*** The Photography Thread ***

[JustSomeDude]

David Axelrod is my bitch...



Media Center / Spin Room
DU Presidential Debate
October 2012

[asp_125]

my first attempt at a night sky picture

advice on reducing noise and overall improving?
3500 ISO 30 sec exposure

Try to reduce stray light as much as possible. In your second photo the foreground light washes out the truly dark sky, so you get grey instead of inky blackness. Experiment with setting white balance to tungsten instead of daylight; stars are a cooler light than daylight.

I'm sure you shot with wide open aperture? A fast lens will obviously, give you better results.

[JustSomeDude]

my first attempt at a night sky picture

advice on reducing noise and overall improving?
3500 ISO 30 sec exposure

Nice start! Astrophotography is truly a passion of mine; and I love seeing other people exploring it.

Regarding noise, there really isn't much you can do, at least with "frozen stars" shots at sub-30second exposures. This is why I kind of fell into star trails, the longer exposures allow for far lower ISOs, essentially taking noise out of the equation. To stick with (relatively) short exposure times, you really need to invest in a better camera. The 5D2 has dropped in price these last few weeks, and is a phenomenal camera for night sky work. To get killer images for large astro prints and art pieces, I really think full-frame is a necessity. The pixel density of crop sensors just don't compare. This doesn't mean you can't shoot stars with a crop sensor, you may just find a limitation when trying to make prints larger than 18" wide.

My only other advice would be to develop a solid plan for focusing, and stick with it. Focusing on location (in the middle of the night) is a rather onerous task, especially if you have your camera mounted in some kind of wonky position where you can't see through the viewfinder or get a clear view of the LCD. I usually pre-focus my lenses during the day to hyperfocal distance, and then I don't have to worry about it in the field. Another option to consider, and this works well if you're shooting alone, is to setup a flashlight or a laser on a tripod - position it at a known distance away from your camera (near hyperfocal distance) - aim the flashlight at your lens, and perform manual focus on the flashlight head using the camera's LCD. Zoom in as much as you can with the LCD to ensure good focus. With this approach you can usually dial in the lens flare off the flashlight to be tack sharp, resulting in stars that will be crystal clear.

Going back to long-exposures (instead of shorter 30-second "frozen stars" shots), they also offer the advantage of allowing you to use a smaller aperture. This also improves the clarity of your resultant images, as most lenses just don't perform well wide open. I'd rather shoot star trails at f/4 or so, than f/2.8, which is softer than I desire for large prints. If you're worried about exposure times, most smart phones have exposure calculator apps. Do a test shot at ISO 3500 (or whatever you want to use) on aperture priority. If the exposure is solid (check the histogram), you can get the correct exposure time on your smartphone app, and then do a manual (bulb) exposure for ISO 100 at x minutes.

I use this badboy and she works like a charm for long manual exposures... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Timer-...intervalometer

One last thing... always use your viewfinder cover when shooting star trails. Minimizing stray light on your sensor is critical during nighttime exposures...



Keep up the good work, and let me know if you ever wanna go night shooting. I'm always looking for an excuse to head into the hills!

[asp_125]

Here's a question. When trying to shoot long star trails, do you prefer to use a long exposure for a single shot? Or layer multiple shots in post processing?

And with a foreground subject - again a single shot (star field and flash) or layer in post?

[Cat118!]

great!! Thank you so Much!!! You both gave me some useful tips.

AK! I would LOVE LOVE to go night shooting with you! I would take full advangtage of that! I'm ready to go when you are!

[JustSomeDude]

Here's a question. When trying to shoot long star trails, do you prefer to use a long exposure for a single shot? Or layer multiple shots in post processing?

And with a foreground subject - again a single shot (star field and flash) or layer in post?

They are two different approaches that will yield two different results. Also, I think they both have their own pros/cons.

I started shooting star trails with the "stacking" approach, simply because it allows for greater flexibility with creativity, like flashes and other external light sources, and it's just an easier way to get good results when first starting out. Stacking also allows for a lot of leeway when trying to create a composite (eg, flashing foreground subjects or light painting with a flashlight) against the startrailed sky. It's much easier to have a successful shoot and create a cool composite in post with a bunch of images... than to waste 2 hours on a single exposure only to have it f*cked in the end because of a miscalculation, or outside light source, etc.

You will also have a much easier time removing plane streaks, satellite trails, etc., with stacking than you would with a single exposure. You'll only be healing 2-3 images per airplane/satellite, which won't alter the overall stack. But try to heal out a handful of airplane lines in a single exposure, and it's going to start getting messy. On the other side, there are hardcore traditionalists that love seeing the airplanes through the star trail frame. Stacking just gives you the opportunity to create the "perfect" clean shot, and I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with that. Photographers created stuff in the darkroom for decades... how is the computer any different?

