Star photography guide

Possibly teaching granny to suck eggs on here but I put together a quick guide on how to shoot stars and trails. Its not super detailed on nuts and bolts, didnt want to scare off people who had never done it before!


http://zarphag.com …star-photography-a-guide/

Rob - fantastic read!!! This is very helpful, I'll have to put this to use sometime. Might be hard living in Chicago though :P

A friend does star trails in central London...

Good guide Rob, some really useful info on there.

I am thinking of a star trial image with a lighthouse in the foreground. Assuming I can get it framed correctly with the nifty fifty would that be better than either the 18-55mm kit lens or 24-105mm L.

Framing is an issue as to have Polaris and the lighthouse in the frame involves setting up on the cliff side so I can't go too far back

If you can frame it then yes. The 50 will be a lot sharper and have less comma issues, stop it down to f2.5 or f4, depending on dof issues for foreground.

Otherwise I would go for the 24-105L, it should be all round better optically and probably faster overall than the kit lens.

Cheers Rob, will give it a try. Think I will be going with the 24-105 as I am sure framing is too tight. May change when I upgrade to full frame though.

Thanks for share this.. its very helpful really

Thanks, really helpful. I too am in central London but hoping to try some astro up at my parents in the lake district this Christmas.

One question- with a photo like the one with the tent and camping chairs, do you take an additional photo focused on the foreground and stack it later?

not with that one, I was a little back from the tents and 10mm/f4 ish gives a decent dof anyhow.

Thanks Rob

Glad people are finding it useful.

jdhill wrote in post #15247050
Rob - fantastic read!!! This is very helpful, I'll have to put this to use sometime. Might be hard living in Chicago though :P

JD,

If you ever want to try shooting some star trails in Chicago, let me know. I've been trying it, and it's possible.

Great read Rob, very handy indeed