Hi folks, drove thru rannoch moor last night and stopped to try and take a picture, however it didnt work out right and was hoping for some help on not repeating my mistake. i realise the moons a very bright object but other night time pics have never had the same issue tho never included the moon before, i could have left the moon out the picture but it would have lost something.
So disappointed even after id taken them cos i knew it hadnt worked out.

Just a guess. Did you have a filter fitted at the time?

There's a bit of flare that looks like an image reflection on a filter....

just the standard uv filter, id noticed that too but i know you can get round it by angling your lens etc, prob is you cant see the details on the camera screen and didnt think to take laptop tho girlfriend prob wouldnt have been too enamoured me downloading and editing at 1 in the morning on rannoch moor! would a faster lens have helped? id just grabbed my cover-all sigma 28-300 and my greasy filter stuff

The sensor has a UV filter coated on the front of it, so a UV, at best isn't needed and at worst, if it's a cheapie will seriously degrade your image quality. It has also been known to cause auto focus problems. So advice part one, if you feel you need it for lens protection, take it off and fit a lens hood.

Advice part 2. With the flair gone, that's a half way good photograph. I'd have given it a tad less exposure to make the sky and moon nice and throw the land into full silhouette and maybe raised the camera or crop out the larger part of the land mass.

The most inportant thing is: UV Filters, particularly cheap ones are a waste of time and money

well thats one lesson learned re uv filters this ones a hoya but my others are cheap and really just protecting my lens's. im no careless wi them but i do go to some no so camera friendly places so think o them as protection. had done about 20 shots with different apertures, exposures and isos but to just get the moon without all the glare, there was no detail in the land mass and just the faintest of reflection showing on the water.

I'm not getting at you mate, and I would be mortified if I thought you believed that. Thing is, you're into an into the light situation here, moon, not sun. And the reflected glare is on the land there is a large sort of misty halo around the reflection.

Try it for yourself. Take photos in a similar situation with and without the filter and you will see the difference for yourself. Consider also, this. Say you knock the filter and it shatters. You would then have your lens cavity flooded with tiny shards of glass. How are you going to get them out without removing the lens coating?

A good lens hood will
a) protect your lens just as well, unless people are throwing beer into the lens, in which case are you sure you wanna be there?

b) protect your lens against flare.

Win win in my estimation

no seriously tis a lesson learnt. i am new to this and one day want to be able do get whats in my head on paper. im more than happy that your willing to point me in the right direction, did have the stock hood on too, think its a flower one.

Cool! lose the filter, keep the hood and it will improve your image quality many times over

roll on next random drive thru rannoch moor, may even get a night shot o those pesky deer with a death wish!

rofl! why not!