Photo feedback and Critique

I can give you a few hints to start off your long exposure experimentations and adventures.

- Use a strong, sturdy tripod. You want to minimise the effect of wind, as you already mentioned, it can be a big problem. A few things you can do are; Remove your camera strap (this is a great wind catcher and will cause your rig to shift), set your tripod low to the ground in the most stable configuration you can make (or the lowest centre of gravity you can to compose the photo.) Some tripods have a hook on the bottom of the centre post, use this to hang a weight, such as a backpack, off the post to lower your C.O.G and reduce wind effect.

- Set the focus to infinity. (I often set to infinity and roll the dial back just a minuscule amount. That’s all lens dependent. Fisheye might be tough due to lack of sharpness around the fringes of the images)

- For star shots, I find that exposures in the range of 20-23 seconds gives the most light from the stars, without resulting in noticeable star streaking as it moves over time.

- If you don’t have an intervalometer, buy one ($20 off ebay, copies of the canon/nikon models and perform exactly the same. I’ve used one for 2 years without fail).

- If you don’t buy an intervalometer, set the picture timer to a 2second delay. That way when you click the shutter button, any vibrations your hand induces on the camera will be gone by the time the shutter releases.

- Composition. If it’s a windy night, try and compose with objects that are independent to the wind, such as the light post you used, or the power line towers. That way the blurred trees moving in the wind won’t detract so much from the picture.

- Leave civilisation. Good galaxy shots are near impossible with the light pollution you will get from city lights. If you can, go for a drive an hour or two away from the city and your results will blow you away.

- Shoot in raw. You can clean up the image drastically with the extra data embedded into the raw files.

- finally, google is your friend! There are lots of blogs around demonstrating long exposure techniques and tips. learn as much as you can from them!

I think I’m going camping next weekend to try and shoot some long star trails and timelapse the galaxy doing its thing. I haven’t done many timelapse adventures so I will come back with what I learnt then!

Thanks heaps mate will take it all on board. Looking forward to photos from your adventure!

-cover your eyepiece when taking the shot. They say light leaks in from there
-if you can’t center your shot, shoot wider, knowing you will crop it in post
-vertical fisheye is 95% of the time wack. Keep it horizontal

plus reread everything fmf said

Thanks mate!

One from the weekend trip. Had great lighting from the moon striking the cliff face. Once the moon went down we timelapsed the milky way moving across the sky. Also shot some wire rope long exposures which are epic. Amazing weather and location, got a few good ones I will post on my FB over the coming weeks

An example of the wire rope idea!

Thats wicked!

fmf - 20 May 2013 01:55 PM

One from the weekend trip. Had great lighting from the moon striking the cliff face. Once the moon went down we timelapsed the milky way moving across the sky. Also shot some wire rope long exposures which are epic. Amazing weather and location, got a few good ones I will post on my FB over the coming weeks

Another nice one mate!!

I was on a camp last week with work and had my camera but took the tripod off the bag the night before so forgot to take it.
Managed to sneak away from the students for a bit and tried to take some off the roof of the bike trailer. Stars were heaps better being 1hr out of the city.
Again, still need work, but here are some. Was camping in lots of trees so was only a little opening for pics. I know it was said to avoid fisheye verticals, but my other lens wasnt working for me.

Oh, and I have bought an intervalometer just waiting for it to arrive

nice work, the first looks the best to me in terms of sharpness. It takes awhile to find the sweet spot, and the intervelometer will work since you can pick 21s rather then 20 or 25 etc

When I do star shots.. I put it on live view and zoom in (mine does 5x and 10x) I use 10x and focus it by looking at the screen…

(not sure what camera you have but 2 of mine can do this..).

Also if you really want to get into it.. look into a stacking program for really in depth photos..

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/photography-techniques/understanding-image-stacking-for-astrophotography.html

fmf - 21 May 2013 08:50 PM

nice work, the first looks the best to me in terms of sharpness. It takes awhile to find the sweet spot, and the intervelometer will work since you can pick 21s rather then 20 or 25 etc

Cheers mate
yeh it hopefully will arrive this week so I can have a bit of a play with it. Hope we get some clear nights and I might drive out of melbs for a few ours and play heaps

h0z - 21 May 2013 09:14 PM

When I do star shots.. I put it on live view and zoom in (mine does 5x and 10x) I use 10x and focus it by looking at the screen…

(not sure what camera you have but 2 of mine can do this..).

Also if you really want to get into it.. look into a stacking program for really in depth photos..

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/photography-techniques/understanding-image-stacking-for-astrophotography.html

thanks hoz! I have a 650d. Will look at doing it that way.
Cheers for the link too

No worries ^_^

Nice photos guys!

I really like that wire rope one FMF, looks sick!

FMF - STUNNING Love it!

And K2 yep first one is best

The one with the fire it could have better better with a better composition.

If you had of kept the whole fire in the shot.

Are you using the timer on these so you don’t have hand shake when clicking the shutter?