Now, moving on to the cons... my personal major con to stacking is the spacing. What I mean is, even by setting your intervalometer to have a "0 sec" duration between shots, you will STILL see an ever so tiny gap between stars (at pixel zoom) in your star trails due to the closed shutter. There is simply no way around this. The "perforated" star trails is a result of shooting the stacked style; but some people don't see this as a "con" at all, just as an artifact of the natural style of stacking. Personally, the perforations bug me. But that's just me. Usually they aren't even visible in smaller prints... but if you start doing wall sized art prints, the perforations will be visible to the naked eye.

Naturally, that's the pro side of shooting a single long exposure. Your star trails will be 100% intact, creating a single solid streaking arc in your shot. Granted, single exposure star trails are a bigger challenge; they require calculating a proper exposure for a much longer time frame, and hoping the weather and other external factors (like roads, car headlights, etc.) play along. There is also a certain amount of luck associated with single exposure star trails, but that is the fun of it; it is a much bigger challenge to create a good looking star trail with a single exposure, and I encourage every photographer to try at least once (after toying with stacks first).

A single exposure is more of a challenge, and it comes with some inherent creative limitations. Some complex shots that you can do with stacking simply cannot be reproduced with a single exposure. For example, say you wanted to photograph a human model juxtaposed against a 60 minute star trailed sky. This is pretty easy to do with stacking; shoot the model, then set the intervalometer to get the star trail stacks. But that concept would be literally next to impossible to shoot with a single exposure, I don't care how perfectly still your model is. :P Granted, there are some fine art photographers in Utah who photograph the canyonlands with flashes using single long exposures, and the results they get are breathtaking. But that's a fixed foreground object against a moving sky; a human model is a different animal entirely.

So that's my take on the two styles; their are photographers who advocate one or the other, but quite honestly, I think they are just different techniques that offer different results and can stand side by side in the modern realm of digital imaging.

[JustSomeDude]

great!! Thank you so Much!!! You both gave me some useful tips.

AK! I would LOVE LOVE to go night shooting with you! I would take full advangtage of that! I'm ready to go when you are!

Things are a little crazy with Thanksgiving, but let's get a small crew together and plan on something early-to-mid December. The top of Guanella is a great place to shoot... it's easy to access in almost any type of car, and dark enough to get some great astro shots!

[asp_125]

Bump..

The Leonid meteor showers peak this Saturday night/Sunday morning. (11/17/12)
http://www.space.com/18434-leonid-me...this-week.html

[Mother Goose]

Things are a little crazy with Thanksgiving, but let's get a small crew together and plan on something early-to-mid December. The top of Guanella is a great place to shoot... it's easy to access in almost any type of car, and dark enough to get some great astro shots!

I'm in. It's been a while since I've picked up the camera.

[asp_125]

I'm in. It's been a while since I've picked up the camera.

+1, possibly. Guanella in mid Dec.. how do you keep the batteries at full power in the cold?

[Cat118!]

I am in!!!
Can a new thread be started when time comes around? That way it sticks out, I don't want to miss it!

What would you suggest to bring (other than camera )

[Matheo]

Took the new car out and snapped some pics of her last night. A few of these came out a little more "processed" then wanted, may go back and re-edit.

[mdub]

very nice ....that looks grt

[Vance]

Nice shots there Matheo.
Which parking garage is that? Villa Italia? Worked beautifully for a setting.

[Frankie675]

Things are a little crazy with Thanksgiving, but let's get a small crew together and plan on something early-to-mid December. The top of Guanella is a great place to shoot... it's easy to access in almost any type of car, and dark enough to get some great astro shots!

I'd be down! I've always wanted to learn how to star trail and don't have any other friends into photography.

Either way went out on deckers run yesterday. Just got back from a year and a half in the marshall islands and am trying to get in as much riding as possible with the weather.

btw i didn't have a tripod and i was violently shaking from the freezing temps. you can kinda tell around the bike

[biikChiQ]

Nice pic guys..

Oh and I'm down for a night out too.

[madvlad]

Here are a few I snapped the other day at sunset (unedited):

[biikChiQ]

Nice shots Vlad!

[madvlad]

Nice shots Vlad!

Thanks, still working on settings and focusing this thing haha... haven't had the proper time to really mess with it and get down to specifics on how to properly take pictures. Definitely have to get much better at night shots, haven't been able to figure that out yet lol

[Mother Goose]

Nice shots there Matheo.
Which parking garage is that? Villa Italia? Worked beautifully for a setting.

One of the Belmar ones. Looks like the one to the east.

[madvlad]

So was trying to take pictures of Christmas lights around the neighborhood tonight but man what a nightmare trying to figure out the proper settings for this as I am a camera newb and mainly taking night pictures ... Any tips anyone may have? I have a Nikon D40, I did search on this but most the info put down I'd try seemed to make it worse, unless I was moving the wrong settings lol

[WolFeYeZ]

Here are some of my first attempts with my new T3:





And some others, messing with overexposure mostly: https://picasaweb.google.com/1103741...eat=directlink

[Cat118!]

any plan for night shooting session! still really want to learn more!

[madvlad]

any plan for night shooting session! still really want to learn more!

Will keep an eye out on this, would want to come out and test the waters with my D40 cause I can't get that thing in sync for crap when it comes to night shots even after reading up online on common settings and such, man I am a n00b