What camera are you shooting with?

Film

1. Canon ae-1
2. Fujica st801
3. Ikoflex iia medium format
4. Yashica Autofocus S
5. Minolta x-370
6. Minolta Hi-Matic 7S rangefinder
7. Other various 35mm film cameras I come across and aquire. I love film

Digital
Canon t2i

 

5DII and 7D

 

I see this thread is dead as it's been a year since the last reply. Anyway, I'm a new member here so I have an excuse to "dig it up". I'm primarily a new shooter and only got into photography in 2015. I purchased a Nikon D5100 when it first came out and I didn't have a clue how to use it. I started in "Auto" and shot in .jpeg. I met up with a few local photographers and they set me straight from day 1. Get your ass out of Auto and shoot in RAW. I started to shoot in Aperture priority but have since moved to manual mode. I prefer to select the ISO, Aperture, and shutter speed myself. I now shoot with a full frame Nikon D750 and a Nikon D810. I have several FX lenses and speedlights. I'm about to jump into strobes.

 

......I was going to reply but now I just feel out gunned.lol
I am just getting started. I'm using a Nikon D5500 with a 55mm-300mm and a 35mm.

 

Don't feel out gunned. Once you get into photography you find out where you want to take it and what tools you need to get the results you want. You may end up completely satisfied with the D5500. It all depends on what you want out of photography. Some of us really get into it and find out we need better tools for the way we like to shoot. I shot with two bodies for a while but in the end I found out I only needed one so I sold my crop frame and kept the full frame. I do a lot of shooting at night so low light ability was more important to me than a smaller body and I wanted more dynamic range. This is also my 33rd year shooting so I've learned quite a bit over the years as to what I want out of a camera.

 

Might as well update this while I'm here.

I'm using a Nikon D800 with Nikon 24-70 2.8, Nikon 70-200 2.8 and Nikon 50mm 1.8. Multiple flashes / strobes and remote gear. Have a few umbrella's and one of the 7' parabolic umbrella's with 2 light stands. I bought one of the Flashbender's a while back but haven't had a chance to play with it.










My old film setup.

 

Thought this was the most appropriate thread to post this question. My fiance and are are getting married this summer and doing a honeymoon to yellowstone and surrounding national parks. We thought it might be a good idea to get each other a decent camera as a wedding gift. Neither one of us have used a camera outside of the shitty iPhone. So, beginner would most likely be a compliment at this point.

What are some suggestions for cameras for beginners? Easy to use, affordable, etc. Again, I know nothing about cameras other than women DO care about the size of the megapixel haha (for the impractical jokers fans out there)

 

As far as Nikon goes a 3xxx or 5xxx series camera would be a good start and not break the bank. You can get them in a kit with a couple lenses and pretty much get you started right out of the box. I've never used a Canon so I can't speak about them other than knowing a little about their upper end camera's.

 

Thank you! I'll have to take a look at these. This would be exactly what we are looking for though. Ready to use out of the box.

 

For the Canon side I would recommend looking at the Rebel series. They are around 18 megapixels now and have enough advanced features for you to learn shooting without going overboard or breaking the bank. I would resist buying a "better" camera body to start and instead invest the difference in money in a higher quality lens. For a place like Yellowstone and other western National Parks you can look into a wider angle for landscape and a zoom for wildlife. Canon has refurbished L series lenses on their own website which offer the best bang for the buck. My 24-105L is a refurbished model and you would never know it.

Costco has a T6 two lens bundle with case for $549.99 right now. It is 18 MP which is plenty to get you started. I used a Rebel for about 7 years before upgrading the body. During that time I invested in better lenses which made a big difference in the quality of photos. My Rebel was 12 MP and I was able to print some very nice 20x30 prints on both paper and metal.

As for Canon vs Nikon? Honestly, check to see what close friends or family have. They can offer advice and guidance as well as hopefully answer questions and most importantly maybe they will have a lens you can borrow for your trip. Lenses are not interchangeable between brands. It may be best for you and your fiance to get the same brand so you can swap lenses and make the most of your experience. Either way, take a look at Costco as they usually have camera and lens bundles for both Canon and Nikon. Be sure to physically pick up the camera as well since the entry level bodies tend to be smaller and may not be as comfortable to use if you have large hands.

 

Good info! Thank you!

