Hi everyone! new photographer

[hai888]

Well, hello again. not new photographer , but new photographer HERE
um im not a beginner and not proffesional either, so i bought last week my new camera,
the Canon SX10. till now im getting really great results and im very pleased with her.
about two days ago i shot the moon and it went well, so i wanted to take another step -
and try to take picutre the stars. well i searched a lot for tutorials and tips but i couldnt find any that will match my camera, all of them were for DSLR's with 30 secs of expusre; my min is 15 secs. any help here guys?
also another question, ive encounterd with 100+ secs of expusre shots. there are cameras out there that can do that? or is it a bunch of photos - max 30 secs [or so] - composed in photoshop?

really looking forward your answer thanks

[navcom]

Hi! If you are referring to star "trails", you will need a camera that has a bulb mode...that is, a mode that allows you to hold open the shutter for as long as you need. The only way to get the "trails" is to have a long exposure that can catch them moving across the sky. 15 seconds is not slow enough.

Now, that being said, you may be able to get something to work by stacking images using Photoshop or another program I use regularly called "Star Trails" which you can get at www.Startrails.de-Home.

15 seconds is still very fast and it would require many shots to get it to work. You need about 20-30 minutes of shots to start to get nice trails. I recommend an hour.

I use a Pentax K10D or K20D DSLR and take 3 20-minute exposures and blend them together with a "black" image. Here is an example...

[hai888]

thanks for your answer, although i didnt mean "star trails" it is always nice to learn another cool thing

Mostly Lisa: Photography, Videos, & Geeky Stuff. » Entry » Intro to*Astrophotography

this photo on this link explains exactly what i meant. if you'll notice where it says "the magic formula" [almost the end of the post] - i tried it yesterday [with my 15 sec expusre and not 25-30..] and all i got was really burnt picture. hope you understand

[navcom]

You need a higher ISO as well as a bit longer exposure. It's dark out there. Plus, having a camera that takes high ISO pictures without a lot of noise is also a must. In order to get photos of stars that aren't affected by star movement due to the earth's rotation, you need to shoot with a wider aperture and a high ISO. Note they are using some pretty expensive gear in that article ($2300-$6000). Also, specific astro-photography uses some pretty specialized gear.

Most consumer-grade DSLRs have a hard time with noise when you get to ISO 1600 or faster. Also, ISO noise and stars look a lot alike, so post-processing the noise away is a bit tricky. I'm not an expert on the high-end cameras they are using but I would imagine they handle high ISO a bit better than a medium or low-end SLR...let alone an intermediate like the SX10.

You may not be able to take this type of photo with the SX10 due to the exposure, aperture, and ISO noise limitations. I'm not that familiar with your camera though.

[hai888]

I really understand now, thanks for making all this clear !