slow shutter speed photography...

[Aquarium Dreams]

Again, I point to long exposure being measured in minutes, not seconds. Even if we go with seconds, both my 35mm SLR, and my DSLR only go to 30 seconds, then to Bulb. Since neither of them can accept a cable release, the bulb setting is useless to me because I fear that holding the shutter for longer than 30 seconds (or even 10 seconds) will yield camera shake.

I've never seen an SLR or a DSLR with a T setting for the shutter. For those who don't know, T = Time. With the Bulb setting, the shutter will remain open for as long as you hold it open. With T or Time, you fire the shutter release once to open the shutter, and again to close it. You don't have to sit there and hold it open.

Are you sure that your dslr won't take a remote control? My Canon doesn't take a remote cable, but it definitely takes a remote control. What you said about the T setting made me wonder, so I put my camera on Bulb and pressed the remote control button once, and released the button. The shutter stayed open until I pressed the button on the remote again, just like it would on a T setting. Whether or not it would yield decent star trails (considering noise) is another matter.

This is the Bloc Party cover Jonas is talking about, with the photo by Rut Blees Luxemburg:

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Weekend-City-Bloc-Party/dp/B000M06K5C[/ame]

Good album.

 

[LaFoto]

Ah, good to see the photo Jonas is talking about at last.
Well, that one does not look like a photo for which anyone would need to go on longer exposure times than 30 seconds at the most. Even less would do. So actually there is no need to become more academic than necessary when Jonas is only looking for some pointers at "normal" (what ever is "normal", but ... you know...) night photography.

 

[Efergoh]

What you said about the T setting made me wonder, so I put my camera on Bulb and pressed the remote control button once, and released the button. The shutter stayed open until I pressed the button on the remote again, just like it would on a T setting. Whether or not it would yield decent star trails (considering noise) is another matter.

Certainly worthy of exploration. Not like you're going to waste film or anything.
But, as I've mentioned before, long exposure and digital don't mesh really well for the reason you already mentioned (noise).

Might be worth a roll of 35mm to take a peek at what it would do.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

Again, I point to long exposure being measured in minutes, not seconds. Even if we go with seconds, both my 35mm SLR, and my DSLR only go to 30 seconds, then to Bulb. Since neither of them can accept a cable release, the bulb setting is useless to me because I fear that holding the shutter for longer than 30 seconds (or even 10 seconds) will yield camera shake.

I've never seen an SLR or a DSLR with a T setting for the shutter. For those who don't know, T = Time. With the Bulb setting, the shutter will remain open for as long as you hold it open. With T or Time, you fire the shutter release once to open the shutter, and again to close it. You don't have to sit there and hold it open.

And I still feel that 35mm is too small to yield the excellent results that are possible from long exposures. You don't need to drop a mint on a MF camera to do this, either. I have a Lubitel TLR (Russian knock off of a Rolliflex) for which I paid $20. Focusing is tricky at times because the ground glass isn't much to write home about, but it is still doable.

I used this camera along with a couple ND filters (not needed at night) and shot long exposures 5-20 minutes during the day. I set up the shot, attached the cable release, opened the shutter, had a smoke and a coke, came back and closed the shutter. I need to dig out those negs and make some prints. They look pretty damned good if I must say so myself, and I really didn't put that much effort into it.

Not to mention the fact that I think using el cheapo ruskie knock off cameras puts some of the child like fun back into photography...kinda like a Holga.

dont be silly, there is a cable release for you minolta 5D here
http://www.adorama.com/CZDRA100.html

the alpha and the 5d are pretty much the same camera platform

 

[Alex_B]

Hm, I have to confirm that long exposure (the one you count in minutes, not seconds), really goes well with dSLRs and cable release. With some cable releases you can lock the shutter release and the shutter will be open until you unlock. so you do not have to press it all the time.

Did some shots over new year with ND filters, really long exposures, and noise was not a major issue.
There will be hot pixels on your sensor, true, but those are single pixel so they are easily dealt with (either with in camera software or in post processing). Unfortunately my experiments dissappeared with the death of the laptop where I stored them in the UK. But I will do proper shootings this way soon and post the results.

 

[jonas]

interesting much food for thought there guys..im looking at my dads camera at the moment. its a point and shoot i guess..Nikon Coolpix L1. Cant seem to find the f settings. actually theres a feature in the menu called Exposure comp. and it goes from -2.0 up to 2.0 ?

 

[Aquarium Dreams]

Certainly worthy of exploration. Not like you're going to waste film or anything.
But, as I've mentioned before, long exposure and digital don't mesh really well for the reason you already mentioned (noise).

Might be worth a roll of 35mm to take a peek at what it would do.

I've been looking to buy a 35mm film camera that will take either a cable release or a remote so I can experiment with star trails. My Canon K2 takes neither. Although, now that you mentioned it, I seem to remember having an old brownie with a cable release around here somewhere and a couple 120 rolls in the fridge...

 

[Garbz]

I have seen plenty of examples of long exposures with even entry level D70s (and by long I do mean several minutes) and they looked just fine.

I myself have taken 120minute exposures of the stars on my D200 no problem. Noise does become an issue though and the noise reduction is less then perfect with these lengths yielding black dots.

I will investigate different methods to do NR shortly for long nightime shots and will post my results. This will happen next week to all who are interested.

 

[jonas]

hey there. its been a while since ive active on the forum, college exams keeping me busy. so i was doing some tidyimg up of my bedroom and relocated my old digital camera ..which i had pretty much forgotten about and written off. However it seems to be a bit groovier than i origianally assummed. Its a Canon Powershot S400( digital Elph). Thing is i think it could be just the job for the type of photography ive been talking about. Its got a fair amount of manual features , well by that i mean you can mes around with the settings quite a bit. Unfortunatley i bought it in a dodgy store and it was second hand and ive got no instruction manual. Its got iso and exposure settings..I was messing around with it last night and it seems appropriate. i got light trails and my night time photos looked promising. What setting would you suggest?

 

[Kipper]

I've never seen an SLR or a DSLR with a T setting for the shutter.

From memory the Nikon D50 does. You can configure the remote to open the shutter with one press and closed with a second. I tried it a couple of times when I first got it.

On the subject of old technology, I found some pictures the other day that were taken with my old Zenit 12xp aaaah simpler times, happy days....

 

[jonas]

well i found some info on my camera on the net..it seems to be a promising enough camera. i thought it may be useless

 

[Weaving Wax]

I have a 35mm camera and I've done exposures up to a minute and they turned out great.

And I had no problem with it. I think these pictures turned out well. (the scans are crap. Thanks Wolf Camera and CVS), but they worked fine with my camera, tripod and shutter release cable.

With film you'll have to watch for Reciprocity Failure. Which is the intensity of light reaching the film and the time it is allowed to act on it. With long exposures it can become underexposed and denisity loss...

 

[reshp1]

The shot the OP linked to can easily be achieved with a DSLR. Here's a 30 second shot. I don't think you'd have a problem until you get into the hour range.

 

[smyth]

interesting much food for thought there guys..im looking at my dads camera at the moment. its a point and shoot i guess..Nikon Coolpix L1. Cant seem to find the f settings. actually theres a feature in the menu called Exposure comp. and it goes from -2.0 up to 2.0 ?

go to the scene modes, and choose fireworks. it's relatively short in the world of long exposures, but it will work

 

[jonas]

thanks for that..Ive been away for way too long.