First night shot, I

First night shot, I'm hooked! But...

It was a particularly dark night with no moon or clouds to reflect light so I took a literal and proverbial shot in the dark. Here are the specs from the photo.

exposure 30"
iso 400
aperture 3.8
focal length 20mm

Now the photo itself did not turn out well (blur, trees, etc...) but I'm hooked so I need a bit of guidance.

First, I tried to focus using the eye piece - how do you guys get a night shot in focus? Auto won't do it; so what's the trick.

Second, I started in Live View, 10 second delay on shutter, and fired away. About half way through you can hear and feel a click in the camera and at the same moment the green light on the back of the camera will come on. I'm assuming this is adding blur to the picture. What is up with this mid point click? Suggestions?

Third, looking at my settings above what general suggestions can you make to help me learn this.

Try focusing on a much more sturdy subject such as a house or bldg. Trees can move if the wind blows it. I would use f8 focus on infinity, use a good and stable tripod. You can also try shooting from an overpass at night and take a picture of cars as they pass by.

Turn on your long exposure noise reduction. After the timer, it will take few more seconds to process the image. The camera cleans out the noise and you'll get a better final product.

One trick to getting the focus correct is too shoot at a high ISO for a short period and adjust the focus so that the stars are nice and sharp. I would also use ISO 100 and a low aperture. Here is something I found.

Photographing the Night Sky Using Your Digital SLR - For Dummies

Also if you have an iphone get the app starwalks its great for finding things in the night sky.

Looks a lot like my first attempt. Almost there, but focusing was a bear. The real answer in getting it right is raiding your ISO to the noise point (if only to save time) and waste some shots to get the focus right. From there, bring it back down. And if you want stars you're going to have to let the light in, so that means fast glass, open aperture and higher ISO than 100.

Here's a blog I've linked before with some tips. Six Standout Night Photography Tips to Help You Master the Craft ‹ PhotoShelter Blog

moab,im totally with you i got hooked on the night/astro photo so bad back in dec 2012 i went from just straight camera to a 300$ reflector telescope to a scope 10x that price now i just need some clear nights that im off work...lol....did i say huge learning curve. so now i have people wanting to learn from me...lol