Hi all. I have been taking photos for a long time, but only recently started in astrophotography. I'm not that impressed with my efforts so far. After reading lots of articles, I've come to the conclusion that all I need is more patience and a better location.
Gawler is great at night for viewing, but not as good for photos.
Here is my first attempt.
Hi Ingrid. I think you may need to stretch your data in a program like photoshop. Unlike daytime photos, astrophotograpy often need some software processing to get the data hidden in the image. Not sure what camera, lense and f:stop you are using. I tend to use aroun f5. I often image at Gawler as I am one of those Guys you see flying overhead at Gawler. I use the Gawler Airfield as I have a clear view and its nice an dark.
It can be fun even at a moderately dark area and minor light pollution.
Firstly you have to manually focus the camera. Your image is badly out of focus. It can be tricky to focus at night depending on your camera. Usually magnified live view on a DSLR at the highest ISO.
If that doesn't show it clearly enough then focus on a bright distant light until its sharp. Again magnified live view is best.
Otherwise autofocus on a distant object during the day then turn autofocus off and perhaps even tape the focus ring with some non marking tape (like the blue masking tape at hardware stores in the paint section). Then your camera is focused ready to go at night.
You need a lens that will be sharp fairly wide open and preferably F2.8 to let enough light in to get a bright enough exposure.
Samyang 14mm F2.8 lens is "cheap" and works well for this.
Then use a high enough ISO for the image to show. To start best to use ISO1600-3200 depending on your camera. Some modern cameras will even do ISO6400. A 14mm lens will take up to 30 seconds of exposure before stars start to elongate.
Thanks for the great advice, guys. Much appreciated. I use a Nikon D5100 with 18-55mm set at 18. This only goes down to f3.5, so I tried setting ISO to 1600. I use some basic photo processing on my ipad, (photoshop express), as I just can't afford the full version.
just to demonstrate what a photo editing program like photoshop can do, for astrophotography. I copied your image and quickly altered it to bring out some more colour and saturation. obviously with the original and a bit more care it would improve a bit.
Thanks for all your help. Thanks Russell for the image editing. It does look a lot better. Very much appreciated.
Yesterday was such a nice day, sunny and clear, I was getting ready to try my luck. As soon as the sun set, the clouds came in. Not my night.
How did you modify ingrid's photo?
I had one that took last Sat but it looked not good enough.
Please see attached jpeg.
hey Alan,
Nice data you have there you need to use a program like photoshop to be able to get the most of the data you have.
from there I slightly altered the curves (raised above the line but making a nice curve) and then sliding the levels. I noticed when stretching this out that there might have been of external light spill or thin cloud around or i may have just pushed it a bit far.
Did you stack images or is it a single frame? any other details you can reveal about the photo?
The photo that I attached was a single photo.
17mm (Tamron 17-50mm)
ISO1600
30s
f/2.8
Canon 600D
My photo is a bit dim.
You will get better results with stacking more than one image. The more the merrier. It will even out noise. Download Deep Sky Stacker (for free) to stack the subs. You may be able to stretch the image out more, or you may be able to up the ISO a tad and come out with less noise.
I am curious, why would stacking images of such faint objects give you a better overall image? I can understand that noise from high ISO can be somewhat negated, but are there other advantages to stacking standard wide angle night shots? I have a camera that I have used for some night sky photography away from a scope and they come out fine, but the light pollution and short shutter time makes for underwhelming looking images. I never thought to stack them though. Intriguing idea.
I am curious, why would stacking images of such faint objects give you a better overall image? I can understand that noise from high ISO can be somewhat negated, but are there other advantages to stacking standard wide angle night shots? I have a camera that I have used for some night sky photography away from a scope and they come out fine, but the light pollution and short shutter time makes for underwhelming looking images. I never thought to stack them though. Intriguing idea.
*EDIT* Faint spelling error correction.
Trido, stacking can bring out the faint objects and the noise can be reduced almost to nothing if you take enough images. It allows you to stretch the image as people say to bring out the faint stuff without the noise overwhelming everything.
Ingrid, I have been using the same camera. I have used the D5100, If you can't see clearly to focus using the magnified live view, switch to manual focus, do the best you can, then take a short image (a few seconds exposure), zoom in on the image to check the focus. Then adjust the focus a *tiny* amount and take another image. See if it is better or worse focus. Keep doing this and within a few minutes and a few photos later and you will have nice sharp focus, and can take pictures all night
I find with that lens you need to set it to infinity and then wind it back a tiny bit to achieve focus.
