Star shooting is hard!

So to be truthful I haven't really tried to shoot stars. I love shooting at night but mostly for light painting and panoramas. The following shot was done during a full moon which is not ideal for stars at all but the D800E has such an amazing dynamic range that it managed to pick quite a few up anyways. Please tell me what you think and be as disparaging and honest as possible. Don't sugar coat it on my behalf, lay it on me I can handle it. It will help me to learn new skills or techniques that I'm sure I need. So here it is.

It sure looses a lot when converted to jpeg. Oh well.

What is the light blue layer across the bottom? Is it a fog layer?

I love the earth layer at the bottom. It makes for a spectacular anchor for the photo as a whole. The blue color of the night and the color of the earth formation is spectacular. What takes away from this photo for me is that "fog" layer at the bottom or maybe it's from editing?

You really need to (and I really want to see it) just do this photo again when you don't have the moon to compete with.

What's the exif data for this shot?

Side note... You have some beautiful work on your Flicker page.

Great shot! Like it. That blue haze is interesting and I have the same questions Moab Man. Yet, that said, it adds a nice effect, highlighting the horizon.

Have been dabbling in astrophotography as well, but takes a lot more study then I have time for at the moment, a lot of patience and indeed equipment. Here is a little overview on what I tested - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA7FzKQyW5E
Shooting Jupiter is really neat, for you can get her moons as well!
Moon can be bad for shooting stars in general, but I like to also shoot the moon!

I thought the photo was pretty good. I have trouble doing them because the city lights shine a glow from behind the hills where I live. I suspect that the blue haze we see in you're photo is from a distant city?

I like the photo blue haze and all. Guess you are now part of the Paparazzi.

I've found that the stock 18-55mm lens that came with my D3200 just doesn't work for this kind of photography. It's nearly impossible to get it properly-focused at infinity.

I took these pictures using some of my ancient non-AI lenses from my F2.

Alas, I do not know for sure what lenses I used for these first two pictures.

Cassiopeia:




The Pleiades:




These other two pictures, I had the sense to save a comment in each one, indicating that I used by 50mm ƒ1.4 lens.

The handle of the Big Dipper:




This was with my camera laying flat on the ground, taking a picture of whatever stars were directly above:

Ok, Full disclosure.

It's not one exposure its 2. The main photo was done with my D800E and a 16-35mm F4 shot at F11 30 second exposure at ISO 1600. The second shot was done much the same way but ISO 800. I then layered them in CS6 exposing the mountain and foreground of the ISO 800 shot and using the sky of the ISO 1600 shot. The blue hue/haze is a low cloud reflecting the full moon glow over the long exposure. White balance set to incandescent on both exposures. I moved the contrast, exposure compensation, shadow protection and brightness on the 1600 ISO exposure in ViewNX2 while still in RAW file format. That's how I did it. Nothing else was added or deleted or even cropped.


P.S. Moab Man thank you for your kind words on my Flickr page. As most it's a work in progress.

With two different of my old non-AI lenses mounted on my D3200…

The Orion constellation
Nikkor 28mm ƒ3.5 lens, 10 seconds at ƒ3.5, ISO 400




Orion's sword, including the nebula
Vivitar 85-205mm ƒ3.8 zoom lens, at 205mm; 4 seconds at ƒ11, ISO 6400

Lol. That appears to be light pollution just above the landscape. ..lol all of us that try to shoot in the city get that from either extended shutter times or iso..nice pic.I wish I could get that little of lp

Here's Orion again. And below it, near the bottom of the picture, just to the left of the trees, is a bright star that must never be treated frivolously or taken lightly.

looks good bob,all your pics look good.out of curiosity what was the exif on the last one.unfortunately the trees showed up great lol.

I did show this picture before, but what the heck. This is a single exposure demonstrating the wide dynamic range of the sensor. I enhanced the stars in post-processing and converted to B&W, because sodium lamps create a really nasty colour in pictures. I think post-processing is important in this type of astrophotography. Increase the contrast and you will be amazed how many stars are in your picture!

With out a target object alot of my pics look like lint on black paper...lol

I agree with the title.

24mm f/2.2 44 secs x 16 images @ 800 iso. Plus 5 darks.

Toooo Blue



Better?

I like both shots for different reasons. ..the blue adds punch and the black and white is kind of timeless...imho

Getting better with stacking. The Milky Way is just beginning to peak out of the horizon, Saturn in lower right corner.

Better or worse?