Star Long-time Exposure?

[jimmychung]

I'm planning on trying that photo technique where you point your camera to the stars on a tripod and leave the shutter open for an hour or so, and you get an effect as the stars move across the sky. Has anyone done this? Any tips?

 

[invisman]

Yeah I've done it before. Make sure you use a sturdy tripod, that there are absolutely no clouds in the sky, and that their is a new moon. Also, get away from cities or town, as light pollution looks really ugly in long exposures. Finally, keep the aperture open pretty wide and expose for 30 minutes max if your shooting with a dslr, because shit starts to get noisy/grainy. If shooting film, go for as long as you want but remember to keep track of reciprocity failure (search google for all this). Here's one I shot last summer. It was around a 30 minute exposure:

 

[invisman]

 

[invisman]

http://flickr.com/photos/tombollierphotography/212527387/

 

[jimmychung]

awesome picture! thanks for the tips.

 

[Elife]

Here, this should work

 

[jimmychung]

success!!

and my favorite:

 

[hartig]

i cant wait to get a dslr...

 

[FigmentFilmski]

i actually think those look dumb, just my opinion though

 

[mammothpunks]

i like this one. there are some more tips on photo.net under learning

 

[soulskier]

that looks sweet

 

[Geoff.]

mammothpunx, first did you take that? and about how long of an exposure do you think you would need to get the streaks that long?

 

[jimmychung]

i'd say probably 3-4 hours.

 

[mammothpunks]

my name isnt dan heller so no. it was 3.5 hours at 16,000 feet tho

 

[JoakimHayland]

i wanna try that with the northern light.

 

[PinkEYEs]

alot of people that use a DSLR don't do the hour long exposure just cause it heats up the camera too much and distorts your picture. Most people I know do 20 or 25 2 minute exposures back to back and then use photoshop to just paste layer on top of layer to get the desired look like the photo above.

but that is just what I have been hearing...