This has been a driving force for getting a digital SLR camera for a while now. One of the first photos I took with my Finepix was of the plough (ursa major) over my home village in England.
I tramped out my house at about 9pm with my camera in one hand, tripod in the other. I got up to the top of the hill above my house and set up the picture. It took me a while but eventually got the stars to start to appear on my pictures. The trouble came when I got home to look at the photos on the computer. The gainyness of the photo was just so terrible.
As with low light shots you have to make an effot to capture the stars.
Using the manual setting, set the aperture of the camera as wide as you can. Aperature is measured in a value called an f-stop. You want to make the number as small as possible.
Secondly you have to increase the shutter speed to as long a time as you can. If you are lucky enough, you can increase it to maybe 15-30 seconds long.
Now try the photo. How does it look? If you cant see stars this is when you want to increase the ISO number. My opinion on the ISO number is this. Keep it as low as possible. By increasing the ISO number what you are doing is effectively bunching light receptors together. If the light is too weak to trigger a response from one receptor it can group local receptors together and in doing so increase the response but also increase the grainyness of the photo. The above photo was taken such.
f-3.2, 15sec, ISO 1600.
By getting a DSLR I will now have a bulb function open to me. Blub refers back to the old days when the photographer will squeeze a rubber bulb to open and release it to close it. Effectively it means it will be a manual shutter release. By doing this I hope to increase my shutter time on the order of minutes allowing me to decrease my ISO number and getting a crisper nicer photo in the process. We will just have to see won't we?
My personal inspiration for this type of photograpgh is a man by the name of Art Wolfe (American of course). This photo has been a constant insipration to me.
It was done on a single piece of film. Firstly he took a photo for 1/60sec or so during sunset. A filter was used to keep the sky black. He then waited til night to take a 8hr photo of the stars getting what I can only call a magical image. Unfortunately I can only keep my shutter open for a maximum of 30min. I still think this is much longer than I should need for anything I may want to take.
I tramped out my house at about 9pm with my camera in one hand, tripod in the other. I got up to the top of the hill above my house and set up the picture. It took me a while but eventually got the stars to start to appear on my pictures. The trouble came when I got home to look at the photos on the computer. The gainyness of the photo was just so terrible.
As with low light shots you have to make an effot to capture the stars.
Using the manual setting, set the aperture of the camera as wide as you can. Aperature is measured in a value called an f-stop. You want to make the number as small as possible.
Secondly you have to increase the shutter speed to as long a time as you can. If you are lucky enough, you can increase it to maybe 15-30 seconds long.
Now try the photo. How does it look? If you cant see stars this is when you want to increase the ISO number. My opinion on the ISO number is this. Keep it as low as possible. By increasing the ISO number what you are doing is effectively bunching light receptors together. If the light is too weak to trigger a response from one receptor it can group local receptors together and in doing so increase the response but also increase the grainyness of the photo. The above photo was taken such.
f-3.2, 15sec, ISO 1600.
By getting a DSLR I will now have a bulb function open to me. Blub refers back to the old days when the photographer will squeeze a rubber bulb to open and release it to close it. Effectively it means it will be a manual shutter release. By doing this I hope to increase my shutter time on the order of minutes allowing me to decrease my ISO number and getting a crisper nicer photo in the process. We will just have to see won't we?
My personal inspiration for this type of photograpgh is a man by the name of Art Wolfe (American of course). This photo has been a constant insipration to me.
It was done on a single piece of film. Firstly he took a photo for 1/60sec or so during sunset. A filter was used to keep the sky black. He then waited til night to take a 8hr photo of the stars getting what I can only call a magical image. Unfortunately I can only keep my shutter open for a maximum of 30min. I still think this is much longer than I should need for anything I may want to take.
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