Why do my night sky pics look like crap?

480sparky · Dec 10, 2011

Starskream666 said:
How did you know that??? Tbh i don't know what the EV means or changes

I'm psychic. You wear boxers, not briefs, you had Fruit Loops for breakfast yesterday, and you need a haircut.

No, seriously: it's called metadata..... information about your camera, lens & settings that recorded with the image:

Camera Maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D80
Lens: 35.0-80.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Image Date: 2011-12-10
Focal Length: 80mm (35mm equivalent: 120mm)
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: -1.00 EV
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined
Software: Ver.1.01

What I listed in bold above means you have somehow set your camera to underexpose the shot by 1 EV (Exposure Value). This is one 'stop'.

Download Opanda, a free 'reader' for this.

Starskream666 · Dec 10, 2011

Ahh cool yeah but i don't know how you actually got to see the meta data. So how would i change that? Or are you gonna tell me to look it up haha.

480sparky · Dec 10, 2011

Starskream666 said:
Ahh cool yeah but i don't know how you actually got to see the meta data. So how would i change that? Or are you gonna tell me to look it up haha.

Change what.... The data?

Why?

Starskream666 · Dec 10, 2011

No.. the EV

cgipson1 · Dec 10, 2011

YOu also shot it at F/5.6, If you had shot at a smaller aperture and slower shutter speed, it would be sharper.... say 125 at F11.

The -1 EV that Sparky mentioned means that your camera was set to underexpose the shot by -1 on the exposure compensation setting.

Every digital photo has information saved in it, about how it was shot (unless that info is stripped out somehow). It is called Exif data... and there a viewers for it.

I guess you didn't google "hyperfocal distance", did you? lol!

It does look a lot better than your previous effort though!