First timer shooting the night sky

Hiya everyone, i had the great pleasure of taking a trip to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday and decided to try out some Night shots...would love to hear what i can do better..this is straight out of the camera and only cropped. What's the best noise reduction techniques and is the sky exposed properly or should i be trying to pull more stars out...thanks!

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Cant figure out what lens you used from the exif data.

Canon 16-35 MK II

If its wide open give it some more exposure time perhaps.

What about reducing some of the color noise?

That's very nice chuckie365. I like it for what it is. If you try to dig more stars out of it or apply (almost any) noise reduction, you're going to loose the subtlety that makes it work.
I don't know if you can get rid of that purple band. If you can, it'd be a wall hanger.

Steve.

I think it looks great for a first attempt.

One thing you have to understand is night shots like this are totally different than daytime shots . The longer the exposure the more stars you will capture . There are ways to bring out more stars but over processing can ruin the image . You can also try using a higher ISO but then your looking at more noise . Stacking multiple images helps reduce noise when flats and blacks are added but for this type shot the more you stack the more star trails you will have . Just keep practice with different exposures , ISO and f/ settings. If you have a setting on your camera for night shots without flash , give it a try and if the image looks good then compare the seetings the camera used for the image . I have that setting on my XSi and what i find is it will expose long enough to capture the amount of light and data that the cameras brain thinks it needs for an image . Most my images this way will be from 15-25 sec exposures depending how dark the sky is or how much LP you have in the area . When you find the setting you like then experiment with that same setting in manual mode and adjust accordingly to your taste . BTW i also like the shot above , looks like exposure time was set just right but i would be curious what raising the ISO would look like for the same settings .

Thanks for all of the pointers. Much appreciated. Joshua Tree is an amazing place to capture the night sky...I only wish i knew there was a meteor shower before i went out...would have starting shooting much earlier...oh well..live and learn :P

Great shot.

Here is a great site for beginners.

http://www.astropix.co​m/INDEX.HTM

Tripod shooting:
http://www.astropix.co​m …ASTROP/TRIPOD/T​OC_TRI.HTM

Also, try Neat Image.

BTW did you capture a meteor in the upper left hand corner? There is a streak of something....

Nice shooting...

Erskin71 wrote in post #15155022
Great shot.

Here is a great site for beginners.

http://www.astropix.co​m/INDEX.HTM

Tripod shooting:
http://www.astropix.co​m …ASTROP/TRIPOD/T​OC_TRI.HTM

Also, try Neat Image.

BTW did you capture a meteor in the upper left hand corner? There is a streak of something....

You are correct . I've known Jerry for approx. 11-yrs . Very nice guy and most always willing to help . You can email him and he usually responds in just a few days . He's very busy with other things at hand other than astro work . He's done sports and very good at it also . BTW here's his Sports website : http://www.astropix.co​m/SPORTSPIX/INDEX.HTM

Nice! It would be cool to do a crop with just the tree on the left and getting Orion and Taurus with Pleiades in the shot.

Don't know if the top shot had a shooting star in it...but this one definitely does...

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