i always find it hard to take night shots of stars or the moon. i ethier get too much or too little light with and without the flash. do you have any tips on how to get a great shot of the moon or stars late at night??? thanks for the help!
trail and error... every night is different... but if that is too vague... the moon is much brighter than you think... f/8 iso 200 1/600 range give or take +/-3 stops of light...
The stars are tricky... anything longer than a few seconds cause star drifts... lower ISO means less noise... and as little light pollution as possible... means you can start around 2 seconds, ISO 400 and maybe f/2 start with that...
Last night I took a couple of different shots of stars with my prime lens. Like Jordan said, the stars will drift the longer you leave the shutter open: http://365project.org/nicklynne/365/2010-12-27 [ISO 100, f/1.8, 4 minute exposure].
@pocketmouse f/16 can start to introduce some odd things in many none corrected lenses.
and the extra stop of line at f/8 means you can use 1/200ish range... which means you can start hand holding a 200mm lens... i bumped my iso so i could get 1/640 for this with a 800mm lens gives you a moon with no crop... but there was cloud cover, so not a great as i would have liked it...
Long exposure, a tripod for sure, a timed shutter/remote shutter to avoid and last second blurryness when pressing the button and some patience. The longer shutter is opne the more light you will draw in. I did month of night time shooting in September/ October http://365project.org/azza_l/365/2010-09 http://365project.org/azza_l/365/2010-10
Try bracketing your exposures. I like to start 1 stop below where the camera meter thinks it should be, and take a series of pictures, each one increasing the exposure by one stop until you are 2-3 stops over or either the histogram shows crammed against the right hand side or the preview shows it is significantly over exposed.
There is a rule that I can't find about how long of an exposure you can get away with before the star is perceived as a trail. Some relationship of the focal length and the exposure. I don't remember.
Also the higher the f-stop setting (smaller aperture) the finer the trails will be.
If I remember from my college astronomy class the moon reflects 7% of the light that strikes it. I think that would make it a stop or 2 darker than a daylight exposure. A full moon looks pretty cool, but a waning or waxing moon will display some neat textures along the shadow line with enough magnification.
I am with Jordan. Some of the best shots I have are of a 1/2 moon, not full. I find that the full moon reflects too much light and washes everything out. The 1/2 moon also shows details of the craters on the edge and gives some texture you can't get when it is full. Also, pick a night with very low humidity like Fall.
I tried the moon and stars with just dsc-90 and could not get it work out.... but then again the moon is not too full these days here in western hemisphere....
Write a Reply
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
The stars are tricky... anything longer than a few seconds cause star drifts... lower ISO means less noise... and as little light pollution as possible... means you can start around 2 seconds, ISO 400 and maybe f/2 start with that...
Stars, I'm not sure!
But for ANY night photography, a tripod is a must!
This one shows the colors of the stars, something I never realized until last night: http://365project.org/nicklynne/365ace/2010-12-27 [ISO 100, f/1.8, 10 second exposure].
Also used the tripod like Teresa suggested, as well as a remote release.
Hope this helps!
and the extra stop of line at f/8 means you can use 1/200ish range... which means you can start hand holding a 200mm lens... i bumped my iso so i could get 1/640 for this with a 800mm lens gives you a moon with no crop... but there was cloud cover, so not a great as i would have liked it...
http://365project.org/azza_l/365/2010-09
http://365project.org/azza_l/365/2010-10
There is a rule that I can't find about how long of an exposure you can get away with before the star is perceived as a trail. Some relationship of the focal length and the exposure. I don't remember.
Also the higher the f-stop setting (smaller aperture) the finer the trails will be.
If I remember from my college astronomy class the moon reflects 7% of the light that strikes it. I think that would make it a stop or 2 darker than a daylight exposure. A full moon looks pretty cool, but a waning or waxing moon will display some neat textures along the shadow line with enough magnification.
http://365project.org/discuss/tips-n-tricks/2099/moon-shots