Night Sky Photography Help

[Munoz]

Just bought a new lens and testing it on night sky photography, but can't seem to focus it right. I'm using manual focus.
Can someone please give me some tips on focusing? Also if I'm using the right settings? This is my first attempt.

Camera: Nikon D3200
Lens: AF-S 35mm 1.8G
F/1.8
8 Sec
ISO 3200

 

[petrochemist]

The MF ring will typically move beyond the position for infinity, but it looks to me as if that's not the problem here. To me the trees seems focused better than the stars.
A magnified image in live view should enable you to get the stars pin sharp, with a little care. Closing the aperture half a stop will help considerably too, as lenses aren't at there best wide open.

 

[shefjr]

The best tip I could give you would be to take some time to read these two posting. One by a TPF mod Manaheim
Manaheim s Ultimate Guide to Night Photography Photography Forum

The second by Sw1tchFX
Shooting Night pictures of stars and stuff Photography Forum

Both of which gave me a good grasp on shooting at night. Good luck and have fun!

 

[pgriz]

Exposure looks about right. Seems that you had the camera on a tripod. The only thing off is the focus. The lack of a distance scale on that lens makes it harder to focus manually. However, at 35mm, anything that is at least 300 ft. away is effectively at infinity as far as that lens is concerned. so focus on something "far away", using live-view with magnification (if your camera has it), then lock the focus and use that to image the sky.

 

[mcap1972]

Did you use tripod? It looks like the whole picture is not sharp.

 

[ruifo]

The usual tips include:

• Turn off auto-focus and VR (when availible)
• Use live vew (zoomed in) to manual focus the lens in a far distant light source (light pole, brightest star, moon, whatever... once and always you can satisfactorily focus at the infinity focus of your lens). Once focused, don't touch the focus ring anymore.
• Shoot in manual mode (M)
• Shoot in RAW
• To avoid camera shake, use:
  • a sturdy tripod
  • the 'Exposure Delay Mode' function
  • a remote release cord or a wireless remote control, don't use your finger
• Close/block the eyepiece viewer of your camera, to avoid light leak into the sensor during long exposures
• For the 35mm DX lens in a DX camera, don't shoot for more than 8-9 seconds, to avoid visible star trails.
• Practice and practice it, until you're happy about your technique

Good luck.

 

[pgriz]

Did you use tripod? It looks like the whole picture is not sharp.

The out-of-focus stars are perfectly round, so camera movement isn't the problem.

 

[jsecordphoto]

35mm (52mm-ish on a nikon APS-C sensor) is going to be a difficult focal length for shooting at night on a crop body. Your exposure times are going to be pretty low (I would do 8 seconds max), so getting much detail in the sky and especially your foreground is going to be a real challenge.

 

[TCampbell]

Oddly, the stars along the right side of the frame seem to be much closer to focus than those in the middle. The stars in the middle seem the most out of focus. At the left side they're out of focus, but not as bad as the middle.

Was there anything attached to the front of your lens that could account for this?

 

[Munoz]

Oddly, the stars along the right side of the frame seem to be much closer to focus than those in the middle. The stars in the middle seem the most out of focus. At the left side they're out of focus, but not as bad as the middle.

Was there anything attached to the front of your lens that could account for this?

Yes I had a hood lens on the front.

 

[pgriz]

Oddly, the stars along the right side of the frame seem to be much closer to focus than those in the middle. The stars in the middle seem the most out of focus. At the left side they're out of focus, but not as bad as the middle.

Was there anything attached to the front of your lens that could account for this?

Yes I had a hood lens on the front.

Did you have any filter on? One of the UV filters, perhaps?

 

[Munoz]

Oddly, the stars along the right side of the frame seem to be much closer to focus than those in the middle. The stars in the middle seem the most out of focus. At the left side they're out of focus, but not as bad as the middle.

Was there anything attached to the front of your lens that could account for this?

Yes I had a hood lens on the front.

Did you have any filter on? One of the UV filters, perhaps?

No, no filters attached.

 

[pgriz]

I would then consider doing a focus test on that lens to be sure that it focuses correctly on a plane. If the stars are not all having the same focus, then the lens may have a defect. One way to do this is to put something (like classified ads in a newspaper) on a wall at least 10' away, make sure your camera is perfectly parallel to that plane, use the lens wide open, but with MANUAL focusing, and see if there is any variation of focus across the lens field. If so, then your lens probably has a problem.

 

[dennybeall]

Looks like the camera is tilted up a bit? If it was a long lens I'd suggest focus or zoom creep from sitting at an angle. Could a prime lens do that over 8 minutes?