Looking for night shots technique

mushymushy Registered Users Posts: 643 Major grins
edited June 18, 2007 in Technique
Here's my shot of the stars, I was hoping some people with more experience could help improve future efforts as well as explain some post processing tips.

This one I'm pretty happy with although there is plenty of noise.
161715570-L.jpg

This one had less ambient light, but needs some work
161718964-L.jpg

cheers in advance to any insite people can provide
May I take your picture?

Comments

  • Antonio CorreiaAntonio Correia Registered Users Posts: 6,241 Major grins
    edited June 12, 2007
    I found this site the other day.
    I thought it might be usefull for you...:D
    All the best ! ... António Correia - Facebook
  • mushymushy Registered Users Posts: 643 Major grins
    edited June 12, 2007
    I found this site the other day.
    I thought it might be usefull for you...:D

    Cheers Antonio am reading through his journal/blog now thumb.gif
    May I take your picture?
  • pyrtekpyrtek Registered Users Posts: 539 Major grins
    edited June 13, 2007
    mushy wrote:
    This one I'm pretty happy with although there is plenty of noise.

    You can significantly reduce the amount of noise in long exposure shots by
    taking more shots with shorter exposures and combining them later. Here's
    more information:

    http://www.tawbaware.com/imgstack.htm
  • Stu EngelmanStu Engelman Registered Users Posts: 47 Big grins
    edited June 16, 2007
    Hi,

    A major problem with night shooting is slow shutter speed, especially if you want to avoid freezing motion of your subject. Shutter speeds slower than about 1/30 of a second (depending on camera sensor) will make the photosites in your senser overheat, causing blotches in your picture (so called "chroma noise"). You can compensate for this a bit by speeding up your shutter and increasing ISO, but this causes little colored dots to appear ("luminance noise"). The bottom line is that you can't really reduce noise levels to an acceptable level in night sky shooting using a digital camera. Post-processing the noise out likely will not help, as there will be so much noise that any remediation will soften the picture too much.

    The best solution is to switch to a film camera, using slow (ASA 100) film. The slow film will avoid grain similar to digital high ISO noise, and a slow shutter speed here will not cause chroma noise (since there is no sensor to overheat).

    Another hint - use a wide aperture (about one EV stop lower than the widest possible, to avoid color fringing at maximum iris). Due to the infinity focus, you have no depth of field issues, so let in as much light as possible to minimize shutter time and thus reduce the risk of camera shake. Your shutter speed will still be quite slow due to the low light level, so set your shutter delay and mirror lock to a few seconds each (this will let your camera stabilize on your tripod before the exposure is taken).

    Stu Engelman
  • farfromthesunfarfromthesun Registered Users Posts: 24 Big grins
    edited June 18, 2007
    They look good to me! I posted this: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=64057 elsewhere on the forum.

    Digital imaging is great for shooting the night sky because you can just keep trying, reviewing, and refining your efforts in the field. As I say in that thread, I'm a complete beginner, so do not claim to be an expert, and believe me, there are experts out there. If you're seriously into imaging the night sky, search for "Cloudy Nights" forum on Google, and see what info you could pick up from there.
  • DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited June 18, 2007
    Did you search right here on dgrin? :D

    try this link:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=2055


    edit: ok, took more of a read of your post... "astro" and "night" are a bit different. the link above is for night time shots. it may help with stars as well, who knows. ne_nau.gif
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


  • farfromthesunfarfromthesun Registered Users Posts: 24 Big grins
    edited June 18, 2007
    DoctorIt wrote:
    Did you search right here on dgrin? :D

    try this link:
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=2055


    edit: ok, took more of a read of your post... "astro" and "night" are a bit different. the link above is for night time shots. it may help with stars as well, who knows. ne_nau.gif

    I did search, honest!
  • jimevans_2000jimevans_2000 Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
    edited June 18, 2007
    pyrtek wrote:
    You can significantly reduce the amount of noise in long exposure shots by
    taking more shots with shorter exposures and combining them later. Here's
    more information:

    http://www.tawbaware.com/imgstack.htm

    I wonder if anyone has used Stacker when photographing the Northern Lights?

    Jim
  • mushymushy Registered Users Posts: 643 Major grins
    edited June 18, 2007
    Thanks all for the comments, hints and tips. Fingers crossed I can put a few idea's into play this weekend, if the weather holds out that is ne_nau.gif
    May I take your picture?
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