So i had my first attempt at a long exposure night sky and everything seemed to go wrong. please tell me what i did wrong and give me direction. it looked perfect on the camera but blown up it all fell apart... blurry, grainy, overexposed ambient light. any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
what should i be doing
You might try a graduated ND filter. For this shot, the dense part of the filter should be at the bottom in an attempt to even out the light a bit.
Not much you can do about the sky glow from whatever city that is in the distance other than hope that the upside down ND filter helps.
looks like i need another tool in my bag greatly appreciated for the info
Hi Joseph,
The light pollution is going to be hard to work with at this location. That light at the lake and the light just above it on the horizon is going to swamp a lot of stars.
The blurriness could be a couple of things: (1) VR was left on, or, (2) focus was off. If your camera has a live view turn it on and zoom in on a star and manually focus to get a sharp point. If you don’t have live view the lights on the right of the image on the shore might be far enough to get the lens close to infinity. Try getting them sharp in your view finder.
What were your exposure settings? I think you are close but the light pollution is going to overwhelm the Milky Way. Use an app like Light Pollution Map or the web site Dark Sky Finder.
Cheers!
Jim
great info thanks. its usually dark up there but i believe they were doing stuff for the holiday weekend at the ski resort like fireworks. this was a learning experience i used just about every iso multiple time settings i don't remember if i turned off the vr i know when reading up on it, it did say to do that i was in manual focus but i just set it to infinity so that will be something i need to address. thanks again
without an exif, I can only suggest what the guys have said:
1. VR turned off and on tripod
2. Remote trigger or 2 sec delay
3. Mirror lock first to prevent shake
4. Assuming it's UWA lens, set focus to infinity (and manual focus mode)
5. f8 for starters
6. Not sure if you are trying to capture MW. If you are, lookup Lonelyspeck website for tutorials; would also teach you how to minimise grains
7. I would personally shoot one for the foreground and another for the sky and blend
Hope that helps buddy
i was on tripod, i used a 10sec delay, ill look into mirror lock, not sure about uwa lens, i was on f4 or lower...yikes, would love to capture MW so ill definitely look those up, great tips much appreciated
Don't worry, you're doing fine. I think the focus was just off. You're not too far off on the exposure.
If it really does not work out, you could also do a composite of two exposures, if don't have a ND-grad at hand.
As for the focus, please note that on many lenses, the infinity mark is off for stars.
good to know..i know my setup is weak i have a base model dslr and base model lenses i plan on getting upgrades in the next couple of years but just throwing 7k into a setup is a little crazy for me right now but I'm enjoying learning what i can with what i have
That's it exactly. Equipment really does not matter as much as you'd think.
Also remember that the real shot happens in your head. Your camera can only do so much for you. Even more so, if you are looking for photos to inspire your painting.
I only shoot with a Nikon d5600 which is upper entry level. I find that if the ISO is high then I get 'puff ball' stars which means they are out of focus. I can't go beyond 1600 ISO. It would be interesting to see your EXIF.
EXIF? sorry trying to learn and retain vocab
http://exifdata.com is a good site to explain. What would be a help to understanding your problem would be to know the exposure time, aperature, iso and focal length for this image. Also the lens specs. (I see you have entered image details (EXIF)with your uploads)