night skies-

I went camping this weekend at a place called Starland recreation area- so it seemed fitting that I should try a few night shots.

I should have researched it before going, but I was busy with other things.. so...
The shots I did take were not very interesting or impressive.

I didn't have much patience to experiment that night as the mosquitos were brutal.

I used a tripod, set camera to M and played with shutter speed from 'bulb' to 20" I think I set distance to infinity and let camera autofocus.

I do not have remote release.. I now realise I could have used timer to avoid the shake

but- didn't think of that.

Anyway- I've seen some fantastic night sky pictures (fireworks - Aurora boreallis etc)

Samples of what I'd like to capture


How do I go about capturing some night sky pictures without loosing image to noise?

How can I focus on what I want in the dark?


Here are the pictures I did take- these are after I tried cleaning them up.. so not even close to what I'd like.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q...IMG_9774-1.JPG
ISO: 800
Exposure: 30.0 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 10mm
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7...IMG_9776-1.JPG
SO: 800
Exposure: 30.0 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 10mm
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...IMG_9783-1.jpg
ISO: 800
Exposure: 41.0 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 14mm
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-g...IMG_9780-1.JPG
ISO: 800
Exposure: 43.0 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 14mm
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...IMG_9788-1.JPG
ISO: 800
Exposure: 53.0 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 14mm

I'm by no means an expert, but IIRC you want to shoot at low ISO. Long exposure already adds noise, you dont want to add high ISO noise. You were right about the timer, also add mirror lockup.
Getting the exposure right for both the sky and the nearby lights is difficult, try to stay away from any artificial light sources.
What do you mean by "set to infinity and let the camera autofocus"? Did you focus manually or auto focus? The few times I played around with this, the camera could not auto focus (too much light pollution and stars not bright enough)

Arnt

Agreed. Light pollution is a bad thing when doing long exposures. Good shots are usually found far away from everyone else. Stacking pics with dark frames usually yields the best results. Daniel would be a better person to talk to you than my limited knowledge though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahab1372

What do you mean by "set to infinity and let the camera autofocus"? Did you focus manually or auto focus?

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I manually adjusted the focusing ring to ∞ but left the lens on Autofocus.


Light pollution makes sense to me. For a shot of the aurora I won't be including artificial sources if I can avoid it.



for the last shot I suppose I could have 'painted' the bus with light, used a secondary light sources to briefly highlight the bus.


Thanks, I welcome more comments, It gets me thinking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jrw

The shots where you have the night sky and the lights from the campsites are really tough to do as the dynamic range is excessive. If you want to improve those shots I'd suggest timing it for just after sunset when the sky is still quite bright.

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yes that would make sense. These shots were between 12:30 and 1 am when the socializing was over and most went to their buses..

the 5:30 am shot low light with sun behind the hills provided more detail without alteration
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F...0/IMG_9792.jpg
ISO: 1250
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 10mm

This is somewhat my forte ;) I've done a fair amount of trial and error at night.

I'll write something up on some of my techniques and post it once done, hopefully it can help you out.

Noise is always an issue, there's a few things you can do here.

Also, I'm loving that Kombi! I've just got a hold of a 67 split screen shell that's in really good nick. Will be putting my Subaru liberty's motor in it but not for a couple of years as I'm about to head overseas. The HQ GTS Monaro will be getting sold to fund it, I envision a massive project.

(Sorry to hijack BTW - I'm just loving Kombis at the moment!)

Ben

Quote:

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Originally Posted by btaylor

This is somewhat my forte ;) I've done a fair amount of trial and error at night.

I'll write something up on some of my techniques and post it once done, hopefully it can help you out.

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Look forward to reading it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by btaylor

Also, I'm loving that Kombi! I've just got a hold of a 67 split screen shell that's in really good nick. Will be putting my Subaru liberty's motor in it but not for a couple of years as I'm about to head overseas. The HQ GTS Monaro will be getting sold to fund it, I envision a massive project.

(Sorry to hijack BTW - I'm just loving Kombis at the moment!)

Ben

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No problem. been my nickname for about 15yrs :)
I have 2 Kombis , a '67 with a bored and stroked aircooled 1955cc, and an '87 syncro with a 2.5l Subaru engine.
Putting a watercooled engine in will be a large project on your '67.
One in the picture is my friends '57.
daylight picture from another weekend
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C...0/IMG_7035.JPG
It was 3+yrs of evenings and weekends (without a subaru engine)

Wow that's fantastic. Pretty much exactly what I have in mind for mine. The red will either be a nice deep metallic blue or a rediculously bright fluoro green though. :D

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-v...0/IMG_0378.jpg
ISO: 100
Exposure: 30.0 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 10mm

3:45 am letting the dogs out, sky was almost as blue as image shows, very bizarre.
straight up from my back patio. no tripod, camera resting on patio.
took some advice from this post and think it is a clearer image, (just not interesting ;) )

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...0/IMG_0390.jpg
ISO: 100
Exposure: 30.0 sec
Aperture: 4.0
Focal Length: 10mm

3:58am Almost posted this in my best bird shot.

I'd set the camera on a cooler next trying to capture a silhouette when the dogs set off the motion light.

So quite by accident this image turned out nicer than the shot without the backlight.
Note: it's not the sun rising it's a streetlamp in the alley

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w...0/IMG_0394.jpg
ISO: 100
Exposure: 30.0 sec
Aperture: 4.5
Focal Length: 22mm

4:02 am moved the cooler recomposed the shot then ran around to trip the motion light


Bit cranky today, but I'm glad I got more practice in night shots, and was able to capture a different perspective of my own garden.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahab1372

I'm by no means an expert, but IIRC you want to shoot at low ISO. Long exposure already adds noise, you dont want to add high ISO noise.

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Actually, noise is not that dependent on ISO. Most of your noise will be photon noise and this is totally independent of ISO. And as IIRC, read noise actually tends to be lower at high ISO. Thermal noise- which will be a factor unless you use long exposure NR- is (I think) not dependent on ISO.

The only reason not to use a high ISO is not to blow highlights. Taking shorter exposures and stacking helps avoid this also (more exposures gives more read noise... usually not a problem)

Thanks Jon,
that's what I like about this forum, there is always plenty of expert help.

Just happened to come across one of Ben's shots, a good example for high ISO:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ben_taylor_au/5807181371/

Arnt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jon Ruyle

Taking shorter exposures and stacking helps avoid this also (more exposures gives more read noise... usually not a problem)

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I was reading something similar today- the EOS M has a built in feature that does this allowing handheld night shots, and for HDR mode.

At this time I don't think I have anything I can stack images with, but I can take some shots and experiment.
maybe DPP HDR tool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahab1372

Just happened to come across one of Ben's shots, a good example for high ISO:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ben_taylor_au/5807181371/

Arnt

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see he mentions cleaning noise up with Lightroom.
I have LR4.1 but haven't really used it yet.. I'll have to try and make an effort to look into it more.