/p/ - Photography » Thread #3119033

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3MiB, 4288x2848, tf.jpg

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 17:54:41 No.3119033 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>3119038 >>3119046 >>3119116 >>3119124 >>3119157 >>3119833 >>3120094 >>3120581 >>3120596

I am incapable, please help me out.

I was trying to take star pictures but failed miserably and only noticed once I got back. I only have a kit 18-55mm lens.

But I'm not sure what my mistakes were: I used around 2000 ISO, lowest focal, and about 20s shutter. But they turned out complete crap.

Please tell me everything I did wrong.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 18:04:37 No.3119038 Report

Quoted By: >>3119163

>>3119033
Your EXIF says the ISO was 6400 which explains your problem. Turn down your ISO a bit, stop down a bit so that stars will be in focus and not just the clouds (you only need to stop down so far on a wide-angle before the focus becomes infinity), and up the shutter speed so it's all exposed properly.
You'll probably need a tripod if you have to slow the shutter speed that much. If you don't, keep the ISO high up and just stop down until the pic isn't over-exposed.
And once you're bored of working your ass off to take some dull shot of the star pic a real subject. And don't be afraid to use the programed modes, the mark of the newbie is using full manual for no good reason

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 18:18:50 No.3119046 Report

Quoted By: >>3119163

>>3119033
Go research astrophotography.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 20:12:05 No.3119116 Report

Quoted By: >>3119163

>>3119033

Use the 500 rule for maximum exposure time without star trails. That means divide 500 by the focal length of your lens so if you're using a 12mm, 500/12= 41s max exposure.

Now with that kind of exposure time you can probably get away with 1600iso or maybe even 1200.

Shoot in raw and turn off noise reduction.

Open your RAW in darktable or even perhaps ACR. If you're in ACR goto sharpening and under noise reduction increase Luminance to about 25 and luminance detail to about 35. That should help smooth out some of the noise while preserving detail.

Another thing is you can't just point it at the sky and expect great results. The sky needs to be clear, also find out what time galactic center rises (if you use an iphone you can ask siri) or get the photo pills app and it will show you an augmented reality overlay of when and where the milky way will be when you're shooting.

Put those things together and you'll make a more interesting photo.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 20:40:51 No.3119124 Report

Quoted By: >>3119163 >>3119789

>>3119033
The stars are out of focus.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO ring nebula.jpg, 5MiB, 4288x2848

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 21:01:42 No.3119134 Report

Quoted By:

I just wanted to point it out.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 21:44:54 No.3119157 Report

Quoted By: >>3119163

>>3119033
>I only have a kit 18-55mm lens.
Get a better lens, you want a wide angle one that is good in low light.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 21:54:18 No.3119163 Report

Quoted By: >>3119166 >>3119765

>>3119038
>>3119116
>>3119046
>>3119124
Thank you!

>>3119157
Can't afford one right now but it's on my list.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Jul 2017 21:56:50 No.3119166 Report

Quoted By: >>3119676

>>3119163
>Can't afford one right now but it's on my list.
Get a vintage lens with a cheap adapter.

http://www.nightofmanywords.com/articles/budget-lenses-for-astrophotography

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Jul 2017 18:06:47 No.3119676 Report

Quoted By:

>>3119166
That's a good tip, thanks anon!

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Jul 2017 21:29:06 No.3119765 Report

Quoted By: >>3119767

>>3119163
Get the EF 24/2.8

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Jul 2017 21:30:08 No.3119767 Report

Quoted By:

>>3119765
Oh, Nikon. Get the Sigma 17-50/2.8

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Jul 2017 22:12:38 No.3119789 Report

Quoted By: >>3119808 >>3119833

>>3119124
This happens to me too. How are you able to focus on the stars in such low light conditions? I can't just twist the lens to maximum distance focus because then they will def be out of focus

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Jul 2017 22:54:30 No.3119808 Report

Quoted By:

>>3119789
not him, but what i do to focus when i'm out doing night shots is go into live view and crank the iso all the way up and zoom in as far as possible on the screen at something far away to try and find focus.

if you're going somewhere where it's dark enough to see a lot of stars then there might not even be enough light for that though... maybe invest in a flashlight with a really long range to do what i described above?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Jul 2017 23:39:05 No.3119833 Report

Quoted By:

>>3119789
live view or focus on something that's far away and lock it
>>3119033
one major problemhere is the clouds. especially in an area with light pollution these will kill your contrast. the best way to fix this is go somewhere else, but you can wait for a clear night and do OK
you can actually get decent results with a kit lens if you stabilize and use signal averaging, but it's a lot of work

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Jul 2017 17:15:20 No.3120094 Report

Quoted By:

>>3119033
Well first you need to focus properly. Zoom in the image as much as you can using live view and adjust it, then crank the ISO up as much as you can and take a few shorter exposures to see if the focus is right. Adjust accordingly. When you're sure it's perfect change the ISO back to what you need and take the actual shot.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 3.webm, 3MiB, 760x507

Anonymous Tue 25 Jul 2017 17:08:28 No.3120581 Report

Quoted By: >>3120585

>>3119033
okay, let's point out a few things
>your focus is a bit off
>no PP at all
>clouds
>you've literally pointed the camera upwards and took a photo, this is not how it works unless you're going for real astro and photographing certain object on the sky

iso 2000 sounds okay. use live view to focus and find a brightest star you can find. Also, from my (still not really vast) experience it's best to shoot night sky with the little bit of the moon, or right after the moon disappears behind the horizon. It gives a sky nice blue color, as opposed to crappy red glow from street lights. Also, find a nice landscape to put on the photo. Even without a proper subject, it's still better to have a landscape silhouette than just a sky.

Pic related was shoot with the assistance of the moon behind the horizon on iso either 1600 or 2000, yet look how nice the sky color is. Camera settings are one of least important aspects of astro, really. It's mostly about knowing where and when the sky should look the best.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 9.webm, 3MiB, 1280x853

Anonymous Tue 25 Jul 2017 17:11:36 No.3120585 Report

Quoted By:

>>3120581
i found one more of my webms (i could swear they looked better back when i was shooting them). This one seems to be failed, but it shows nicely how the nice blue sky transistions into ugly red-ish mess because moon is gone.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Milky way run 4.jpg, 4MiB, 4802x3140

Anonymous Tue 25 Jul 2017 17:37:02 No.3120596 Report

Quoted By:

>>3119033
focus, go into live veiw, put in the settings for the maximum exposure possible and manually focus the lens untill the stars are as small as possible. And then put in the settings you want and expose on a tripod with either a cable release or a timer.

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