Photographying Stars

Rocket

Rocket

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Tony
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Just been outside to try my first time at photographying the stars with nothing to show for it. A little unsure of settings and also focusing, there is little to focus on.

any guidence please..
 
not done it myself, however:

Manual mode
manual focus to infinity
shutter to bulb
aperture f4-f11

I think, oh, and cable release if you have one and a tripod too.
 
Rocket said:
Just been outside to try my first time at photographying the stars with nothing to show for it. A little unsure of settings and also focusing, there is little to focus on.

any guidence please..
Click to expand...

Widest aperture then stop back -1 (F2.8 to 3.2)

Set focus to infinity! or try and focus manually on something in the distance such as a street light or whatever!
Tripod mounted camera with shutter release or use timer
ISO as high as you dare (400 to 800 are good)
Try wide angle shots and use a shutter speed of 20 to 30 secs


Try that and see what happens :cool:
 
Rocket said:
Just been outside to try my first time at photographying the stars with nothing to show for it. A little unsure of settings and also focusing, there is little to focus on.

any guidence please..
Click to expand...

Look Northwest ISO 100 F8-11 30 secs exposure you should see the shooting stars Clicky Linky
 
Just Dave said:
Look Northwest ISO 100 F8-11 30 secs exposure you should see the shooting stars Clicky Linky
Click to expand...
Why the low ISO? and small aperture ..... You really need to expose for the meteors not the stars! The meteors are there for a second at most, if your lucky? and if your very lucky 2 to 3 seconds with the afterglow :) .... You can always take a second shot to get a nice noise free starry sky and PS it over to make a pretty shot... The stars will be there tomorrow but the meteors won't... Anyway just trying to help.. :)
 
Depends on the conditions, as always. What stage the moon is at, and how much ambient light there is from local towns, etc.

Also, how you want to do it (which may be determined by the ambient light). ie one shot or lots of shorter exposures stacked together.

An aperture of around f4 or a little wider is generally a good starting point. If you start stopping down much more, a lot of the stars won't register.

ISO 100 for about an hour should see some decent stars in a fairly dark area. If you find somewhere properly dark with no moon, you can stretch that out to 4 hours or more.
 
Jayst84 said:
Depends on the conditions, as always. What stage the moon is at, and how much ambient light there is from local towns, etc.

Also, how you want to do it (which may be determined by the ambient light). ie one shot or lots of shorter exposures stacked together.

An aperture of around f4 or a little wider is generally a good starting point. If you start stopping down much more, a lot of the stars won't register.

ISO 100 for about an hour should see some decent stars in a fairly dark area. If you find somewhere properly dark with no moon, you can stretch that out to 4 hours or more.
Click to expand...



To get decent star or meteor shots you need to be able to grab as much light as you possibly can for as long as you can! It's all about balancing the exposure, but I was tring to say that just because you get stars with a 30 second exposure, don't expect the meteors to be exposed at 1 second'ish.... :) If the moon or light pollution is a problem then you will need shorter exposures and loads of them and hope for the best :cool:

Steve
 
OK, Theres plenty here for me to work on. I think i have the idea now and of course the focus was my main issue but reckon i can get over that now.
Just need a nice clear night.

Thanks to all.:thumbs:

regards
 
stars move...so use shortish exposures...1-2 seconds
as i recall when photographing the moon use daylight settings as you can see it in daylight
so manual settings and some adventurous settings are required
setting your asa settings would be a first step to maximise on the exposure shortening
although i believe digital asa ratings may not be so good over 400

i also will be interested to see other advices
yours
 
Mrcrow, it depends on the focal length you're using and what counts as acceptable trailing. If you want sharp pinpoint stars, at 18mm ish (widest I've got) 25-30 seconds works quite nicely. At 50mm, about 8 seconds is the limit, and at 250, probably 1 to 3 seconds per sub max, that's on an untracked, static tripod of course. For Canon, the sweet spot for sensitivity to noise has been tested out to be about ISO800, which is what I use for all my Astro images now, although I have used ISO1600 in the past, and the noise can be dealt with quite easily.
 
jgs001 said:
Mrcrow, it depends on the focal length you're using and what counts as acceptable trailing. If you want sharp pinpoint stars, at 18mm ish (widest I've got) 25-30 seconds works quite nicely. At 50mm, about 8 seconds is the limit, and at 250, probably 1 to 3 seconds per sub max, that's on an untracked, static tripod of course. For Canon, the sweet spot for sensitivity to noise has been tested out to be about ISO800, which is what I use for all my Astro images now, although I have used ISO1600 in the past, and the noise can be dealt with quite easily.
Click to expand...

thanks indeed
i have a 380mm zoom setting on my olympus and it goes up to 400asa
i might try some sky shots if the clouds go to check out the results
i have done the moon but not with really what one would call astronomical results
the star movements i have seen done by a friend who set his camera up on a tripod for hours to show the effects
cheers
geof
 
one thing i have learned is "the rule of 600". take 600, divide it by your focal length (including crop factor) and that should tell you how many seconds per exposure you will need before you see movement. it may not shot up on your tiny 2" lcd but its there.
 
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