Part II
The Night Sky
In the last issue I talked about photographing
night sky landscapes to bring out celestial
objects such as stars, planets and the Milky Way
I term these single exposure, star trail-less shots as ‘static images’.
By using super-long exposures or combining multiple images into
one however, we can give our images a real sense of motion and
movement. 'Star trail' photographs are always very dynamic, with a
lot of visual impact.Method 1 – Super-
long Exposures
To create these stunning star trail
images, much of what I wrote in the
last issue for ‘static’ night sky shots
applies. Same sturdy tripod, same dark
sky conditions, same focusing technique
and same camera equipment. The major
difference between the two shots is that
of exposure times. With the static starimages, we were using exposure times
of no more than 30 seconds to eliminate
the possibility of trails forming behind
each star. This time, that is exactly what
we are trying to achieve – a much longer
single exposure to create the effect of
lengthening the stars.
The Earth rotates 360 degrees every 24
hours. To create a star trail that goes 90
degrees (a quarter of a circle in the sky)
we need a shutter speed of six hours.However, most photographers keep the
maximum length of any individual trail
to about 15 degrees, which means an
exposure of about one hour. Once focus
of the stars and good composition are
achieved, use your remote shutter release
(with the camera in ‘bulb’ mode) to set the
desired exposure. Naturally, if you want
less than 15 degrees of star trails, simply
use a shorter exposure.
With very long exposures (and
especially with high ISO settings) the
sensor tends to heat up more than usual,
creating unusual noise patterns referred
to as 'hot pixels'. If it is bad enough, these
hot pixels can give the impression of
confetti sprinkled across the image. One
thing you can do to negate this noise
somewhat within the camera is to go into
the menu and turn on 'long exposure
noise reduction'.
A technical explanation of long exposure
NR is way too ‘in depth’ to go into here
but there are a couple of things you needWRITTEN BY ~ MATT WINTER | WILDNATURENEWZEALAND56 NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE ~ August / September 2019How
To
Part II
The Night Sky
In the last issue I talked about photographing
night sky landscapes to bring out celestial
objects such as stars, planets and the Milky Way
I term these single exposure, star trail-less shots as ‘static images’.
By using super-long exposures or combining multiple images into
one however, we can give our images a real sense of motion and
movement. 'Star trail' photographs are always very dynamic, with a
lot of visual impact.Method 1 – Super-
long Exposures
To create these stunning star trail
images, much of what I wrote in the
last issue for ‘static’ night sky shots
applies. Same sturdy tripod, same dark
sky conditions, same focusing technique
and same camera equipment. The major
difference between the two shots is that
of exposure times. With the static starimages, we were using exposure times
of no more than 30 seconds to eliminate
the possibility of trails forming behind
each star. This time, that is exactly what
we are trying to achieve – a much longer
single exposure to create the effect of
lengthening the stars.
The Earth rotates 360 degrees every 24
hours. To create a star trail that goes 90
degrees (a quarter of a circle in the sky)
we need a shutter speed of six hours.However, most photographers keep the
maximum length of any individual trail
to about 15 degrees, which means an
exposure of about one hour. Once focus
of the stars and good composition are
achieved, use your remote shutter release
(with the camera in ‘bulb’ mode) to set the
desired exposure. Naturally, if you want
less than 15 degrees of star trails, simply
use a shorter exposure.
With very long exposures (and
especially with high ISO settings) the
sensor tends to heat up more than usual,
creating unusual noise patterns referred
to as 'hot pixels'. If it is bad enough, these
hot pixels can give the impression of
confetti sprinkled across the image. One
thing you can do to negate this noise
somewhat within the camera is to go into
the menu and turn on 'long exposure
noise reduction'.
A technical explanation of long exposure
NR is way too ‘in depth’ to go into here
but there are a couple of things you needWRITTEN BY ~ MATT WINTER | WILDNATURENEWZEALAND56 NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE ~ August / September 2019
How
To