LOL! D700, Quantaray 28-90, Mt. Hood, 1 hour

Sw1tchFX · Apr 13, 2010

Honestly, this is easily, EASILY, the crappiest lens i've ever used, period. But it's wider than 50mm, and I was in a pinch. It was amazing how clear it was.

I really want to get that 24mm f/1.4 so I can do shots like this alot more effectively when i'm dialing in my exposure and not have to use ISO 25,600:

Sachphotography · Apr 13, 2010

The first shot is very amazing. I love astrophotography. It is a great image. Specs please!!1

cnutco · Apr 13, 2010

Very interesting 1st. I wish I had such a place to take great photos as yours.

pbelarge · Apr 13, 2010

AJ
I really like both shots. Star trails seem to be the 'thing'.

I really like the sky with all the stars. Where did you shoot this, and what time of night was this?

den9 · Apr 13, 2010

i was gonna so why such a crappy lens on a nice camera, but this just shows equipement isnt always everything, turned out great! how did you get an hour without sensor overheating?

Dominantly · Apr 13, 2010

Damn I'm so jealous of those shots.
I wish I could pull something like that off!

How did you go about setting up that shot? I mean was it trial and error or did you calculate out your settings based on what you saw there on site?

Kethaneni · Apr 13, 2010

Love the first one. Can you please share the details?

Sw1tchFX · Apr 14, 2010

Sachphotography said:
The first shot is very amazing. I love astrophotography. It is a great image. Specs please!!1

D700, Quantaray 28-90, f/5.6, 1 hour, ISO 400.

cnutco said:
Very interesting 1st. I wish I had such a place to take great photos as yours.

There's got to be something in Georgia, if not a landscape, there's a guy on Flickr under "lost america" who's in Nevada and shoots alot of junk yards at night.

pbelarge said:
AJ
I really like both shots. Star trails seem to be the 'thing'.

I really like the sky with all the stars. Where did you shoot this, and what time of night was this?

This is the south east side of mount hood, just after you turn off on hwy 35. If you google map/earth mt hood and white river snowpark, it will pop right up

den9 said:
i was gonna so why such a crappy lens on a nice camera, but this just shows equipement isnt always everything, turned out great! how did you get an hour without sensor overheating?

The D700 is an amazing camera. If you have a D700, or D3(s), Long Exp. NR is for suckas. This is one of the longer exposures i've done and it doesn't really need Long Exp NR. There's just a hot pixel here or there, really easy to patch out. I bet the reason why it didn't overheat is because the ambient temps were below freezing.

Dominantly said:
Damn I'm so jealous of those shots.
I wish I could pull something like that off!

How did you go about setting up that shot? I mean was it trial and error or did you calculate out your settings based on what you saw there on site?

It's cake on digital.

You first compose the picture and focus to your best ability (duh)

put the camera in manual

Crank your ISO to the max and open the aperture.

dial in a random exposure and tweak the shutter speed till the brightness is what you want it to be.

Now crunch the numbers down to the equivalent exposure with the aperture stopped down a little bit for sharpness.

Crunch the numbers down again a little more where the ISO is at something reasonable like 100-400.

hit the cable release and let it go. just count the stops down and you'll eventually get there without doing a dozen shots at different ISO's. That way you don't waste time, battery life, or unnecessarily heating up the sensor.

So if you have an exposure that's 30 seconds at ISO 6400, f/4, what would be the equivalent exposure at ISO 100 f/5.6?

32 minutes.

Anyone with basic arithmetic skills can do this in their head. Just keep doubling the time every time you lower your ISO or aperture a stop. Thak god for digital not having reciprocity failure!