Night Shots?

[Mr.A]

Hi. I have to take some night shots for my photography class at school. I have been experimenting with longer shutter speeds, but it seems that the longer the shutter speed, the lighter it gets which is not what I am trying to get. How do you guys get the stars and startrails to be so bright while the sky is still pitch black? Thanks

[Aleness]

In order to get startrails, you would need to get away from the city as far as possible, preferrably 20-30 miles away so there is no city glow from the distance (that what screws your shots with too much light).
Camera should be either on a tripod or firmly on the ground. Set to manual focus, which should be at infinity, set your shutter to "Bulb", point at the area of the sky you're interested and use a remote shutter release. The longer your shutter stays open, the longer lines you'll get. I've held it up to 20 minutes. Got some very nice trails.

[Mr.A]

Thank you very much. Would you mind posting a link to a remote shutter release, and what is the best way of manually focusing at night? Every time I try, it is impossible to focus. Thanks

[Aleness]

I don't know which camera you have, but I'm using something like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Opteka-RC-4-Wireless-Control-Replacement/dp/B0019RGQVU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258698975&sr=8-2
or the original Canon one:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Wireless-Remote-Control-Digital/dp/B00004WCIC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258699099&sr=8-4
Actually, mine was about $3 from the DealExtreme and it works just fine:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.27843
If you have Nikon or Sony or something else, just search for "<insert camera brand here> remote shutter release". I prefer the IR (infrared) one, some people prefer the corded one. It's completely up to you and it doesn't really make a difference.
When you use it, set your camera mode to Remote and after you press the first time, it'll open the shutter and the second one will close it.

As for focusing, switch it to manual focus and set it to "Infinity".
Good luck.
Post your pictures.

[Todd Lambert]

Higher ISO will help, along with a larger aperture and a wide lens.

[Mr.A]

I have the canon XSI with just the kit lens (18-55 mm). By "infinity", do you mean making the focus ring go out as far as possible? Thanks

[GoHokiesGo]

I've never done a super long shutter night shot, but randomly clicked this thread.

Out of curiousity - what do you set your f-stop at with these shots? I imagine with 10-30 minute shutter speeds, that it doesn't make it easy to do a lot of test shots since it'd take half the night for just a few images.

I have a nice tripod on my xmas list, so might give this a try in the new year for something fun.

[neilwood32]

Best try in the Astronomical section for that sort of advice

[Anke]

I shot this star trails image which is a 125 minute exposure using 215 30 second images with 5 second intervals. Using a very low ISO and a small aperture I was able to get 30 second exposures very easily. I connected the camera to my MacBook and EOS Utility so that the computer controlled the shutter.
Try setting your camera to ISO 100, then in AV mode keep dialling ever smaller apertures until you get to 30 seconds.

Click for larger.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2466/3813588193_fe6f924cda.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ankehuber/3813588193/sizes/o/)

Click for larger.

[GoHokiesGo]

Very interesting shots, I've never planned on doing shots like this but now this thread has me thinking about it. That picture is really neat, thanks for posting!

You created another question for me, and again probably not the easiest to answer - Is there any advantage/disadvantage to doing multiple exposures (like your 215 30-second exposures) as opposed to going to bulb mode and using a remote to open the shutter for a extra long exposure? I suppose in your picture's situation the building was too bright for an extremely long exposure, so maybe I just answered my own question.

Maybe after I get a nice tripod, then I can make a thread in the Astronomy section, but this thread seemed right on topic and just got me thinking.

Thanks for the info though, I found something new to experiment with and add to my list!

[shomat]

and what is the best way of manually focusing at night? Every time I try, it is impossible to focus. Thanks

Do you have a lens with a distance window? Just turn the focusing ring until the marker points to the infinite symbol.

[mrbojangles13]

the multiple exposures would probably (im guessing here) stop the tree and building you see here from being blown out