attempt at the stars.

dannylightning

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kind of lame IMO, any tricks or tips for this kind of thing, I noticed the stars were out full force tonight so I ran out in the yard and gave it a shot.

shutter was probably open for 2 or 3 minutes, the stars seem to move a descent amount in a short period of time, more than i though they would.
DSC_1603-001.jpg
 
I can see some out of focus or motion in the upper part of image.... anyway nice capture...
 
auto focus does not seem to work if there is not enough light and when i look thew the view finder its also pretty dark and all i could see was black. so i just turned it to manual focus and put it on the infinity mark and pointed the camera up, if you think its out of focus that is probably why.

I expected it to look better than it does as far as the stars go, i have seen much better star photos.
 
Thanks for the links guys, I am going to check those out now. I have not looked into what it takes to shoot stars, I though it would be easier than it is. none of the star photos I have taken have been that great.
 
The camera won't be able to AutoFocus on something Infinity distance away.
You have to go to manual focus, set the lens to Infinity and shoot away. But check for focus and elongation (movement). If elongation then your shutter is too slow, raise ISO a bit and shorten your shutter (or increase your aperture).
 
Thanks guys, those were all some good articles, except for the cranking up the ISO as high as you can thing.
 
Thanks guys, those were all some good articles, except for the cranking up the ISO as high as you can thing.
I think the point of cranking up the ISO to start is just to give you a shorter shutter speed so that you can see your exposure, framing, etc. once you are happy with that then you adjust accordingly by dropping ISO and slowing the shutter speed equivilant stops to get the same exposure.
Also, I found the "500 rule" to be more of a general rule of thumb. I just did a night shoot last night and tried the rule and still had IMO considerable trails.
 
That makes sense about the ISO, maybe I misunderstood or missed what he was trying to say about that.

Trails are cool as long as you have a long enough exposure to get big trails, I think the small trails in my photo look pretty lousy. One of these days soon I need to get out in the country where its wide open and there are no city lights and try to get a really good star photo.
 
I would suggest also looking into buying the app skyview (I think they have a free version which withholds some options) then try and shoot Sagittarius which some would say is the heart of the Milky Way. This time of year the Milky Way is setting and never very high in the night sky but, it's still makes for really pretty night photos.
 
Good idea, Ill have to look for a good star app. Thank you
 
Nice try! Are there any areas to capture during winter months?
 
Manual focus, use live view zooming in on a star. Your shutter speed should be 30 sec or less. So ISO will have to be 1600 at least if shooting f2.8, higher with smaller apertures. If you're trying to pull detail out of the milky way, an even higher ISO is required.
 

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