Night Sky Photography Tips

I am by no means a professional when it comes to night sky photographs. I'm only just starting to really get into experimenting with night sky photos myself.  A lot of it has to do with the fact that I don't go outside in the middle of the night and play around with it much. If only it got darker here sooner in the summer. it's still dusk at 10:30. I thought I would share what I learned through trial and error.

We went to Sardinia last week and we were in a pretty remote beach area, good for viewing and photographing the stars. I took my camera out and did a little playing around. I've tried my hand at it before but not as long and not in as good of a rural area.

 Here are some of my images and my tips I found useful and thought I could pass along to another amateur night sky photographer.

ISO 1000     f/1.8      15s      50mm      no flash

 ISO 3200      f/1.8      8s      50mm      no flash

What you will need:

Tripod - You will be keeping the shutter open for a long time so this is necessary for keeping your images crisp.

Shutter remote - Another necessity to keep you from jiggling the camera when pressing the shutter release button. 

Lens with low aperture setting - I used a fixed 50mm lens but I also used my kit lens for one.

Dark, cloudless sky - although some clouds can look cool in night photos. Maybe I'll do another post on that soon.

Patience - lots and lots of patience.

Small Light - I used a small flashlight in setting up my equipment and checking my settings etc. Plus walking in the dark wasn't fun.

 ISO 1250      f/3.5      15s      18-105mm      no flash

Big Dipper

ISO 100      f/1.8      383.5s      50mm      no flash

Tips for Night Sky Photography:

The first thing you need to do is wait for a dark night with no clouds. You'll get better shots away from any street lights, houses, etc because those lights give off light pollution. The further out away from any lights the better your photos will be, otherwise you might end up with some strange orange glows in some of your photos. That can be okay sometimes as in my picture with the tower and shooting star. It may look completely dark to your eye but your camera will pick up some fragments of light.

Set up your equipment, pointing the camera away from city lights and take a few test shots. See what it looks like and tweak as necessary. I started just pointing at random points in the sky and played around with my settings.

Remember your ISO can be in the low or middle range. Mine ranged from 100 to 3200 to help get more starlight coming through your camera depending on the image I was trying to capture. Don't use your flash.

Auto focus won't work on stars so don't even try it. Set your camera/lens to manual and what I found worked for me was to focus at infinity and then move it back just a little bit. On some brighter stars I could see them in my viewfinder and focus on them manually but most the time I felt like I was just guessing on the focus. That's okay too. That's where your patience comes in.

Once you get your stars in focus set your shutter speed to different settings to see what you like. Start with 5, 10, 30 seconds. If you choose to try longer shutter speeds you'll have to set your camera to bulb and have a way to time yourself. I'm not very patience when having to wait minutes for one photo. The longest I think I've done was about 6 minutes.

If you're lucky you might even get a shooting star in some of you photos! There might be planes that also fly through your frame and they aren't as pretty. Aim towards different areas to see what composition you like or what you can capture.

For star tracking (which shows the movement of the earth) you'll want to keep your shutter open for longer. To create a circle pattern, shoot towards the north star (see above). The further away from the north star, the longer the trails look.

ISO 100      f/2.5      301.4s      50mm      no flash

Hopefully these tips will help you when starting out with your own night sky photography. Have fun playing around with it and see what works best for you in your area. Just remember it takes some trial and error and a lot of patience so don't get discouraged, keep at it. I'm hoping to try my hand at some more night photography again soon.

Broken Macro Lens = Tears

This is the story of how my lens got broken.

A little while back this happened. It was a sad sad day in my house. This is my 105mm micro lens.

It was a chilly day at the end of January and I decided this was a good day to go outside in the backyard and try to get some macro photography of the little snowflakes falling on the grass. I got my camera ready, checked the battery, changed to my macro lens, and set it up on the tripod so that I could get low in the grass and keep it steady. I have to stop right here and say that usually I just hold it in my hand and try to keep it steady. But, for some reason I was shaky that morning, so I went with the tripod in hopes of getting clearer images. I set it all up by the back door and went around the corner to get my jacket and rain boots on. 

All of a sudden, I heard a huge crash from the kitchen. I freaked out and ran in there. My camera was on the floor. Since I wasn't actually present when it fell, this part of the story is just from my assessment of the situation. The macro lens is pretty heavy and had caused the camera to lean forward a little bit, just enough to cause the tripod to tip over from the adjustment. And my camera went down, lens first.

I was so upset. 

I ran in there mumbling "no, no, no" under my breath and hoping nothing was broken.

But it was broken. 

It had fallen onto our hard tile floor and now was sporting horrid cracks in the front glass.

The good news is that we have insurance on my lens. The problem was, I couldn't send it to a Nikon company in the USA, I had to get it done in Germany. There is no Nikon repair service near me so I had to mail my baby off. Let me say this whole process of fixing it has taken way too long. I'm still waiting on the repairs to be completed and I'm starting to get frustrated with the slow communication with the service center. I can't get the insurance to cover it without some paperwork from them and they haven't gotten it to me yet.

