Beginner Night Sky Long Exposue

[Seahorse]

Something I have wanted to experiment with, but it's always either cloudy of comes out badly, so I thought I would have another go with the new toy this evening. It was hard to find a star to focus on in live view, but the trees seem ok, so it's there or there abouts. The other challenge is removing the orange from the sky due to light pollution, but I'm pleased with that too.

If anyone has some tips (beyond driving to the middle of the New Forest, I would be interested to hear.

20141124-8N2A1633-2 by Mr Seahorse, on Flickr

 

[MJKERR]

Clouds are always an issue, as is patience for a completely clear sky
A great sample photo though, and practice makes perfect

Therefore, could you please advise what camera settings you used for this result, as I have yet to take any night sky photos (taken a few subjects in darkness so far)

 

[Seahorse]

50mm @ 1.8, 10 second exposure at iso2000. This then needs some work in Lightroom as you basically get and orange photo due to light pollution.

 

[MJKERR]

You can't do much about light pollution, except seek out a dark sky location
However, you can adjust the white balance in an attempt to remove (some of) the light pollution

Try again but with a longer exposure at a lower ISO, 20 secs at ISO 400
ISO 2000 is more suitable to a longer focal length, but you start getting into the realms of star streaks

 

[hollis_f]

you can adjust the white balance in an attempt to remove (some of) the light pollution

Do you have before/after examples of this? Changing white balance shouldn't change the luminosity of the light pollution - just the colour. I've only been able to get rid of it by decreasing the orange luminance or by using a filter in the camera.