[gd1418]

Something like this Deky? Though not very good quality, this was taken on 9th Nov, '07 on Deepawali.

Exif:

Camera : FinePix S602 ZOOM
ExposureTime : 1Sec
FNumber : F2.8
ExposureProgram : Program Normal
ISOSpeedRatings : 100
MeteringMode : Spot
Flash : Not fired(Compulsory)
FocalLength : 9.70(mm)
White Balance : Auto
Focus mode : Auto Focus



The night sky at Tso Moriri

Exif:

Camera : NIKON D80
ExposureTime : 208.60Sec
FNumber : F5.6
ExposureProgram : Manual
ISOSpeedRatings : 100
ExposureBiasValue : EV0.0
MeteringMode : CenterWeightedAverage
Flash : Not fired
FocalLength : 32.00(mm)
WhiteBalance : Auto

[goandude]

taken these on saturday.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Something like this Deky? Though not very good quality, this was taken on 9th Nov, '07 on Deepawali.

Exif:

Camera : FinePix S602 ZOOM
ExposureTime : 1Sec
FNumber : F2.8
ExposureProgram : Program Normal
ISOSpeedRatings : 100
MeteringMode : Spot
Flash : Not fired(Compulsory)
FocalLength : 9.70(mm)
White Balance : Auto
Focus mode : Auto Focus

Attachment 207689

The night sky at Tso Moriri

Exif:

Camera : NIKON D80
ExposureTime : 208.60Sec
FNumber : F5.6
ExposureProgram : Manual
ISOSpeedRatings : 100
ExposureBiasValue : EV0.0
MeteringMode : CenterWeightedAverage
Flash : Not fired
FocalLength : 32.00(mm)
WhiteBalance : Auto

Attachment 207698

GD, why not take full wide angle shot. The lake would have looked awesome with star light sky.
Few other things to remember for star trail photography
1. Never forget the landscape. With a good view, Star trail photography looks even better.
2. If you shoot towards north in northern hemisphere, you will catch the stars rotating around the pole star.

The shot below shows these points


With wide angle usage, you can use F3.5 etc., and still get your entire scene in focus. Use ISO 200 instead of 100. This means brighter starts, esp when scene is moonlit.
Also your camera can go much more than 200 seconds, try a 1000 second exposure, at 18mm with ISO 200 and F4.5 etc.,
If its cold at night, 1000 second exposure will have little noise.

[SPARKled]

Originally Posted by Samurai

I like this composition and the mood. However, the star filter effect is very artificial, do you have one without the filter?

There is no question of a star filter here as there was non used. This is normal effect of a lens stopped down and long exposure. I am using a Nikon 85 1.8 and you need not stop down to F16 or F22 to get these stars, even F8 or thereabouts is fine.

[fazalaliadil]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

GD, why not take full wide angle shot. The lake would have looked awesome with star light sky.
Few other things to remember for star trail photography
1. Never forget the landscape. With a good view, Star trail photography looks even better.
2. If you shoot towards north in northern hemisphere, you will catch the stars rotating around the pole star.

With wide angle usage, you can use F3.5 etc., and still get your entire scene in focus. Use ISO 200 instead of 100. This means brighter starts, esp when scene is moonlit.
Also your camera can go much more than 200 seconds, try a 1000 second exposure, at 18mm with ISO 200 and F4.5 etc.,
If its cold at night, 1000 second exposure will have little noise.

tsk,
Very good photograph of the night sky.
Thank you for your valuable information on star trail photography, I am sure many will benefit from this esp. shooting towards the north. I am in south India so does my orientation of pointing the camera change? If so where do I point the camera for a circular movement like you pic?
Regards,

[deky]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

tsk,
Very good photograph of the night sky.
Thank you for your valuable information on star trail photography, I am sure many will benefit from this esp. shooting towards the north. I am in south India so does my orientation of pointing the camera change? If so where do I point the camera for a circular movement like you pic?
Regards,

+1 to that, I think this is making a great thread with people sharing information in simple language. Thanks Tsk.

And Fazal, The "North Star" has to be the key. And I dont think whether you are in South or East or wherever, the North star will change its position. It will always remain in the North. (North star is constant and all the other stars revolve around it)

I hope I am right.

BTW I loved your sunset photo

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

tsk,
Very good photograph of the night sky.
Thank you for your valuable information on star trail photography, I am sure many will benefit from this esp. shooting towards the north. I am in south India so does my orientation of pointing the camera change? If so where do I point the camera for a circular movement like you pic?
Regards,

Hi Faizal, as you move closer towards the equator, the pole star moves down. So if you shoot nortwards, you will not get the circles as a guy higher up north will get. The above pic was taken at Yosemite in North California, a very high latitude, in the himalays, I usually get the pole star lower.
However even in south India, if you shoot pointing towards north, you will get a better shot.
Shooting east of west will give you straight trails.
For example. the venus setting shot I posted earlier.

But more than north/west thing, always shoot starts keeping scene in mind. Star trails are like extras. Unless your base composition is strong, they will not help much.

Originally Posted by deky

+1 to that, I think this is making a great thread with people sharing information in simple language. Thanks Tsk.

And Fazal, The "North Star" has to be the key. And I dont think whether you are in South or East or wherever, the North star will change its position. It will always remain in the North. (North star is constant and all the other stars revolve around it)

I hope I am right.

BTW I loved your sunset photo

Umm no. Theoretically you will be able to see pole star only till equator, when it will hit the horizon.
So a pole star will always remain fixed, but depending upon your latitude, you will see it closer or farther away from horizon.
People in southern hemisphere do not see north pole star(Dhruv as its called), but see starts closer to the south pole. No specific one star exactly at north pole for Australians.

