Star Shot - First attempt

[SwissJon]

Ok, Tonight was the first time I left my camera on Bulb for any length of time.. I'd really appreciate someone's wisdom on how to improve on my attempt.. I'm not so much looking for information on composition.. This was taken from my bedroom window, which points north, and while the view is lovely, I can't get a good photo from there, I've tried and failed often, I want comments on other aspects before I make the effort to trek somewhere that will give me the ability to create a great photo.. I'm more interested in how to improve the clarity of the picture I'm taking, or whehther there's any other tricks I've missed that might improve the results or whether I've reached the limits of my camera/lens.. My wife has seen photos of the milky way, and was kinda expecting something like that..

I have options as far as lenses goes, I've a 50mm prime lens f1.7 and a 11-16mm f2.8 constant aperture, if they'd help.

Exif data:
Camera: SLT-A55V
Lens: Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* DT 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 ZA
Focal length: 16*mm*(equiv. 24*mm)
Aperture: F3.5
Exposure time: 129"
ISO speed rating: 400/27°
Program: Manual
Image Stabilizer: Off
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
No Filter used


20110208215328- by SwissJon, on Flickr

[kristenh]

quite a coincidence; i was outside trying to get star shots this evening myself. almost froze to death. if by clarity, you mean getting pinpoint stars, you have to have a fast shutter speed for that- i've read that you'll start to see movement in the stars in 20 seconds- and i found that to be true this evening myself. so i guess you go longer if you want star trails, but would have to go shorter to get pinpoint stars. also looks like you have a lot of light pollution and that will affect your clarity.

have you read this site at all:

Low Light Photography

i found it pretty informative.

[SwissJon]

Yeah, very cold... That was why I was shooting from my bedroom.. :-)

Thanks.. I hadn't thought about the light pollution, it looked very dark to me, the villages you see are about 8 miles away.. I guess it's a result of the long exposure they look so bright.. I tried as much as 8 mins exposure just to see what would happen but found I was getting a lot of noise, apparently a problem with digital cameras..

I think I might put a faster lens on tonight if its clear and bump the iso up so the exposure is less than 20 seconds.. Iso noise is the same thing as long exposure noise, so it doesn't make a huge difference, if I can begin to capture some of the extraordinary beauty that is the night sky, I'll go hunting for a less polluted place to open the shutter.

[kristenh]

i'll be curious how it goes with a higher iso but shorter shutter speed. i tried a variety of combinations- liked how the higher iso gave me more color- but i didn't go very high- maybe only 800 or so. i did pretty much conclude that where i live- about 8 miles outside of a city of 5 million or so- i'm not going to be too happy with my star shots b/c of the light.

post the new ones you get!

[KiwiSteve]

I'm not too familiar with the northern sky, but I think that the milky way is outside of your frame, just to the left. Knowing the time the shot was taken would help.
Hmmm. Where do I start ?
You want every photon that you can get. As a general starting point go for your fastest lens, one stop down from wide open and one down from your highest ISO. The shutter speed should be as long as you do before you get too much star trailing or the image gets washed out by light polution. The length of time before trailing occurs depends on how far the star is from the celestial north pole. You can see that in your image. The stars near the bottom show trailing but the ones near the top (nearer the pole) don't.
The higher up you point the camera, the less light pollution you get. If you have long exposure noise reduction, turn it on. The camera will take another image with the shutter closed and subtract that from your picture. Some cameras don't let you turn it off. If you take a 30 second exposure and then can't take another one for 30 seconds, that's why.
The scene in the first image is screaming out for a star trail IMHO. You need to turn off long exposure noise reduction, set the camera to 30 seconds and be able to lock the shutter so that it takes multiple exposures for say, an hour. Then you combine them with this free program to make trails.
If you point your camera towards the pole and do the same thing (so there is very little trailing) you can stack those images with this free program which will align and stack the stars on top of each other so that you get the same effect as one long exposure. The startrails program is pretty straight forward to use but Deep Sky Stacker is a bit more complicated.

Hope that helps.


Steve.

[navcom]

Most of those "milky way" shots are taken with a very fast camera (super fast ISO) and fast lens and also in areas where it is very dark....well away from the lights of a city or town. The more remote you can get, the better chance you will have of getting detail in the sky. Any stray light will overpower the sky.