The *Official Photography Thread*

Yay stars! I love doing these..even though they suck sometimes.

FTnBE?.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

 

What kind of software/equipment is needed to create something like this? I assume it's not just a single long exposure? If you have a link to a tutorial I would be greatful. Astronomical photography intrigues me but I'm afraid it takes lots of specialized equipment.

 

Not really anything super speacial.

I just have a Canon 60D and run Magic Lantern Firmware on it (its free) to use the Intervalometer on it. Then just a tripod, wide angle and flashlight. I use Photoshop for software. I have tried a few others but they do NOT work as well in a lot of way. StarStax is free though and works OK to get your foot in the door.

I shoot 100-200 even 300 frames at a time. 30 second exposure at a low apeture, i can only do 3.5-4.5 with my wide angle. I like doing 4 though but if you can get lower then great! I shoot at 1250 ISO. Then with the intervalometer it just takes photos back to back till 100 photos are reached. THen i stack them on top of each other. Getting it to look like i did takes a long time in post though. about 2-4 hours of work.

Alternatively, you can buy a 10 dollar IR remote and use Bulb mode on you camera instead. In this version, you just use the remote to open the shutter and let it sit for 30 mins or up to 2 hours. This is trickier to get just right but ive had success doing it as well. You use a lower iso and around F4 and an hour and you'll get some cool star trails.

I just found that Magic Lantern can make bulb mode shoot at specified times too so i could set it up to do 60-90 second exposures to lower my iso and still use the intervalometer.

If you shoot Nikon some come with a intervalometer built in or you'll have to buy and external remote one.



Then...its practice. A lot of it. I have spent a LOT of time trying to get these photos and even more editing them. It does pay off but you will screw up a LOT before getting what you want.

I don't have any tutorials off hand, but i do remember watching a few, but none where really THAT good or helpful save for one...i will look for it.

 

That's you?? I had something more.... pirate like in mind

Nice photo though, happy owner and happy pup, can't beat that.

 

I have a $20 wired remote with a built in intervalometer. I usually shoot at a smaller aperture though for sharpness and large depth of field.

 

Just go out and try what Monte told you. The only way I've found to get it figured out is to just go out and try it. If you've never done long exposures before grab the fastest lens you have and open it up some and just set your camera to say a 10 second exposure. Not light enough? Make it 20 seconds or 30 seconds. Still not light enough? Bump your ISO up some and try again. You'll learn a lot by just getting out there and trying it. You can do all this with most any camera because all DSLR's I've seen will go to a 30 second exposure before you have to switch to bulb mode. What camera do you shoot?

It becomes a lot of fun with the remotes too when you you can use them to time your exposures. They come in wired and wireless remotes. Mainly depends what all you want to do with them. I use mine for night shots and also for family pictures be cause I can hide the remote in my pocket and have a 2 second delay before the shutter clicks to get my hands back in position after hitting the fire button or I've even kept the remote in my hand with my arms crossed for a self portrait.

 

I wouldn't mind doing a smaller aperture. But my camera looks like dog shit above 1250 iso. If i could do 4000+ id do like f8 probably.

exactly. Tons of trail and error. I bet i do a lot of stuff some people do and plenty that they don't. Just kinda figured it out.

It is hard to invest the time for it. Weather has to corporate and you have to wait a long time or leave the camera somewhere. Always something. I bet i only got 1 photo out of every 3-5 attempts at first.

 

Yeah, but look what all you learned with that 1 out of 5 attempts. You get where you want to take another one now and can pretty much look at the scene and know where to start and nail it the first time or at least be right on it. I fell in love with night photography after my first one that came out right. I would almost rather take night shots now than daylight ones.

Yes, weather can suck for a long shot duration and actually ruin it if it decides to start raining and you're not prepared for it with a non weather sealed camera and cover for it. But then you can have a awesome time-lapse of the storm coming it so its win win.

 

This was one I took when I first started messing around with night photography. I was at work and bored so I went out behind the station set the camera at ISO 100 f/1.8 and I believe this one was around a 2 minute exposure. The full moon make it look like daylight outside. It's slightly out of focus because it was so dark I couldn't really see to get the camera focused (I used a cheap led light to try to focus). But I just decided to go out and play around with it and see what I could do. This was about my 3rd attempt.

 

yea focus is one of the pains for sure. If im doing a truck i just turn the lights on and use that.

Or try and get the sky or sun just before it gets too dark.

 

I shoot with a Nikon D5100. My fastest lens is the 35mm 1.8f.

 

not a super wide lens, but you can still shoot with that! Give it a try.

 

That will be great to start with. After to get the hang of it some you can move to the slower lenses and find out you can do the same thing with them it just takes longer or you have to bump the ISO up to begin with. I'm not sure of all the features on the D5100 because I've never owned one but I know the higher up camera's have the intervalometer in them so that one may be up there enough to have it too. Check the old manual and see what ya got in it. That will help if you want to do some of the star trails like Monte does.

 

Yea, they when you figure out how to shoot them, come back and ill give you tips on editing...cause that is a whole other beast to tackle.

 

New panoramas from a different island in the Galapagos!

You can see the small crater in the water in this one:
Bartolome Island by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

Bartolome Island by Kevin Shaw, on Flickr

 

Thanks, Ben!
I have a ton of bird photos posted in the birding thread, by the way.

 

Very nice Kevin!

 

Once I get a 6D I can go above 800 lmao. T2i isn't working too well for that.

 

yea about 400 with a t2i is about the max i think haha

get what you pay for...

 

That just sucks. I could go to about 1600 maybe 2000 with my crop frame before having to worry about it.

I've had a usable image up to 10,500 or 12,500 something like that. Not blow up and print worthy but post on the interwebs and screen worthy.