Shooting Night pictures of stars (and stuff)

Josh66 · Jun 8, 2012

If someone doesn't do it soon, I'll see what I can do. It will be biased if I do it though. I'll only include things that I think are interesting...lol.

EDL · Aug 12, 2012

Ok, I have a question about shooting stars. How do you focus?? I can't see anything through the view finder to reference for focus. My lens isn't marked for infinity and manually focusing for it in the dark is completely guess work (i.e. not really usable).

wolfie138 · Aug 17, 2012

Many thanks for this, it's exactly what i was looking for as a tute.

Chasr · Aug 24, 2012

Just to add to your thread,,a line or 2 to show how easy it is to have some fun,,first off download " FREE " Stellarium,,it's a free star chart,,put in your location and it'll save it and bring up the stars as to where they are live at that time of day,,you can go into the menu on the left and set any time you want to see just where everything is,,around the end of Aug. Orion will be rising far in the east and as days go by it'll get up earlier and earlier as the days go by,,generally all say to get a dark sight to shoot the stars but as you'll see Orion is very bright,,I was at the White Rock pier here in BC and there are lights everywhere,,just a simple tripod,,50mm lens with remote shutter and a couple seconds exposure gets you some fine photos,,I focus to infinity and back it off just a touch,,set the camera to AV and it does the rest,,you could set it to manual and play with focus using live view,,find a nice tree or house or whatever to get some foreground in the photo,,Orion is a fun set of stars to play with because it's so bright and easy to find,,my plan this year is to get it and all the lights on the pier as background,,will have to play a little and maybe use a bit wider lens but it'll be fun and a good project,,the photos on my web page say more than I can,, Zenfolio | Just Photos | Star night with Orion | Photo 1 good luck all.

picchic45 · Sep 15, 2012

Thanks for the information, can't wait to try it out.

manaheim · Sep 15, 2012

Stunning pictures and great guide.

Of course, now I'm offended because Over didn't move MY night-time photography thread up to articles.

harrrumph.

Awesome post, Sw1tch!

pizzazzography · Sep 18, 2012

I have just joined this forum and this is the first thread that I have read. If this is the standard of contributions then I know that I'm in for many hours of great reading. I was a professional photographer for 15 years and this is a great article, and the pictures are a stunning example of what can be achieved, in this digital age of Photoshop, with getting the technical side of making images correct and good old-fashioned trial and error which is half the fun. Thanks for a really good post

evti · Sep 28, 2012

I am most definitely book marking this thread, since I am very interested in this stuff. These pictures are quite amazing, I especially love the one with the moving river.

sim597 · Sep 29, 2012

Chasr said:
Just to add to your thread,,a line or 2 to show how easy it is to have some fun,,first off download " FREE " Stellarium,,it's a free star chart,,put in your location and it'll save it and bring up the stars as to where they are live at that time of day,,you can go into the menu on the left and set any time you want to see just where everything is,,around the end of Aug. Orion will be rising far in the east and as days go by it'll get up earlier and earlier as the days go by,,generally all say to get a dark sight to shoot the stars but as you'll see Orion is very bright,,I was at the White Rock pier here in BC and there are lights everywhere,,just a simple tripod,,50mm lens with remote shutter and a couple seconds exposure gets you some fine photos,,I focus to infinity and back it off just a touch,,set the camera to AV and it does the rest,,you could set it to manual and play with focus using live view,,find a nice tree or house or whatever to get some foreground in the photo,,Orion is a fun set of stars to play with because it's so bright and easy to find,,my plan this year is to get it and all the lights on the pier as background,,will have to play a little and maybe use a bit wider lens but it'll be fun and a good project,,the photos on my web page say more than I can,, Zenfolio | Just Photos | Star night with Orion | Photo 1 good luck all.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to post without replying just Yeats I'm new and on my iPhone5, I used Nikon d7000 and my Celestron EQ mount to get some really nice wide field, and hook it up to a 3.5" vixen apochromatic telescope.
But the reason I am posting this is because I use an app to check the conditions for "seeing" which in astrological terms means all conditions, light pollution, humidity, time of day, temp, wind speed and more, like cloud cover and transparency, this Chart is iCSC and is on both android and iPhone as an app. For iPhone guys another great way to know what your seeing and interesting "what to look for" is this great app called "pocket universe". This gives you an overview of what your seeing on a reality based algorithm that uses GPS, integral compass, and other chips like velocity to basically give you a digital monocular out to a couple million light years at least, and besides a great tool to help align scopes, it's an awesome learning tool an has a terrific "wow factor" for others.

dsmcguire · Sep 29, 2012

EDL said:
Ok, I have a question about shooting stars. How do you focus?? I can't see anything through the view finder to reference for focus. My lens isn't marked for infinity and manually focusing for it in the dark is completely guess work (i.e. not really usable).

Without an infinity mark, focusing in the dark is guess work. The method I use is, set the lens to auto focus and hold the shutter button down half way. This causes the lens to attempt to focus. It should stop trying to focus when it is on infinity. Release the shutter button and flip the lens to manual, now your ready to shoot on infinity. This usually works for me. If for some reason it doesn't, try it again. If not the first time, it always works the second.

osumisan · Oct 27, 2012

I am inspired!

jessicaevans1062 · Nov 9, 2012

I am new here and this was the first post I read. I am so glad I came! I'm really looking for ideas to step out of my comfort zone, and this definitely counts! Thanks to your wonderful explanation I don't feel like I'm going into it blindly. I do fear my equipment is seriously inferior, but I'll give it a shot anyway! Thank you!

Luke345678 · Nov 27, 2012

Wow, this was a very detailed thread packed with tons of great information. I was wondering what was the best way to shoot the stars and I think I just found out! Thanks man.

JTPhotography · Jan 14, 2013

Great thread. After a few tries, I have pretty much gotten the hang of shooting the stars. My problem is processing them. I realize you have to do quite a bit of work to make the details pop, but I just can't seem to get it. I need some help. Any links or tips would be greatly appreciated. It would be even better if I could send one of you processing pros a few images so you can do your thing!

bc_steve · Feb 9, 2013

EDL said:
Ok, I have a question about shooting stars. How do you focus?? I can't see anything through the view finder to reference for focus. My lens isn't marked for infinity and manually focusing for it in the dark is completely guess work (i.e. not really usable).

I find this to be one of the more difficult things when taking pictures at night. If possible I auto-focus on a distant streetlight or something along those lines, but otherwise I just find Venus or the brightest star I can see and manually focus it. I find it easier with some lenses than I do with others. You may want to max the ISO and take a quick test photo to see if it is okay.