Snippets; ...snip-pets, a small piece or brief extract, (eg.; "snippets of information about photography"). Look for small bits of photo wisdom.

Shoot for the moon.  OK, that's a tired old cliche.  However, as we continue to stay confined in many ways, night-time photography can be interesting to almost any photographer.  And, I often hear a wide range of questions on how to proceed.

Let's just talk a bit about the easiest object to locate in the night (or evening, or early morning) sky; The Moon.

First, the question of time or Shutter Speed.  A tripod is necessary to get tack-sharp images however, you can capture fully acceptable moon photos while hand-held and using whatever form of image stabilization your camera has,  If I am shooting hand-held, I usually start with a shutter speed of 1/320 or 1/640 of a second.  With a tripod,  you can slow this down 1 or 2 stops but NO slower.  The moon IS moving rapidly.

With this as a starting point for your exposure triangle, an ISO of 200 to 500 should be in the right rnage, and an aperture in the midranges.  I like to keep the aperture small enough to ensure a good depth of field.  (With the Olympus eM1-III, the ability to show the focus range in the viewfinder is an excellent feature.)  Within this "middle aperture" range, I adjust the opening to find my best exposure.  For the moon on a bright night, I'll usually end up 1/3 to 2/3 below what the camera finds as ideal.

Focus is still critical so I recommend a couple shots with your focus set at different points on the moon itself.  Generally, the autofocus works well, keep it set to a single point mode.

White balance is always a question.  Auto or Sunlight settings produce excellent results.  I also take a few shots with the Image mode set to MONOCHROME to see (from the camera's JPG view) how the photograph will look if I convert the final choice to a black & white output.

Have fun, don't stay up TOO late.