Starscapes

[d0051m]

Hi all

Was looking for some tips on shooting starscapes as I'm off to Peru and will have a great chance to get some good ones. Has anyone any tips -I've searched and can't find that much on it.

Cheers

Edd

[Poik]

What camera do you have? I like using ISO 100 to reduce noise, and doing very long exposures. I've since read that doing multiple shorter exposures over the same time period and then stacking them can give better (less noisy) photos however. But, in that case you will have a lot of files on the memory card instead of just one. I usually shoot at whatever the lens is sharpest at, usually ~f/8. On my 20D I would put it on a tripod and have a remote shutter button, set it to bulb time and click the bulb and I'd go to sleep and check the camera in the morning. That would get me about a 2.5 hour exposure before the battery died. I tried doing this on my 7D but the battery lasts a lot longer, so I ended up running into the early morning sky, which washed away the stars. So for my 7D now I set my remote shutter/intervalometer to hold the shutter for about 3 hours.

If you do the multiple exposure things and then stack them afterwards, that also leaves you with the opportunity to create a time lapse. But if you shoot in RAW and take a bunch of exposures with an intervalometer, this is going to use a LOT of space. Also one thing you may run into issues with if the temperature changes a bit during the night is condensation on the front lens element. Also, pay attention to where the north star is (or the southern cross) depending on which hemisphere you will be in, because the stars will appear to rotate about that point, so that will help you compose your shot.

I just realized I don't have any of my starscape photos on my Flickr to give you examples! I'll have to get those off my external drive and uploaded!

Also, one of the main reasons I upgraded from my 20D to my 7D was my hope that I could take less noisy starscapes. With long exposures and my 20D I would get red pixels in many different parts of the image. Not sure what camera you have, but when I first opened my 7D, it had one red pixel when I would take a photo with the lens cap on. I was so mad until I figured out that if you run the "manual sensor cleaning" for a couple minutes and then turn the camera off and back on, it fixes it. If your camera has this feature, make sure to do that.

[d0051m]

Cheers Eric, that's a great help and will try have a play before I leave. Also need to remember how to spot the northern star!!! I am shooting with a 450d and will have the 15-85mm on it. Is there a way of getting good starscapes without the light trails is 'freeze the sky' can you get enough light?

[Poik]

The north star is easy, just fine the big dipper, and the two outer stars that form the cup form a line towards the north star. Not sure on the southern cross since I've never lived down there. I suppose when you're really close to the equator that you'll just have to aim north or south to get the rotation point though! http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/c.../northstar.gif

If you don't want star trails, you will be limited to about 20 or 30 seconds before the stars start becoming elongated. In that case, use ISO 800 or higher, and open the aperture up. Wide open on the 15-85 should be fine. Give that a go and see how it works for you. It really depends on what time of night it is, and where the moon is, so you'll have to play with it. Make sure to shoot in RAW so that you can increase the exposure if needed! And when you are reviewing images on your camera outside, they will always look brighter than when you go back inside and put it on your computer, so if it looks just right, you should probably expose by one more stop or so! You could play around with light painting the foreground of your composition with a flashlight as well.

[ahab1372]

You can also read Bryan's tips here : http://www.the-digital-picture.com/P...08-08_21-57-43

[d0051m]

A lot of websites go on about post processing of starscapes. Do you usually have to do a lot of this to get decent shots?

[Poik]

I would say no, you don't usually have to unless you want to have the photo look a certain way for your artistic style. The more foreground in your photo the more post processing you'll want to do I would guess. This photo is two stacked images taken back to back, with zero post processing of any kind (and automatic white balance in camera):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericols...2909/lightbox/

If you shoot at high ISO, then you may need to do some noise reduction. It's tricky with stars though, because to get rid of the noise, you often lose a lot of the faint stars that make the photo look so cool. I've heard that StarTrails is a decent program for stacking multiple exposures, but I have not used it yet.

I think if you get more into looking at nebulae and stuff then most post processing would be needed as well.

[andnowimbroke]

Deepskystacker is the one recommended to me by Daniel. It's pretty easy to use, and a quick survey of YouTube should get you the basic knowledge to use it. Later on you can start using dark frames and fancy stuff like that.

[d0051m]

Deepskystacker is the one recommended to me by Daniel. It's pretty easy to use, and a quick survey of YouTube should get you the basic knowledge to use it. Later on you can start using dark frames and fancy stuff like that.

For the stacking technique what settings should you be using for each shot to begin with. Sorry very new to this all!!!

[andnowimbroke]

I would prolly ship you over to cloudynights to start with. Good people that won't steer you wrong. Stargazerslounge is another one. It's been so long since I did this stuff, I can't remember whether the settings I remember are the "post-advice" ones or are the ones I made up that made me want to chuck my tripod across the darkened pond.
Ps- Don't be scared when you start seeing a bunch of red pixels. It happens.