My first real attempt at night photography

[Maggie Kahman]

I felt like taking pictures last night (this morning?) at midnight. I remember someone mentioning that they were trying there luck at star trails. It was only partly cloudy, with large gaps in the clouds where the stars peeked through beautifully. I figured Id try to take a couple of star pictures. Here are some of the pictures.

I took this on the toolbox of my Grandpas truck. I couldnt find my big tripod, so I used my little table-top one that I have. I thought I had it pretty solid, but evidently not, as you can see that there was movement.

I really like this one. I braved a 15 MPH wind out of the North to take this one; the wind chill was like 6. It was worth it, though. If you cant read what is one the side of the water tower, it says "Cougar Country", for the mascot of the HS I went to, the Sandy Creek Cougars

Directly oppisite the water tower. I was V-E-R-Y cold at this point. Since this was a kind of spur-of-the-moment thing, I didnt spent a whole lot of time finding the proper clothing. Lounge pants, regular shoes, a jacket, and no hat or gloves. Stupid? Very.

I took this one on the spoiler of my car.

any tips/comments are welcome. Hope you liked 'em.

 

[John Wetter]

Although it looks like the EXIF data is gone from the photos, it looks like they were shorter exposures. Be sure to open up the aperture and for star trails, you'd be talking exposures on the order of minutes, not seconds. Those look like somewhere around 15-30 seconds or so, depending on the other settings. Also, for those types of pictures, you have to have a remote release, either a cable or an IR trigger release. Especially when cold, you just can't push the button on the camera without some shake.

It looks like you got a really nice start though. It's amazing what you can find in long exposures.

-John

 

[Maggie Kahman]

Thank you for the comment, John. Yes, they were a 15 second shutter, which for my camera is as high as it will go. Is there anything I can do about that, besides buying another camera?

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

You can always set the timer. Whenever I forget my cable release that's my 2nd option. Your pictures are also appearing very dark. Be sure to open your aperture all the way up in dark situations(i.e. f/2.8), as John stated. The LOWER the number the more open the aperture is. I know ISO settings should stay fairly low with point and shoot cameras as I have seen some extremely grainy photos before, even at 400.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

It might help if you let us know what type of camera you are shooting with. Many point and shoot cameras are extremely difficult to work with for night photography due to in adjustable settings, no bulb exposure, high noise, etc.

 

[Mark Sudduth]

I do not know if you are using a Canon camera, but if you are, it might be worthwhile to check out www.gbtimelapse.com and buy their time lapse software. It works on a lot of Canon digitals. I have used it for many night-time movies using an old Canon A-75 and my Sony Vaio. Here is some of what can be done with time lapse- you are certainly on your way. It is an awesome hobby to say the least. Good luck!

Here are some time lapse movies I have done over the last year or so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDvz7SOwD08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9sTo9SB4t4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxhVvPRzg8Y