But, hopefully I'll have it back in my hands soon. Preferable before I fly over to the states for a few weeks. I leave in less than 2 weeks.

Yellow Field of Dreams

Recently I posted about my photography fears.  If you are a photographer, you should take a second and go read it, you probably have similar fears.

I talked specifically about a yellow field of flowers by my house.  It took me some timing but everything finally clicked into place and I got some shots in the field. That's what I'm sharing with you today. I faced my fears and came out on top! It's an awesome feeling!

You have already seen these photos if you're on my Facebook fan page, so feel free to skip this post.

Also I've started a gallery/shop to sell some of my photography. It's still a work in progress, I'm adding new photos each day, but it's a huge step I've been wanting to take.

Go check it out, maybe there will be something you want for your home or office. You can get art prints, framed prints, canvas prints, acrylic prints and cards!

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Catherine Murton Photography Facebook Fan Page

Scavenger Hunt Sunday (15)

This week I thought I would jump back into Scavenger Hunt Sunday. All the photos for this week are from our recent trip to Holland last weekend. I'm still sorting through the THOUSAND photos I took so look for more vacation pictures later this week. Hopefully this sneak peak will bring you back for more!

Yellow:

This single yellow brick on the pathway winding through Keukenhof Flower Garden in Holland caught my eye. 

Makes Me Smile:

Ok so this isn't the best photo but I captured the distress on Ariana's face when they brought out our seafood dinner with whole cooked fish, eyeballs and all. It made me laugh but she was a champ and tried everything!

Ancient or Antique:

I'm thinking this falls into the category of Ancient. It's the door on the old lighthouse in The Hague, Holland.

Splash:

Little fuzzy duckling enjoying a rainy fountain in the Keukenhof Flower Garden, Holland.

In The Sun:

 I captured this sunset run on the shore of the North Sea. We stayed in The Hague a few nights and wandered down to enjoy the beach sunsets while we were there. I love the silhouettes of the dog and his person running in the sun.

Linking up with Ashley and her Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

Textured Buildings

Today, I'm focusing on textures. I've been noticing a lot of little things lately.

(I love everything going on in this picture)

 (stucco maybe)

(peeling paint and rusting metal)

(peeling paint on wood)

(clay)

(glass)

I took these photos from my village of Steinbach and also the village of Schonenberg Kubelberg here in Germany. I love all the textures these villages have. I saved my doors and windows shots for another day and also I have some pretty awesome shots of my favorite house there. I added a little sneak peek in this post. It's the second photo from the bottom with the red and green, but I'm saving the best for later this week.

All of these were taken with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 50mm/f1/8D lens.

I'm linking up with Macro Monday

Spring is for Pink

Pink is my favorite color in the spring and you can find it everywhere. I loved this pink bike we saw in Luxembourg. Plus pink flowering trees are kind of like magic. Of course I threw in a shot of the pink ranunculus in my garden because I love that flower so much!

My nails are currently pink too but I don't have a photo of that to share today.

Our weather hasn't been much like Spring lately. Yesterday morning it was 37 degrees and SNOWING! Snow, seriously? In mid-April! I'm pretty sure by this time last year we were wearing tank tops, or at least not wearing our heavy winter jackets still! I had to dig out my scarf again. Crazy German weather.

Linking up with:

Macro Monday, Tuesday Tips and Pics

P64: Green (fairy)

Have you ever tried Absinthe? 

I have. 

I love the idea of it, but honestly it's not my favorite thing. Actually, it tastes like someone took a licorice jellybean and set it on fire. Oh and added sugar.

In Heidelberg there is a cute Absinthe shop on a side street. I saw this cute fairy in the window reflecting the green Absinthe sign when we were shopping there. Abisnthe is also known as the green fairy so I loved this.

Linking up with Project 64 as usual.

Les Portes de Paris - photography series

Les Portes de Paris - The Doors of Paris.

Large colorful ornate doors like these are found all over Paris.

I became fascinated with them during our trip back in May. I went to Paris with my Aunt this weekend and wow, do I love Paris! I decided this would be a great time to post my doors to Paris post that I've been holding onto for a while.

 

I've decided that I'm going to go to Paris as many times as I can while we are here!

*sigh* Oh Paris, je t'aime 

Autumn is my favorite

I have a little secret.

I love Spring, I love Summer, and Winter is pretty with it's snowflakes.

But, I ADORE Autumn.

The colors in the leaves are like candy for the eyes.

The air feels so crisp and clean and pure.

I love sipping on hot cocoa and apple cider I love seeing pumpkins and Halloween is the best holiday!

Boots and sweaters and crunching leaves under your feet.

Yep, Autumn is my favorite.