Taking photos of the stars

charlotte1992

New member
Hi

Sorry if this has already been asked. I want to get into astrophotography with my new d3100 camera and tripod. I have only just got it so I was wondering if anyone can give me advice on what settings I should be using. I also only have 18-55 lens, will this be ok just for getting used to it?

Thanks
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Hi
I also only have 18-55 lens, will this be ok just for getting used to it?

Thanks

Yes, you can use a kit lens to shoot the stars. The hardest challenge you face is that at night you won't be able to get it focused. So here is what you do.

1. Aperture wide open
2. Lens at 18mm
3. ISO anywhere from 1600-4000
4. Need to be as far away from city lights as possible. Maybe hit that puddle that surrounds your country and swim a good ways out heading west. East will not work so well as you will run into other countries.
5. No moon, unless you're shooting the moon. The moon is far brighter than you realize and will wash things out.
6. During the day, or just before dark, go outside and focus on the farthest thing you can find. Once the focus is set, switch the lens to manual and put a piece of blue painters tape (here in America it's called blue painters tape, it's blue and it's used for painting in the house) on the lens barrel and across the focus ring. This will prevent it from losing infinity focus.
7. Mount camera on tripod
8. Switch camera to live view
9. Trigger camera either by remote or use the self-timer. You want nothing to bump or jiggle the camera to include the neck strap swinging around.
10. If you have a UV filter over your lens to protect it, as I do, remove it. The lens filter can cause unwanted reflections. However, I would actually do this part before I set my focus for the evening. Unscrewing it could move your focus ring.

Finally, post up some pictures once you shoot some. You may not have ideal conditions right now, but shoot stars on any given night just so you learn what all is involved. Experience in the worst conditions will teach you so much that will really help when you have ideal conditions.
 

WhiteLight

Senior Member
To add to the above, you would need a shutter speed of around 20-25 secs at least..
Experiment. It's a lot of fun.
Moab and Dave have some awesome milkyway pics here
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
To add to the above, you would need a shutter speed of around 20-25 secs at least..

Thanks WhiteLight, LOL, I completely walked right over and past a shutter speed.

The higher the ISO (more ISO noise) the shorter the shutter needs to be open and the less movement the stars (star trails) give you.

Lower the ISO (lower ISO noise) the longer the shutter needs to be open but the stars start to move giving you star trails.

This was a three minute exposure to get the star trails.
 

Attachments

  • Day168StarTrail.jpg
    Day168StarTrail.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 287

charlotte1992

New member
Thanks everyone for your advice it is all very helpful. I will put on a pic once I can get a night when I can see some stars, it is really cloudy at the moment.
 

patrick in memphis

Senior Member
Feel free to email me I use my d3100 for astrophotos as just cam or I can hook onto my telescope.also look in low light and night photography for more on this its under learning photography forum.sincerely patrick
 

patrick in memphis

Senior Member
dsc_0029.jpg
dsc_0474.jpg
021.jpg
Hi charlotte, All three of these i shot with just the camera the one of the moon i used my 55-300mm lens.the other two were the 18-55mm kit lens.Again if i can be of help just [email protected]ely patrick p.s. if you look in my gallery i believe the exif/metadata is there with all the camera setting i used for these photos
 

patrick in memphis

Senior Member
hi charrlotte, just an fyi i use a couple of free programs to help find things first is tonightssky.com you will have to google your long and lat then enter them then field of view and time zone then pick what degree of difficulty (use lower options i.e. binocular or easy)and last what you would like to see and it will make a list of objects.then the second program is stellarium it will simlate a night sky and then you can slect how you want to view with or without constellations for reference)then click on left side and select mag glass and type in object desired and it will find it and show you the time it will appear in view for you and where.lol or you can use an istone(iphone) or android both have free programs in market for finding star charts it just depends on how serious you want to get
 

charlotte1992

New member
I went out tonight for the first time and tried shooting some stars. I got some but I dont think i managed to focus properly, I tried manually focusing but through live view and I could not see anything to focus on through that as the screen was not showing up. any stars, how can i solve this? also everyones advice was very useful in this DSC_0023.jpgDSC_0047.jpgDSC_0027.jpgDSC_0039.jpgDSC_0045.jpg
 

WayneF

Senior Member
You can focus if you first zoom the Live View LCD screen (same as zoom in playback) to make it greatly larger, which will then show the stars, which you can then manually focus for maximum contrast (to be the smallest brightest view).
 

Dave_W

The Dude
The trick is to take your camera/lens out during the day and focus on the farthest thing you can see and make a mental note of where that is on the little window at the top of your lens. Then when you're out shooting at night you simply turn the AF off and set your lens to that point. Viola!
 

charlotte1992

New member
Ok thanks, I think i did what you have mentioned waynef but my screen was too dark to see anything at all so i will try that again tomorrow night along with dave ws suggestion
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
6. During the day, or just before dark, go outside and focus on the farthest thing you can find. Once the focus is set, switch the lens to manual and put a piece of blue painters tape (here in America it's called blue painters tape, it's blue and it's used for painting in the house) on the lens This will prevent it from losing infinity focus.

What he said.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
Hi, Charlotte

I found a lot of useful info on this site: Nightscape Photography 101 | Mike Salway

Here may be a better one: How to Photograph the Milky Way | lonely speck

Ok thanks, I think i did what you have mentioned waynef but my screen was too dark to see anything at all so i will try that again tomorrow night along with dave ws suggestion

Should work easily. Make sure your lens is wide open (depth of field in not a problem. :) )
 

Kias

Senior Member
There's a little light from the church about 3/4 mile away from me. I let it autofocus on that, then flip it to manual and don't touch the focus ring. That's the only thing different that I do that hasn't already been said here.

I think the biggest thing to shooting the sky at night is to just get out there and do it. You'll start to get "in tune" with the sky and sort of know what settings you need, or at least know what you should try.

If you keep shooting, you will learn. It's inevitable.

Here's one of the first ones I did.
20130712-_1RB8427.jpg


Here's one a little bit later.
20130713-_1RB8473.jpg


Continuing my Journey
20130719-_1RB8497.jpg


I did this not too long ago
20130811-_1RB9167.jpg


This was my last attempt
20130901-_1RB9645_6_7.jpg


I think I've gotten better over time. I hope anyway... So, the number one recommendation I can come up with, is to just get out there and do it! You now have all the basics on the settings you need, get out there and try them! Do variations on the settings, change things up, see what the changes do, it really will help! I went from taking a hundred exposures to get the first photo I posted, to taking only four for the last one I posted.

​Go forth and shoot! I'm actually headed out there tonight if the sky holds up for me!
 
Last edited:
Top