It is well worth trying.
Hi Ingrid, I started out with the exact same setup earlier this year and had many nights of muddling though and teaching myself so I thought I pass on some info. I have since changed my lens to a Nikon 35mm f1.8 and I'm continuing my learning by mucking around with the full manual setting.
To start with change the dial on your camera to the aperture priority (A) this takes some of the confusion and work out so you can focus on learning small bits at a time instead of being overloaded with information. Then I make sure that the lens is focused to 'infinity' which you can set by flicking the switch on the side of the lens to 'M' and twisting the focus ring all the way to the right and looking through the view finder (not the live view screen) at a bright star I then ease the focus ring slightly left and is should bring the star/stars into focus quite nicely.
You also need to be aware of where you are pointing the camera . If it is pointing towards the north or south poles just remember that your exposures should be no longer than about 15 sec otherwise your stars will streak a few mm and ruin the shot as they move faster due to the Earth's spin. If you have a shutter release remote you can make proper star streaks without the need to stack multiple exposures as the camera will only do a max of 30sec exposure without it. And at 30-50 bucks it is worth it.
If you have any other questions just ask and I'll try to help.
Thanks for the help, Katrina.
I have taken quite a few photos, overall I'm happy with the results.
I also bought a 35mm F1.8, (great minds thinking alike, ), which is an excellent lens for all types of photography.
Hi Ingrid, I have read all the posts on this thread, and you have received
some sound advice, and some which is plain wrong, which can only lead
to confusion for you. I suggest that you forget your normal photographic
experience, and more or less start from scratch. Take your time and learn
astroimaging from the ground up. Whilst learning the basics you will become thoroughly familiar with operating your gear in the dark.
Firstly, forget post exposure image processing until you are producing
acceptable single exposure images,[which can in fact be very good], and therefore also forget stacking multiple images for now.
The easy way to get started producing decent images is as follows.
Set your camera to Manual;set your lens to Manual; set your 18-55mm
lens to 18mm and f4 [ will reduce any aberrations that your f3.5 lens
may have]. Enable your camera's version of long exposure noise reduction. Set the ISO to 6400. No need to use RAW at this stage;JPEGs
are fine.
Find a bright star as close as possible to your intended target.
Using Live View, magnify the star the max. possible. Manually focus
the star until it is as small as it appears in the box at lower right of the LCD screen.
Move the camera to your target taking care not to disturb the focus setting.
Take a 5sec. exposure and check to see that the focus is spot on
by magnifying it on the LCD.
If the focus is good take a series of exposures of say, 10, 15, and
20secs, and see what you get.
Setting the camera to A is useless, as you still have to set the aperture yourself; but then the camera will set what it thinks is an
appropriate shutter speed[which it won't be].
The possible exposure times without star trailing are in fact longer the nearer you are to either pole. Your 18-55mm will allow around 8-9secs
near to the celestial equator, and around 50secs close to either pole.
Logic will tell you that a star that has to go right around the sky in 24hrs will APPARENTLY move faster than one that has to orbit a tiny circle around a pole in the same time.
You can get a simple cable shutter release for a few dollars.[ my Canon one cost $2.95 inc. postage on Ebay] Camera shake has little effect
on wide angle imaging, but you can of course use the 10sec timer to
prevent it if you wish.
Light pollution is very bad[obviously worse the longer the exposure],
therefore try for the darkest possible location, or if that is not possible
get a light pollution filter.
I ALWAYS suggest that a newbie to astroimaging produce nice
single exposure results as soon as possible,because the road to very
high quality results is tough, and many try to do too much too soon
and end up disappointed with their early efforts, and frequently give
up altogether.
Lastly, if you continue to find focusing difficult I suggest you buy
a small Bahtinov mask [about $30-35 ] which makes it quick and easy.
raymo
Thanks for the great advice, guys. Much appreciated. I use a Nikon D5100 with 18-55mm set at 18. This only goes down to f3.5, so I tried setting ISO to 1600. I use some basic photo processing on my ipad, (photoshop express), as I just can't afford the full version.
you need to use a program like photoshop to be able to get the most of the data you have.
or i may have just pushed it a bit far.