 

Sorry about the delayed response!
Without having very much experience in photography my opinion is limited but I feel like the d5500 has a ton room for me to grow into. I am especially surprised at the clarity of the 1.8 35mm. For such a cheap lens the pictures are SO crisp. Right now I'm mostly shooting landscapes. I would LOVE to shoot star trails and stuff like that but I feel like a full sensor is best at those.
Since you have so much more experience than I do I have a question for you if you don't mind. I live close to some mountains and I like shooting the mountain rivers and creeks but all of my images are coming out really cold. Is there a way to fix this on my camera or is that all done in editing? Because for the life of me I can't get the colors to come out right.

 

Been a while since this thread has come up... still shooting wildlife with some landscapes here and there. Shooting a 1Dx2 and 7D2 as my crop body for extra reach. My 600mm II is my main lens and then I usually have the 100-400II and 7D on my side if I need the versatility.

 

You should be able to do it in camera with the d5500. Take a picture and if it looks to cold, you can adjust your white balance within the menu to warm it up. There should be a custom WB function.

 

Is your white balance not set on auto? That could cause everything to come out cold if it's adjusted towards the cold end. I shoot in RAW so I can adjust mine in post if the auto white balance didn't do it right. For the most part it usually does pretty good on my camera.

Go ahead and shoot star trails with your camera it will do fine. You can do them as 30 second exposures and stitch them together to make it look like one exposure then you won't have to deal with the noise that a hot sensor can cause. I can't remember the software that you use for it but it's on the net and it's free. Monte @Blackdawg has used it and can tell you what it's called and how it's used.

Best advice I can give you about new things is get out there and do them. You're not going to learn sitting on the computer reading about them. Get out there and do it and learn from your mistakes. Night photography is awesome and probably my favorite time to take photo's. Play with time exposures and make sure you have a good solid tripod especially for star trails. All it takes is one bit of movement to mess up a lot of time spent out there trying to get something.

If you'd like to talk about something feel free to shoot me a PM. I'll help you any way I can. Sorry for not seeing your reply earlier.

 

I'm on the road. Can show you how to shoot great night photos with that camera. Will be home tonight with a how too.

 

Okay.

So first of all. Star photography takes a LOT of effort. It is not for the faith of heart. But if you put in the time you can get stuff like this:


The Lake by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Comets by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
M~D~U-134.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr



These are all shot with my Canon 60D. It's a nice camea but definietly not an awesome one. Probably not even as nice as your 5200..but im not sure. I am not a Nikon guy.

Star photography is 2 seperate parts. The shot itself and then the editing.


For shooting, the best thing to do is to get out and shoot! You need to learn your cameras strengths and weaknesses. This is important so you can get the right stills to stack later. My camera gets nice star images shoot 30 sec-f3.5 or f4.5-ISO1250. Because our cameras are NOT full frame, you will really want to try and keep the ISO down. If you have a FF body you could shoot at ISO8000 or higher no problem. Can't do that with your camera, the noise will be awful and blacks will be gross.

That is why you do stacks!

Stacking photos allows you to reduce the noise your camera shows and increase the darks which is what you want for the star shots. To do this you'll need an Intervalometer. I use a firmware "hack" known as Magic Lantern. I think that is only for Canon cameras though sadly...which is a shame as its free and allows you to do tons of stuff. So you'll need to purchase on that plugs into the camera. Our good friend Murph @medic2230 can help you there as he is a Nikon guy. Then you need to learn to use it of course. The idea is to shoot 20-500 frames. Now you don't NEED 500 frames. Usually you only need about 40-70 to do basic trails. If you want the crazy spiral ones then 100-200 is good there. I always shoot 100-200 frames due to clouds. If cloud roll in and then out i can usually always find 40-50 frames in sequence that don't have clouds or have very few to still make the shot count.

So now that you know what parameters your camera likes(by that i mean what ISO works well, you'll almost ALWAYS do 30sec exposures and have to have the aperture below f4.5. But some intervalometer will allow you to fire frames at longer exposures like 60-120sec or whatever) and you know your intervalometer. Go do a test run. Which is harder then it sounds. For one, you need a LOT of time. I mean 200 frames x 30 seconds is 6000 seconds...aka 1 hour and 35ish minutes. So you need a lot of time to do this. You will want a tripod obviously, the heavier the better, and a place to shoot. The place is very important. You will want to be as FAR way from any artificial light as possible. Then you will want it to be dark as hell. It is usually darkest between 12am and 3am.

You see why this isn't for the faith of heart

That said, you can get some great stuff if you can find places away from towns and all from 10pm-12am. Im spoiled in Wy and getting away isn't really that hard.

