Starlight photographs - how do you get them right????

A

actionward

Senior Member
Afternoon all,

I am starting to get good with my camera (well I think so! lol) and was away at the lakes this weekend and decided to give a try and at getting a starlight photo.

I have mixed feelings over the results, I dont seem to be able to get it right and have tried messing with the different settings. The best one I got was the one below which I think was an ISO of about 250, F3.5 and shutter speed of 15 secs. What am i doing wrong? is the orangy sky due to maybe light pollution?

I would love to hear other people ideas and see what they have maybe achieved with their cameras.

Thanks

DSC_0229.jpg
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
actionward said:
Afternoon all,

I am starting to get good with my camera (well I think so! lol) and was away at the lakes this weekend and decided to give a try and at getting a starlight photo.

I have mixed feelings over the results, I dont seem to be able to get it right and have tried messing with the different settings. The best one I got was the one below which I think was an ISO of about 250, F3.5 and shutter speed of 15 secs. What am i doing wrong? is the orangy sky due to maybe light pollution?

I would love to hear other people ideas and see what they have maybe achieved with their cameras.

Thanks

View attachment 31676
Click to expand...

The reddish brown tinge is due to ambient light (pollution), yes. I would suggest you try using the "Tungsten" setting in the White Balance menu. Also, up the ISO to 400, 800, 1600 even. Then use a wide aperture and turn on Noise Reduction if it's not on by default. Focus = infinity. From there just bracket your shots (e.g. shoot at 1 sec, 2 sec, 4 sec etc.) until you start seeing good results.
 
A

actionward

Senior Member
Many thanks, I was worried I was just a bad photographer! I never thought to change the white balance, I will remember that next time and try pick somewhere with a little less light pollution and try those settings.

Thanks again
 
R

Rexer John

Senior Member
Not a bad photo at all, lots of stars visible and colour balance look ok to me.
Betelgeuse is the reddish star, as it should be.
Light pollution will show up on long exposures even if it looks ok to the eye. Stars also show up a lot more than the eye can see. A lot can be helped with post production, adjusting contrast etc.
Jupiter is drawing the eye, distracting but nice.
 
SkvLTD

SkvLTD

Senior Member
Though, it looks a tad tad funny to me for ISO of only 250.... does light pollution crap on the shots that much?
 
M

Moab Man

Senior Member
I shoot 8-10 seconds at my lowest aperture and usually ISO of 200-400. I then use the raw editor when I open the file in photoshop to pull the sky back to black due to light pollution. All my shots have been from in the city suburbs at nearly 5,000 ft.
 
SkvLTD

SkvLTD

Senior Member
Moab Man said:
I shoot 8-10 seconds at my lowest aperture and usually ISO of 200-400. I then use the raw editor when I open the file in photoshop to pull the sky back to black due to light pollution. All my shots have been from in the city suburbs at nearly 5,000 ft.
Click to expand...

Link to any posts with your shots? I feel we could use a sample for the settings.
 
S

snaphappy

Senior Member
In the learning photography area and Low light topic there is a great thread started by wahugg (sp??) that I found very interesting and helpful

Tonight I had no moon and was taking pics of nothing but the stars (no foreground) on a dark no moon night. My best pic I got was with iso 200, f1.8 ev0 and 8 sec exp a couple nights ago I did the northern lights and did mostly iso 200, f1.8 ev+4 and 30exp. I don't have light room just my iphoto for pp. Go through the low light topics I'm sure you'll pick up tips I know enjoyed reading through the threads and seeing peoples images. Good luck low light is so much fun the thrill of waiting to see if you got the long exposures correctly set up is exciting :)

I hope this works but this was the thread I found alot of intersting info in http://nikonites.com/low-light-night/7733-star-photography-one-one.html
 
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