Went camping - Kimberley, South Africa

[David Ransley]

Attachment 604975Hi, I noticed that with a crop camera, the star movement is visible at 30 seconds and had to go down to 15 seconds. My 40D at 1600 iso prodiced the Milky Way. 16mm

[MidnightSun]

Wow...great shot...love it.

[c3p1]

Great shot, I am new to this type of photography and if you dont mind sharing so was this stacked? If so how many pictures stacked? I just got a handle on star trails now I am trying to figure out how to take such as yours. I really love the windmill in the shot! Was this "painted on via a flashlight? Thanks for any info you are willing to provide! Paul

[David Ransley]

Thanks, the secret to success really is this:
1. You need away from the city - and if you need to move outside of town, then I would say 30km or more. Cities are bigger and provide more light polution - drive out somewhere for a weekend.
2. To get the visual effect of the milky way - you are looking at 16mm and if possible a full frame body. I tried 28mm as well, but the beauty lies in the landscape effect.
3. The stars move - decide on what you need to vew the result or the size of the print. Smaller form factors and 30 seconds for a single shot does well. For a 1920x1080 screen resolution, I notice the oblong stars and feel that 15 seconds of movement is more acceptable.
4. ISO rating 1600 or more, because you will reduce the size and make a smaller JPG. Try the larger ISO first.
5. Focusing the lens is a challenge at night. Set to manual pre-focus in the day or learn where the infinity setting is for you lens\camera combination. With a 16mm lens, even live view focusing is a challenge.
6. Use F2.8 or better - you need that lens wide open.
7. Use the EOS utility and attach your camera to a laptop. Place camera on a tri-pod and close the view finder. Take a test shot and go from there.
8. Foreground objects look better when lit - the one you see here was lit by indirect lighting about 60 meters further away. Not the best, because of the control, but the camp site had a light for the fireplace. You will need to play with different techniques.
9. I didn't stack, but stacking is an option. It is very technical and you require dark frames, light frames and many more to do it right. If you have foreground content, then the stacking process will align the stars and in the process blur the foreground. Post processing therefore becomes a serious hobby. I like going this route if I need good results and have the time to post process. I would say you can get 90% there with a single shot, but that last 10% has the potential to really make a shot. You will end up with a composite, but one that is as close to perfection as you can get. I use the TC-80N3 to take the shots I need when I plan to stack. A good example of 84 shots: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/....php?t=1204926
10. Have fun and experiment - remember the colour temperature of the milky way is between 4700 and 5000. You will need to play with the histogram to bring out detail and color. The normal camera is used to photograph a wide visual spectrum and lots of light.

[c3p1]

David thank you so much for all the details they are very helpful! I never knew I would like this type of photography until I started looking in this section of the forum! I have a lot to learn, but more importantly, I have a lot to try and figure what will work for me! Again, thanks for taking the time to post this information!
Paul

[David Ransley]

I didn't plan to stack, but I had multiple images of the same scene and decided to stack 5 of them without the dark or flat files. What is always nice about stacking is the noise reduction.