If you stand at north pole, the pole star will be overhead, with all starts rotating around it. Infact, the best star trails shots are from people at high latitudes, The air is colder, cleaner and if you are at an altitude, there is very little atmospheric interference.

Unfortunately, most parts of India have too much dust/pollution to give you good pics, except the hills that it.

[gd1418]

Thanks Tanveer for these valuable compositional tips.. The yosemite photo is awesome..

This night shot at TsoM was taken above the hill behind the Tso Moriri Resorts, where we were staying. I did take a wide angle with the lake in frame, but it was a full moon day and the moon was up above the hill beyond the lake casting an eerie white glow on the water surface. Even the 200+ sec shot washed out the lake completely and the full moon flared giving several ghost full moons in the shot. I deleted that pic and turned the tripod head behind towards the hill at my back.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

GD, why not take full wide angle shot. The lake would have looked awesome with star light sky.
Few other things to remember for star trail photography
1. Never forget the landscape. With a good view, Star trail photography looks even better.
2. If you shoot towards north in northern hemisphere, you will catch the stars rotating around the pole star.

With wide angle usage, you can use F3.5 etc., and still get your entire scene in focus. Use ISO 200 instead of 100. This means brighter starts, esp when scene is moonlit.
Also your camera can go much more than 200 seconds, try a 1000 second exposure, at 18mm with ISO 200 and F4.5 etc.,
If its cold at night, 1000 second exposure will have little noise.

[tsk1979]

Aah the moon.
When moon is in the way, night shots are always a problem.But moon moves. Many times I plan my night shots in such a way that the time I venture out, the moon is out of the way.
Since the camps are west of the lake, moon rises over the lake, If you wait long enough for moon to go high, you can get amazing shots.
In the first post for this theme, the moon was not full and high above, as moon rise had been before evening. This way it did not really come in the way, but still it washed out some stars.
The best very long shots are with moon less than a quarter, and on the horizon behind you.
It softly lights the landscape without killing the stars.

In the Yosemite shot, this was the case.

[SPARKled]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

With wide angle usage, you can use F3.5 etc., and still get your entire scene in focus. Use ISO 200 instead of 100. This means brighter starts, esp when scene is moonlit.
Also your camera can go much more than 200 seconds, try a 1000 second exposure, at 18mm with ISO 200 and F4.5 etc.,
If its cold at night, 1000 second exposure will have little noise.

I have one question. When you have your camera set for exposure for as long as 1000 seconds, why do you recommend using a higher ISO and the lens wide open? Because the lowest ISO and the lens stopped down should therotically get the least noise and the sharpest image from that lens and with such a long exposure there shouldnt be any worry about enough light not reaching the sensor.

[tsk1979]

Actually you are right, at the lowest ISO there is least noise. But the problem is that stars are moving as earth rotates. So if you want bright trails, you need ISO 200 with F4.5 type aperture.
You can go wider on the Fstop, but then your hyperfocal distance will move further away.

With a lens like 10 or 12mm wide, even at F3.5 almost everything will be in focus, so you can stick to ISO 100.
But with my 18mm, I usually go F4.5 ISO 200 and this gives me appreciably bright star trails.
However if you were shooting a normal night scene
F8 with ISO 100 is the best.

[SPARKled]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Actually you are right, at the lowest ISO there is least noise. But the problem is that stars are moving as earth rotates. So if you want bright trails, you need ISO 200 with F4.5 type aperture.
You can go wider on the Fstop, but then your hyperfocal distance will move further away.

With a lens like 10 or 12mm wide, even at F3.5 almost everything will be in focus, so you can stick to ISO 100.
But with my 18mm, I usually go F4.5 ISO 200 and this gives me appreciably bright star trails.
However if you were shooting a normal night scene
F8 with ISO 100 is the best.

When you say wider on the aperture I guess it means towards wide open right? But when focussing at stars you are anyway focussing at infinity so everything will still be in focus no matter how wide the aperture is or how wide or not the focal length of the lens is. So I think going wide open is fine but raising ISO should be avoided to avoid greater noise. But no matter what ever I say you have a pretty fine picture there even with ISO 200 .

[Torqueguru]

@tsk
I remember that shot and i am shivering as I am typing! haha!
Regards,
TG.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by SPARKled

When you say wider on the aperture I guess it means towards wide open right? But when focussing at stars you are anyway focussing at infinity so everything will still be in focus no matter how wide the aperture is or how wide or not the focal length of the lens is. So I think going wide open is fine but raising ISO should be avoided to avoid greater noise. But no matter what ever I say you have a pretty fine picture there even with ISO 200 .

Actually in landscape you don't just want stars, you want the scenery also. So with a lens wide open, even wide angle, take care so that the nearest part of the frame is further away than a few meters.
The minimum distance is called hyperfocal distance

I have a java app on my phone, where I enter focal length, and aperture and it tells me hyperfocal distance
For example at 18mm F3.5, hyperfocal distance is 4.87 meters.
So if I focus on a tree or light 10 meters away and then flick focus switch to manual, I know it will work on all landscapes as mostly everything right from 10m to infinity will be in focus.

As for ISO100 or 200, I have a 8MP camera with APS-C sensor. Pixel density is quite low as compared to current crop of 15/18MP sensors. So even at ISO 200, I get low noise, esp when its very cold. However when shooting in warmer temps I shift down to ISO 100

[rkbharat]

Taken from Olympus Sp 560UZ, with mini Tripod
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Leh City - from Shanti Stupa