There are other things to consider, one is the lens you're using. Wider is always better. A 35mm lens isn't going to capture a lot of the sky very well. On top of that, it will be very hard to focus. If you have a lens with a manual dial you can just set it to infinity. If you don't, you have to focus it before you shoot. Couple options here. 1 is to focus on the sun before it goes down and tape the focus ring on the lens so it won't move and then switch it to manual focus. 2nd, is to use a wide ass lens I generally shoot with a 10mm for star stuff. Never wider then 18mm though. 10 is nice because even at f3.5 or f4.5 you can use a flash light and focus on your object in the foreground. Due to the width, it'll hide focus of the stars well so they won't look too burry.

Which also brings us to finding a nice foreground. You want something semi interesting. You should experiment with light painting the foreground as well because you can in fact stack you foreground exposures as well. The 2nd and 3rd photo i posted are about 3-6 photos for the foreground and 40-60 for the stars for instance.

After shooting the foreground. Turn off EVERYTHING in the area, and start your intervalometer. Then, take a nap or whatever while you wait haha I've done it where i just went to bed and then woke up at 3am to go get the camera. Unless you're worried about weather, then you'll want to stay awake. Which is something you should try and look at when planning your shot.

So if everything works out, you'll eventually get to the point you'll get the frames captured you need. Then you have to edit.


There is a free application called StarStax you can try. But honestly, its rudimentary and it processes things terrible. I hated it.

The REAL way to get shit to look good..is Photoshop. It's pretty much the only major thing i do with Photoshop as i use LR most of the time otherwise. It is pretty simple to do in PS really. But once again, VERY time consuming. Again, the 2nd and 3rd photo i posted took about 3-4 hours to make. Which partly is due to my semi slow computer. You'll need something with a lot of RAM. I have 16Gb and sometimes i wish i had more.

I can walk you through how to do an edit in PS when you're ready or want to know. But it takes a long time. I could make a video of it if you wanted at some point. but first you need some camera time and practice with that first.

But essentially you load the frames you want and then only allow the light of the frames through. There are lots of little tricks and things to do to make them look decent though and stitching in the foreground too.

Sorry thats a long read..haha But you can totally take star trails with the camera you have! It just takes a lot of effort and time. But I always love the end results. Granted, i've shot a lot of them that turned out useless..half of it is luck as you're at the mercy of mother nature most the time haha

There is another way you can do star trails too. And thats using Bulb mode. Bulb mode means you have manual control of the shutter exposure. So you can literally open the shutter and leave it open for as long as you want. Like up to hours if you wanted.

I've done that too, this is about 45 mins or so:


First Swirl by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr


I am not a fan of this way especially with our cameras. Stacking allows you to do some nice editing too like removing airplane streaks easily. And controlling the foreground better.


Other tips are winter is the best time as the air is cold and crisp. And of course, being at higher elevations helps a lot too.

To get the spiral look you want to have the North Star in the frame always or near the edges. This proves VERY useful in editing too to make the starts look more smooth and not so jagged.

What it really comes down too it going out and doing it though and learning YOUR gear. The better you know your own stuff the better you'll be. That camera is pretty powerful. It will deliver i promise , you just have to learn to manipulate it.




Whew..long read.


Hope that was a bit helpful. Again, if you get to the point you're ready to edit, lemme know. Be happy to help there too. Get out and shoot!

 

I didn't even think of checking that. I may have had it set for indoor shooting and didn't change it back. I'll try it as soon as I can get away from work and let you know.

Man, I don't even know how to reply to your post.lol You answered questions I didn't know I had. I appreciate you spending the time it took you to put all of that together. Definitely an informative read with some amazing photos! I've only had a little bit of practice with night photography but like you said I was fighting wth city lights and clouds. Here when it warms up I'll get out in the mountains and see what I can come up with with this post opened up next to me. A few months ago I was debating on getting Light Room but I think you just confirmed it.

 

Hey man glad to help and inspire. Looking forward to what you can come up with!

Also, Light Room is GREAT but it will not do the photo stacking any more. Well.. LR5 doesn't. LR4 used too i haven't been following what LR6 will do. I use PS to do the stacking and first color edits. Then LR to finish it and upload to flickr.

 

New to photography and just bought our 1st DSLR camera a couple months ago. Shooting with a Nikon D5300 and loving it so far! Just took this shot of the snow falling outside. Unfortunealy I used an editing app for the light..