Oh my stars!

[fishinchicks]

Had a bonfire tonight in honor of our exchange daughter's 16th birthday. The stars were so incredible, so I tried taking a few shots. Any hints on making these better the next time? I probably should have taken the time to get my telephoto lens, but we were too busy roasting hot dogs and making s'mores.

#1

#2

[Dbl]

I was thinking the same thing last night! Good for you getting out and actually shooting. First on composition, I like to include something to anchor the stars. Another words something in the low foreground, along the side, something to ground the stars so to speak. I think it adds interest to your scene. In your neck of the woods a barn for instance is great.

Settings. It really depends on what you want and how much ambient you want to let in. Standard settings for just star shots for me are ISO 100, f4. Remember depth of field doesn't matter here. You are shooting a million miles away! Shutter speed to get bright dots and not slightly streaked as you see in the second shot can not be any slower than 20 to 25 seconds. I prefer to shoot wide angle to include as many stars as possible, the more there are the better it looks! I also play around with the White Balance. Try using the tungsten setting, it gives you a deeper blue color. And it reins in any stray light from other sources that might give you an orange tint.

Now if you want to get some ambient in or include say the Milky Way, ramp up the ISO to around 1000 to 1600. It is real easy, the only thing I change shooting at night is ISO. Change it to give the sky a lighter look. If you want star trails now you will be shooting up to 1 hour or more. Then I will change my aperture to f11 or f16 or higher to keep as much ambient out as possible.

The other thing to add some interest when using the foreground object as I mentioned at the beginning is to include some light painting. Start your shot, pull out a flashlight and shine it back and forth on your object. You can even walk up to it and back out of the frame. A flashight, pen light, even a million watt spotlight all give you different looks. Change the color of the light by using a gel over the lens or something to give you a new shade of color. Great fun!!!

I love shooting at night! When the moon is dark it is the greatest time to get out and get some shots at night.

[fishinchicks]

Thanks, Dbl! We'll have to play around with this some more. We were out enjoying a bonfire, and couldn't pass up trying to take pictures of the sky.

Our exchange student is from Germany, and she can't get over how big the sky looks, how many stars there are, and how far away you can see cars approaching. She loves photography, so I'll print your post and get her taking photos as well. We took her to Alexander Ramsey park in Redwood Falls the other night, and I showed her how to get cottony water photos. She loved it!

[eyeguy 54]

Nice focus on that 1st one. I gotta try this but might br tough with my poin and shoot. not much fstop range.

[fishinchicks]

Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight... this is the view out of my kitchen/back yard area. It was a beautiful night last night, so peaceful and still.

It is quite obvious that I need to do some cleaning! This was posted without any post processing...that will come later.