Night shooting

[icewoman]

I would like some advise on taking pictures of the moon and stars. Last night I went out and took some pictures and they did not turn out that great. I set my camera to the " bulb " setting and my ISO at 200. I left the shutter open for between four and 10 seconds. The star shots turned out better than the moon. I kept getting a red spot on the moon shots and it appeared the stars moved.....( do they move that fast ). I would like to try again. Here are my options for Lens's.

Nikon 28 mm 2.8, Nikon 85 mm 1.8, kit lens 18-55 mm, kit 55-200 mm and a 300 mm Tamron. Which of these would be my best bet for lens? Also shutter speed and ISO assuming it is clear night.

Thank you for any advise.

I did use a tripod, remote shutter and I focused to infinity

[Steve Foss]

Star/moon photography can be a ton of fun, icewoman.

Some things to think about:

If you are using a telephoto of 300mm and up to shoot the moon, any exposure over 1-2 seconds will probably be soft (blurry) because of the moon's movement in that time. And you don't need a long exposure to shoot the moon. It's a very bright object. Just set your iso to 100 or 200, set your focus mode on the lens to manual, make sure your tripod is rock steady (cheap flimsy tripods are BAD, BAD, BAD!).

Enable your highlight alert, often called blinkies, on your histogram, if they are not already enabled. If you have spot metering, use that too so you are metering the bright moon and not the totality of the sky, which overall is quite dark and will result in a blown-out moon.

Your shutter speed will be plenty fast so that, with a solid tripod, you won't need to bother with a remote shutter release, but by all means use it if you feel more comfortable that way (I do).

I stop down the lens to about f8, because there's plenty of light off the moon and stopping down will yield sharper images. I manual focus on the moon, and then I take the picture. First thing I do is look at the histogram and blinkies to make sure I have the histogram as far to the right as possible but have not blown out the moon highlights. Then I use exposure compensation to adjust exposure if that is needed.

[icewoman]

Thank you very much,that is great information, just what I was looking for.

[Dbl]

Icewomen,

Keep in mind shooting shots of stars is completely different from shooting the moon. You need to separate out those two things. Steve covered the basics on the moon but none of those settings will work if you are shooting stars.

First off the two don't go hand in hand. When you are shooting stars you don't want any moon at all. So you should pick nights that the moon sets early or is not out at all. I was out shooting last night around 8:00pm and the quarter moon had set by then.

For some ideas on specific camera settings that will get you in the ballpark check out the Lenoid meteor shower thread just down the page. When I get a chance I will post a few shots with specific settings from last night.

[Steve Foss]

Icewomen,

Keep in mind shooting shots of stars is completely different from shooting the moon. You need to separate out those two things. Steve covered the basics on the moon but none of those settings will work if you are shooting stars.

Quite right!

[Dbl]

Icewomen,

Here are some shots from last night with specific settings. I hope they give you some ideas on how to get some star shots. The first three shots are identical except for ISO. That should give you some idea on how that changes how many background stars appear. These were done on my laptop so I hope they look OK.

#1 ISO 6400, f4, 20 seconds exposure.

#2 ISO 3200, f4, 20 seconds exposure.

#3 ISO 1600, f4, 20 seconds exposure.

#4 I wanted to show more of the Milky Way so I used a high ISO. ISO 6400, f4, 30 seconds

#5 This one I was trying to capture a combine working at night in a field a bit in the distance. ISO 3200, f4, 30 seconds. I do have some shots that went 1 1/2 minutes but the wind was blowing and the foreground blurred out along with the stars having to much movement. You will find that if you want sharp stars you need to keep you exposure time under 30 seconds. They move that much.

#6 And last a 55 minute exposure if you want star trails. ISO 100, f4. In this shot I think f5.6 would have worked a bit better to darken the sky a little more.

#7 Here is one with no foreground included. I much prefer to have some object to anchor the star shot, makes it more interesting in my opinion.

The green you see on the trees is from a stray yard light that was 1/4 of a mile away...yes that far away and it was still affecting the light on the trees.

If you want more specific pointers make sure to ask. Good luck, Star shooting can really be fun!

[icewoman]

Wow, that is very kind of you. this is a great tutorial for me to follow. One thing I have realized is that my tripod is not as sound as I thought, it is moving which was part of my problem the other night. I also realize that even if I am out in the county my automatic pole light is going to be an issue. I will be printing off this thread and putting it in my bag.

[icewoman]

One more question, what lens did you use for these shots? Any suggestions on which lens would work best for me from the ones I listed previously?

[Dbl]

My choice of your lenses would be the 28/2.8. These were all taken with the 17-40/4 shot at 17mm. Wider is better I personally think when it comes to star shots. I would really like to pick up a 15mm fisheye for some of my other shooting but it makes a great lens for this type of work as well.

This time of the year with cool clear nights and no moon make for a great time to be out and shoot stars. I love the quiet nights out by yourself. It to me is more enjoyable than the dead of winter when you often have to deal with extreme cold and summer when you deal with bugs! If you ever wanted to get out and try some of this, and it is very easy, now is the time of year to go!

Good luck icewomen, I can't wait to see some of your results!

[Steve Foss]

I'm with Dan on the wider angle for star photography. I'm told the Nikon 18-55 kit lens is a solid performer, so that would give you a lot of latitude compositionally. The extra stop or two of speed at f2.8, however, may lead you in the direction of the 28mm.

Your 300 would definitely be of use for the moon. I generally use 400mm or better when shooting the moon and still have to crop to get a good composition with 400mm.

Also, for your star photography, if you can get out away from the nighttime light pollution of cities it'll be easier to see the Milky Way with the naked eye. The stars really pop out at you in the country or up in the mountains. I haven't done enough star photography in/around cities to know if the light pollution impacts the image or not, but I have an easier time figuring out how I want to compose the image when I have a better look at all the stars.

[eyeguy 54]

cool stuff, thanks for sharing ideas. not sure what I can do with my little cannon but I gotta try this.

[Dbl]

I think the 18-55 might be a good choice for you but I am guessing it is variable aperture? I don't like to recommend a lens that doesn't have a fixed aperture for night shooting, especially when starting out because if you zoom the lens the aperture will change.

While often that is of no importance in night shooting you have now changed something in the numbers you have worked out. Granted with digital just adjust and take another shot but in the case of a long exposure you may have used considerable battery power from your camera and wasted a whole hour of your time!

Also if your camera is not capable of high ISO you will need a faster lens to get enough light as in the case of the shots above of the Milky Way.

Certainly a variable aperture will work but do remember to adjust settings as you zoom your lens. Just something else to think about.