Newbie photography questions

[RosieA]

hi there, I have known about this site for years and have used it quite often but finially have jumped in and signed up!

I am not a strict stargazer and most of the time have no idea what I'm looking at but some things interest me and trying to capture the latest "diamond" is the sky is one of them... Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) in case you didn't know!

I got up at 4am this morning (a bit late I decided) and I know the service station at the bottom left is annoying to say the least but I took these from inside my house, nice and warm!!

I have tried and tried to find a good "receipe" for night photography and have seen many talk about prime lenses v wide and zooms and I do have a 50/1.7 that I can play with too so I guess one question should be... which is better there?? And I suppose ISO v fstop??

I intend to go out this afternoon and have a scout arount to find somewhere the other side of the highway to shoot and am intending to set out around 3am providing the sky is clear but any advice would be most wlecome. I live almost at the edge of suburbia towards Pakenham.

30sec, f3.5, ISO100 Sony a77, 16-80@16mm
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa127/RosieA100/Album%203/201112290406_02930.jpg

30sec, f3.5, ISO1600 Sony a77, 16-80@16mm
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa127/RosieA100/Album%203/201112290408_02931.jpg

30sec, f3.5, ISO200 Sony a77, 16-80@16mm
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa127/RosieA100/Album%203/201112290409_02932.jpg

[renormalised]

Hi Rosie, welcome to IIS:):)

First up, nice shots:) Only a couple of problems.....firstly, nuke that light!!!!!:):P. Or find somewhere you can take piccies from that's not got too much light in it. You may need to drive to a reasonably dark location.Secondly, you'll need to up your ISO to at least 800 to be able to gather enough light to image the comet. Now it's getting dimmer, I'd suggest at least ISO1600 and 50 sec exposures or longer. Your F stop is fine, but if you can lower it, then do so. 16mm will give you a nice wide shot:)

You really need to be setup and ready to shoot at around 3am....3:30 at the latest. I would even aim to be ready by 2:30am. The comet is higher up now, but being dimmer, the less light you have to contend with, the better.

[RosieA]

Thanks for the welcome Carl :)
I know the light is a problem but hopefully if skies are clear tonight I will be in a much darker area!!
More ISO?? My second image is 1600 and I think it's too bright?? Maybe more because of the BP station will see tonight... also, what good for noise reduction?? I only used what was available in Adobe Lightroom, would I be better using uncamera NR or getting something like noise ninja??

[renormalised]

I'd use the ICNR as that will help. ISO 1600 and higher will be almost mandatory from now on, given that the comet is fading rather quickly. You'll need all the light gathering capacity you can get to get a good shot. Otherwise, you'll have to go much longer with your exposures. Haven't used Lightroom, so can't comment. I use the GIMP, and that does what I want.

[RosieA]

Cool, thanks I will remember to have it turned on :)

[eamsie]

Hi Carl, these are cool and simple tips. I'm thinking about ways to capture the night sky at night (nothing too serious like getting into stellarium but maybe if the hobby starts getting more serious :)). I'll try playing around with the ISO too...although I may need a good tripod first. Damn!

[renormalised]

What I would suggest, Jessie, is that you build yourself a tracking platform so that you can track the objects you want to photograph and also so that the stars don't trail.....unless, of course, you want to take a star trail piccie:).

Here's a good platform you can knock up for yourself....

http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/52 (http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/52)

Then, what you can do, is lower the ISO rating you're shooting at, as you'll be tracking the sky and won't need to shoot so fast to stop any trailing of the stars or to pickup your subjects quickly. Also helps to reduce noise in your piccies.

[eamsie]

Wow, thanks. Will defo keep a note of that. You guys here have a plethora of knowledge! I'll try those two options out and experiement with images with star trailing and ones without :)

[RosieA]

Thanks for that link Carl... I have a brother-in-law who likes to tinker with electronics, have sent him the link!

[stardust steve]

Excellent info and thanks for the link Carl. I have been searching for a tracking mount for my camera that can fit into my current budget and this looks like its the go. :thumbsup: Looking forward to seeing some images Rosie and Jessie.