Long exposure time.... Help! !

Welcome to the forum.

Could you explain a little bit more about your timer? What do you mean by "I've plugged my timer in"? What timer? Did you use interval timer in camera?

First, you may want to do some reading up on settings for star trails. At f3.5 you're likely going to want to boost your ISO to allow as much light as possible. ISO 800 or even 1600 may give you more light with noise that can easily be accommodated in post. Second, make sure long exposure NR is turned off. If not, you'll get 30 seconds of shot and 30 seconds of waiting when you want to be shooting.

As for your problem, I suspect your timer and your settings. You have the timer controlling both interval and shutter speed, since your camera is set to bulb. Is it possible that your timer engaged bulb but never disengaged it? In two hours that leaves you with no shot and a burned out battery. Is it also possible that you accidentally set the long exposure time to 30 minutes and not 30 seconds? 30 minutes with 30 minutes of long exposure NR could also drain your battery.

It's always best to test that first shot, and then stick around for the first 4 or 5 on the timer to make sure it's doing what you expected it to do. There are far too many stories of simply pushing a button walking away and wondering what happened for me to believe that people didn't do that. You would have known in under a minute that it wasn't working properly, and if say that you did and it was when you left then you would have gotten at least one more image on the card.

Not related to the battery, charge it before starting such a plan. But if using an interval timer, you need to be aware that the camera shutter at 30 seconds is actually exactly 32 seconds (you can time it to verify true. it is correct and normal). Timer interval should be 33 seconds.

hello, Thanks for your response.

It was a timer my husband bought for me after I did a bit of reading up and discovered the maximum exposure on this camera is 30". Sorry it's an Amazon link!! But I've set it to a two hour exposure!

THANKS x

Andoer® Viltrox Time Lapse Intervalometer Timer: Amazon.co.uk: Camera & Photo

If you had set the camera shutter to Bulb instead of 30 seconds (Bulb is open as long as it is held open), then the two hours should have worked, for as long as the battery held up.

THANKS! that makes total sense now I feel like a numpty. I've been pouring over a low light level photography book I have a couldn't see where I was going wrong. Much appreciated xx

There are three ways to do the long exposure of star trails.

Bulb shutter for a very long time. 3 hours is often suggested (1/4 of a hemisphere revolution). However, if the battery should run down during this long exposure, I'm not at all sure that the image can get saved then (if the battery quits). It possibly may not work then, unless you are able to stop it before the battery goes? Or the shutdown firmware could know to save the image first? The camera OFF button does know that, maybe it is the same code? It could be a few stacked one hour exposures, with fresh batteries each time. You can watch the battery status meter while it runs.

An interval timer, taking many 30 second images stacked. Your timer should do these intervals, there are several such knockoffs of the Nikon MC-36 timer, which it basically is. Important to realize 30 second shutter means 32 seconds actual though, so the interval must be 33 seconds (else you miss frames and get trail gaps). You will need software to stack them.

Or just a simple remote cord with a holding slide switch on the button is all that is needed. Use maybe 30 second shutter with CL or CH continuous shutter. Use the cord slide switch to keep the cord button depressed, and it will continue taking pictures until you stop it, or the battery runs down. Simpler than the interval timer (but no automatic stopping point).

I am not much into star trails (don't know much), but it is generally considered that there are noise improvements by stacking many images, because it sort of averages out much of the noise.

There is some good info online...

star trails bulb interval - Google Search

WayneF said:

There are three ways to do the long exposure of star trails.

An interval timer, taking many 30 second images stacked. Your timer should do these intervals, there are several such knockoffs of the Nikon MC-36 timer, which it basically is. Important to realize 30 second shutter means 32 seconds actual though, so the interval must be 33 seconds (else you miss frames and get trail gaps).

Or just a simple remote cord with a holding slide switch on the button is all that is needed. Use maybe 30 second shutter with CL or CH continuous shutter. Use the cord slide switch to keep the cord button depressed, and it will continue taking pictures until you stop it, or the battery runs down. Simpler than the interval timer (but no automatic stopping point).

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WayneF said:

Using an intervalometer and leaving a gap of 1 second can leave gaps in your star trails even with gap filling turned on in StarStax.

The best and easiest way is as suggested above but the camera will not continue taking pictures as suggested as most Nikon camera's have a maximum continuous shoot of 100 frames. You can however simply unlock and relock the remote cord at any time (even during an exposure) and this will reset the picture count.

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MartinCornwall said:

The best and easiest way is as suggested above but the camera will not continue taking pictures as suggested as most Nikon camera's have a maximum continuous shoot of 100 frames. You can however simply unlock and relock the remote cord at any time (even during an exposure) and this will reset the picture count.

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You're right, I missed that. But 100 frames is 53 minutes if at 32 seconds, and it could be reset at any convenient time. May want to check battery then too.

Utilize ambient lighting and even the moon to light up your foreground interest. The following shot is a 1hour long stack under a quarter moon with no additional extra long exposure for the foreground. All shots 15secs ISO400 f2.8.