. Then, in order to capture this as a photograph a long telephoto lens is needed to zoom into the windmill/Moon in the distance, as if you're viewing it through binoculars.

I have a good example of this in action where I was 3.1 km away from the Rottingdean Windmill making the Moon's comparative size almost 30 metres! Captured at a 500 mm focal length on a full frame camera to get up close < please see this gallery for that photo of the Moon behind the Rottingdean Windmill >

WHY DOES THE MOON LOOK BIGGER NEARER THE HORIZON?!

The above explains why the Moon looks so big in photos, but why does the Moon look like its bigger nearer the horizon to the naked eye??

The short answer is that no one fully knows! Despite how it may appear the Moon is always the exact same size in the sky, even when its close to the horizon and it looks visually bigger.

The illusion is simply based on how our brains process the visual information in front of us.

The most common explanation of the illusion is that objects in the foreground trick your brain into thinking the Moon is both closer and bigger than it is - perhaps in a similar way to what I explained above about how we can use photography to achieve a much larger looking Moon by capturing it close to an object in the distance.