Star photography

[Mike Wrightson]

I want to have a go at getting a photo of the Milky Way and some other star photos. I have seen some recommendations that say I should set the widest aperture possible, high ISO (1600 usually) with a 15 second shutter. Seems to make sense, however my camera has some restrictions about that :(

At 1600 ISO, I can only have a 2 second shutter without using bulb mode. The highest ISO I can use 15 seconds is 200, and I can have 30 seconds at ISO 100.

I can of course use bulb mode, but it's gonna be very sensitive to movement without a remote release, but I'm not sure that 100 or 200 ISO will be enough to capture what I'm after on the timed shutter. Would it work? Any other tips?

[KBPhoto]

Take a look at this webpage.

Shoot at a lower ISO, think about whether to switch on in-camera noise reduction or not, get a good tripod, use 'B' and an aperture to suit what you are photographing (f22 is not always necessary - it depends how close the closest object is to your camera.)

Read up on reciprocity failure (for long exposures) and also hyperfocal distance (for focussing).

Not a perfect answer, but some important things to understand when shooting in the dark.

HTH

[Loz]

I've been meaning to do this myself though not been bothered to find a suitable place to do it as of yet. What camera do you have? Why so many restrictions? In a manual mode you should be able to set whatever settings you want to use?

"personally" (not forgetting I haven't actually done this yet!!) I wouldn't use as wide an aperture as possible because I like my pictures to be sharp. I'd go for a mid-way setting, like F8 or something perhaps. Also, I would use as low an ISO as possible, as at 1600, unless it's a pretty up to date sensor that is epic in low light you are going to get some/a lot of noise, which to me would ruin it. a long shutter speed should compensate for not boosting your ISO and not using a wide aperture. At the end of the day, if you want star trails you want a long exposure. If you want stationary stars then you might need to widen the aperture and put the ISO up a bit, but I never put mine above 1000, even though it is reasonably good in low light.

as mentioned, get a good tripod! I used to use an old one of my dads and it was awful lol. I do a lot of my long expose on bulb because, quite simply, I'm a lazy buggar and I can't be bothered to attach my remote but I got a decent manfrotto tripod, and I can lean on it and it doesn't budge at all. Otherwise I use the preset exposures up to 30 seconds (if that is long enough for my purpose - and it usually is!)

To be honest you are better off just getting out there and trying it, rather than reading about what other people have/would do. It depends what you want to end up with and the way to learn these things best is trial and error. If you get an error you can't fix, then google it or ask for support on how to resolve

P.S - when you say you want to get the 'milky way' I assume you actually just mean stars?? Not actual galaxies - ie getting computerised telescope etc?

Edited 7 May, 2012 by Loz

[Mike Wrightson]

Yeah, I'm not after star trails as such, more stationary stars and hopefully something like this:

http://www.truehdwallpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/The-Milky-Way-Galaxy-By-Dominic-Kamp.jpg

I have a Fuji HS20 bridge camera, which of course means I'm stuck with a single lens too, but fingers crossed I can get something

Next clear night I'll get out and have a try.

[Loz]

Yeah, if it's dark enough I still don't think you need such wide aperture and high ISO. you should be able to get away with a couple of seconds exposure without getting movement I'd imagine, and if the stars are the only source of light they should show up.

Give it a go, maybe I'll get round to it one day too and we can compare notes! Could be a mission for the camping trip next month! LOL! star photo competitions fromt he top of some cold dark hill!! haha!

[YorkshirePudding]

Settings of 30sec/f4 and ISO1600 should give you a good starting point.

Could be a mission for the camping trip next month! LOL! star photo competitions fromt he top of some cold dark hill!! haha!

I couldn't get a Milky Way shot camping the other week so did a star trail shot instead.

Star lit camping by J.F.T, on Flickr

93x30sec stacked in StarStax.

[Gaelicstorm7]

Hi,

For shots of the milky Way, you really need a driven mount to stop the stars trailing and allow enough light into the camera,here are a couple of mine.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Alan

A wide field of the Cygnus area, featuring the dark lane of the milky way, this was taken with a 90 second exposure from a dark sky site, 50mm lens at f3.5

This one was a 200mm lens at 4f 90 second exposure, featuring the Andromeda galaxy (M31)