Shooting the stars

Tonks4x4

Tonks4x4

Suspended / Banned
Messages
54
Name
Brian
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi guys I am still a newbie, and have an interest of taking night sky pictures of stars, the moon and star trails.

I have searched the forum for info and have read a few threads but am struggling and need some advice.

I use a Nikon D7k SLR, I have also searched through the instruction manual and a few books that I have.

My issue is that even in manual mode with the settings set for long exposure with high ISO etc it will not take the shot I guess it's down to obvious lack of light....

Can someone point me in the right direction?
 
if its star trails, normally a set of exposures (100 will give you 50 mins, so about 12 deg of arc) with NR off, at say 30 secs each , ISO 800 or so... and then blend in software such as starstax........
 
How do you mean it wont take the shot? Could you expand on that a bit more? :)
 
Could the OP be in one of the "helpful" full auto modes that tries to stop you taking pictures when it thinks it won't work?
 
There is a good site here

Although it favours canon cameras ( and explains why ).

You can get some good shots of stars but I have found that light pollution is a problem, more so with the D7000 over my last camera a D5000.

This is can be a problem even away from lights due to natural airglow, which the D7K seems to pick up better than the d5k. One of these days when I can actually see the sky I will attempt to take shots with both cameras with the same setting to compare.

star trails are best done with stacking and a remote release cable, ( very cheap non nikon ones on amazon and ebay ). Set up 30 second exposure in manual, set up continous mode and lock it open for several hours, then stack using something like startrails.de.
 
On Canon cameras they will refuse to shoot if the AF doesnt find focus which, if your shooting at night it won't be able to.

You need to be in Manual Focus for shooting the stars.
 
Last edited:
Yes guys thank you for your help and guidance I did have it in one of the manual modes but failed to turn off the autofocus so it was stopping me from taking the shot. Yeah I see what you mean about light pollution!!!! Most of the sky has an orange glow lol
 
Its very hard in the UK to get shots without noise pollution (or at least in my area, near London). You can however turn the noise pollution into a feature!

A friend had good luck with being on the west coast of Ireland, pointing out to sea! Nothing for ages. However, a ship did once ruin his image.
 
Lwys said:
Its very hard in the UK to get shots without noise pollution (or at least in my area, near London). You can however turn the noise pollution into a feature!

A friend had good luck with being on the west coast of Ireland, pointing out to sea! Nothing for ages. However, a ship did once ruin his image.
Click to expand...

Surely you mean light pollution - noise pollution doesn't show up in photographs due to photographs being largely silent! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top