OT - A little night photography fun

[BlueCorn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14627275#post14627275 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Can you tell us mere mortals more about how you got those shots? That's just amazing, Doug. We, seriously, are not worthy.

I sort of already did Marc.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.binaryemulsion.com/wordpress/2009/03/10/orion-and-oak-trees/

 

[melev]

Okay, got the basics from your blog page. Did you use a IR remote to trigger the shutter? Do you use Mirror Lock-up to avoid even that bit of shake?

What time of night was it? It seems like you were there around dusk, since you mentioned waiting for it to get darker.

When you say 17mm, does that mean you made it a point to not zoom in even a fraction, correct? So was this the full image, or a crop? What did you choose to focus upon, the trees or the pinpoints of light?

I love it. Maybe some day I'll be able to shoot something like this. When I was driving to Tucson, there were several nights where I just had to pull over in the middle of nowhere to enjoy the starfield above. It was incredible, and I would have loved to have saved a single shot to revisit from time to time.

 

[BlueCorn]

Okay, got the basics from your blog page. Did you use a IR remote to trigger the shutter? Do you use Mirror Lock-up to avoid even that bit of shake?

I use a wired remote trigger and mirror lockup on every shot.

What time of night was it? It seems like you were there around dusk, since you mentioned waiting for it to get darker.

They were taken 2 hours after sunset.

When you say 17mm, does that mean you made it a point to not zoom in even a fraction, correct? So was this the full image, or a crop? What did you choose to focus upon, the trees or the pinpoints of light?

Correct. It was a 17-40mm lens set as wide as it would go. The image was cropped very slightly just to clean up the edges.

In a scene like this, there is no foreground to worry about. Essentially, everything is at infinity. Autofocus won't lock so you have to work around that. What I do is compose the scene on the tripod. Once I'm happy with the scene I pull the camera off of the tripod, point is at the moon and let it autofocus. Then turn off autofocusing (my AF is actually mapped to a button so I don't have to move the switch on the lens) and put it back on the tripod to take the shot.

I love it. Maybe some day I'll be able to shoot something like this. When I was driving to Tucson, there were several nights where I just had to pull over in the middle of nowhere to enjoy the starfield above. It was incredible, and I would have loved to have saved a single shot to revisit from time to time.

It's just a matter of practice. There's an awful lot of shooting that can be done after dark.

Cheers

 

[melev]

Thanks, that really helps. I'd like to try this when I'm away from our city lights again. That trick of focusing on the moon is good. It doesn't affect the exposure because you aren't spot-metering, correct? After all, you had to let go of the shutter button before putting it back on the tripod.

 

[BlueCorn]

I'm always in manual exposure mode so it makes no difference.

 

[melev]

So are you spinning that exposure knob to keep it in the center, or did you dip down or go up in that particular shot? I've been staying in the center for most shots.

 

[BlueCorn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14631461#post14631461 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
So are you spinning that exposure knob to keep it in the center, or did you dip down or go up in that particular shot? I've been staying in the center for most shots.

Depends on the scene and whether what I'm metering on is middle grey.


In this case, I metered on the brightest part of the sky, directly above the horizon, and set the exposure to about -1 stop.

The center of your meter isn't necessarily what the scene should be exposed at. That's the exposure necessary to make the scene middle gray. If you do that on a bright white scene, like snow, it'll be underexposed ~2 stops. Likewise if you meter a black object in the center it'll be overexposed ~2 stops.

The meter isn't telling you how to set your camera. It's giving you the information necessary to set your camera. If you're just going to dial it into the center, leave it on automatic.

 

[melev]

Ouch. :lol: Thanks again.

 

[Jessy.]

Very nice shot. I've been dying to compose one like this here in Sand Diego. A good friend of mine has some similar shots and I think they are amazing. He suggested to shoot on full moon. I like the tip about focusing on the moon. wouldn't have thought of that. One question for you though, why did you choose to shoot at 400 ISO instead of 100? Was it because you didn't want the exposure to be longer than 30 seconds?

 

[Hookup]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14631502#post14631502 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by beerguy

The meter isn't telling you how to set your camera. It's giving you the information necessary to set your camera.

Wow, I've been trying to come up with a clear way of telling my wife exactly that statement! I'm going to quote you...

 

[BlueCorn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14650385#post14650385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jessy.
Very nice shot. I've been dying to compose one like this here in Sand Diego. A good friend of mine has some similar shots and I think they are amazing. He suggested to shoot on full moon. I like the tip about focusing on the moon. wouldn't have thought of that. One question for you though, why did you choose to shoot at 400 ISO instead of 100? Was it because you didn't want the exposure to be longer than 30 seconds?

At ISO 100, the exposure would have been 2 minutes so the stars would have blurred considerably.

 

[Kreeger1]

could you link your photo to a larger image file? I'd like to use that as my desk top if that's ok with you. I'm just getting back into photography after being out of it for basically 17 years. A photo I took in my high school photography class won a national award and I received a scholarship to college for it. I've since lost the drive to do photography on any upper level.
Your photo is inspirational, makes me want to get back out there and take some quality pictures.
Erik

 

[BlueCorn]

Sorry Erik.

I appreciate the kind words and hope that it pushes you back into shooting but that's as big as I post on the web. If folks can "make their own" it cuts into my print business.

 

[Kreeger1]

Did not know you sold the prints, how much is that one?

 

[melev]

If you were a Premium Member, I bet you'd get a better deal. :lol:

He can't answer that in the forums; you might try PMing him or check his website.