Bulb (long exposure) night photography

[fmw]

What you want to do is very simple. Mount the camera with slow film on a tripod, point it, choose a small aperture and open the shutter for as long as you like.

As long as no artificial light and no moon is in the frame you can get different effects with different exposure times.

Anything other than starlight, however, will quickly overexpose.

 

[benjyman345]

choose a small aperture.

I thought i had to use a large aperture (small number)?

 

[usayit]

small aperture for maximum depth of field but at the sacrifice of very slow shutter speeds which is not a problem since you will be using a tripod.

BTW.. for really long exposures... a very stable support is extremely important. Even wind blowing at your camera can cause blurring. May I suggest a bag full of rocks attached to your tripod to weigh it down.... removing the camera strap.. using Mirror lock up if available on your camera.... using a remote/timer.

 

[astrostu]

small aperture for maximum depth of field ...

Depth of field isn't important because everything you're looking at is at "infinity."

 

[uberben]

Not sure if this applies to you at all...I shoot star trails with my 20d and 300D and have found that if I shoot a series of 30-40 minute shots and then layer them in photoshop that I get amazing results. This reduces the noise commonly found with long exposures.

~Ben

 

[astrostu]

Not sure if this applies to you at all...I shoot star trails with my 20d and 300D and have found that if I shoot a series of 30-40 minute shots and then layer them in photoshop that I get amazing results. This reduces the noise commonly found with long exposures.

~Ben

Not to say Ben's wrong, because theoretically this will work. However, you have to be careful and make sure that you start the next exposure immediately after you end one, otherwise you will get small gaps in your star trails (speaking from experience here).

 

[W.Smith]

hello,
I want to take a long exposure photo of the night sky and stars so that you can see the movement of the stars in the photo.

What is the best settings to use to achieve this?
Shutter time? (30mins, hour etc?)

The length of the exposure determines the length of the arcs in degrees.

Appeture?

f5.6 or f8.0.

What film? (100, 200, 400?)

100 or 200

What ISO should i set the camera to? (the same as the film or diffferent)

The same.

Anything else i should know or consider?
(I have a remote shutter release button and lock and tripod)

You can also use the selftimer: if you set it to long (ca. 10 sec.) the camera/tripod combo will have enough time to stop swaying/moving before the exposure starts.
Minimal movements are not visible in long exposure shots anyway.

How about a lens for these shots? I have a 18 - 55mm... would that do it or would it work better with a telephoto

The exposure time will determine the length of the arcs IN DEGREES. The focal length will influence the size/visibility of the arcs in-photo. Wide angle lenses will give you many, many stars/arcs, but they'll be so small that it looks like the picture is a very grainy black. Better use a short telephoto lens, imo.

Dunno the exposure time of these Leonids, but looking at the arcs of the stars I'd guess between 5 and 10 minutes:

 

[benjyman345]

hello,

Would ISO 200, F5.6, and 30 minute exposure in a suburbarn area with the moon out (but not in the picture) be adequete exposure for star trails or would it be over exposed?........

thanks

 

[CMan]

A suburban enviroment is not really a good place to take pictures like these, honestly. On a long exposure, light pollution will creep into the picture.

 

[astrostu]

What CMan said. And, unless the moon is a crescent, then even if it's not in your field, it will severely limit how many stars you can see. The moon is over 10,000x brighter than any star (other than the Sun).

Would ISO 200, F5.6, and 30 minute exposure in a suburbarn area with the moon out (but not in the picture) be adequete exposure for star trails or would it be over exposed?........

 

[RacePhoto]

hello,
I want to take a long exposure photo of the night sky and stars so that you can see the movement of the stars in the photo.

What is the best settings to use to achieve this?
Shutter time? (30mins, hour etc?)
Appeture?
What film? (100, 200, 400?)
What ISO should i set the camera to? (the same as the film or diffferent)

Anything else i should know or consider?
(I have a remote shutter release button and lock and tripod)

thanks

Wow some great answers and pictures.

Let me add to the confusion. The ISO setting on the camera if you are using FILM, is irrelevant. You aren't using metering, or camera shutter speeds, you are using a watch, so it doesn't matter.

I used to do some of this and many times, I'd just put the camera on a tripod and set it for 5.6 or f/8 (ground level objects in the pictures) and push in the cable and lock it. After a few minutes, I'd release it. (highly unscientific, I wish I could find my 20 year old notes) I liked using Fuji or Ecktachrome slide film, because of the colors being more bluish than print film.

Moonlight photo, not including the Moon, sky not the subject, but using it for illumination, same deal. Focus to infinity, pick a middle setting, open the shutter, pick a time... wait. Oh yes, of course bracket the pictures, and take notes.

Try 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5, 10... and see what happens. Do not shoot wide open or you get artifacts around the edges. Oval stars and the like.

The word I wanted to mention was receprocity. For the time the film is exposed it becomes less sensitive to light. What I'm getting at is not something that changes in the film, but how the emulsion responds to light over time. It's getting more of an exposure during the first minute, than during the second minute, for example. It's still a minute, but less is captured in each subsequent minute.

Since I've never tried this with digital, is there also the same exposure reciprocity?

I'd love to try to shoot Perceids like the picture above. What was the lens?

You folks have given me a new project for things to do at night when I'm camping. Usually I shoot during the day and haven't tried low light photography in years. We can see satellites going over all night long. Something else that wasn't as common "way back when".

 

[ironsidephoto]

the best thing to do is just experiment.

 

[burtharrris]

What star do you aim at to get that circular look? Sirius? is that in the little dipper constellation?

 

[astrostu]

What star do you aim at to get that circular look? Sirius? is that in the little dipper constellation?

Stars appear to rotate about Polaris, the star at the end of the Little Dipper (note, this star is pretty faint). But Polaris is not ON the north celestial pole, it is about 3/4° off of it, and so it, too, will etch out a very slight trail over a night.

That's if you are in the Northern Hemisphere. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, there is no "south pole star" that's visible to the naked eye.

This is only if you want the trails to be in a circle about a given point in space. All stars will appear to move over the course of the night so you can still get trails without finding a star on either celestial pole.

 

[RacePhoto]

Stars appear to rotate about Polaris, the star at the end of the Little Dipper (note, this star is pretty faint). But Polaris is not ON the north celestial pole, it is about 3/4° off of it, and so it, too, will etch out a very slight trail over a night.

That's if you are in the Northern Hemisphere. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, there is no "south pole star" that's visible to the naked eye.

This is only if you want the trails to be in a circle about a given point in space. All stars will appear to move over the course of the night so you can still get trails without finding a star on either celestial pole.

I hate to see this thread die off, it's such a good one, with so many answers.

I kept thinking, 1 hour = 15 degrees, what's with that, and finally I punched in 360 / 24 = 15 (DOH!) 360 degrees divided by 24 hours = 15 degrees per hour. :thumbup:

I wanted to try this digital, but don't have a remote for the 10D. I do have old SLRs and a watch. :lmao: Why not?

This is something I'm going to be doing this Summer when I'm out in the country, away from city lights. Should be interesting.