**Photography Talk**
- Thread starter rickashay
- Start date
Hepar
New member
I dig that one! The contrast of the blue shirt on the red bricks is really sweet!
MCObray
New member
I was bored today so I decided to go through my album and found this image. A little PP here and there, and this is what I got.
Pac City. by Bucky Images, on Flickr
Pac City. by Bucky Images, on Flickr
IntoTheVoid
New member
So I went out last night to try out the star trail effect and to no avail. I couldn't set my shutter speed any lower than 30 seconds. I got some ok shots I guess but I couldn't get my focus right since I couldn't see anything!! This is what I got. I altered 2 of them with the hue on the light from the pollution. Any more tips for night shooting?
Big Dipper
Big Dipper
Jumpkix
New member
I was bored today so I decided to go through my album and found this image. A little PP here and there, and this is what I got.
Pac City. by Bucky Images, on Flickr
Hey, I recognize this place! How did you manage to snap a pic with nobody there?
Love Pacific City though :thumb:
Jumpkix
New member
Thank you Danny and Hep for the advice. So I'm thinking either a lower model like the D90 or D7000. But if I go big, I'll probably buy my friend's old D3 that I learned the basics on :guitar2: But I'm definitely going to invest in some top quality glass.
On that note, any suggestions for lenses?
DannyLlama
Elite Member
If you're going for the D7000 why not the D7100?
You just missed a nice rebate month for Nikon Lenses... I would wait for another one if you aren't in a hurry.
I bought all my stuff from B&H, excellent customer service, I can't say enough about them. B&H Photo Video Digital Cameras, Photography, Camcorders
Also keep on eye on nikon rumors, they list sales and deals.
Nikon Rumors
Hepar
New member
With night shots you can usually be set with shooting at infinity, but depends on the lens you are using. Do you have a remote shutter release? What camera are you taking shots on?
Go D3! And glass, any of the Nikkor trinity lenses are good to have (14-24mm, 24-70mm and the 70-200mm). A good 50mm is nice too, not to mention cheap. If you plan on getting into portrait, the 85mm f1.4 is a good one. If macro is your thing, the 105mm f2.8 is amazing.
Added a photo since I haven't been doing so. Not from the d800. Still have only shot photos once on it. I know, I should be ashamed.
50mm 1/100th f2.2 ISO 2500 (I was playing around with how high I could go with the ISO)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkusuiphotography/8640932574/" title="DSC_6232 by Hepar1977, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8254/8640932574_d3377a26eb_b.jpg" width="1024" height="681" alt="DSC_6232"></a>
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GentryGoon
New member
So I went out last night to try out the star trail effect and to no avail. I couldn't set my shutter speed any lower than 30 seconds. I got some ok shots I guess but I couldn't get my focus right since I couldn't see anything!! This is what I got. I altered 2 of them with the hue on the light from the pollution. Any more tips for night shooting?
Big Dipper
You need at least 30 minutes of the earth's movement to get a star trail. Get a shutter remote that can lock down and have your camera shooting on continuous. Turn off your noise reduction as well. 30 seconds is plenty of time for each exposure. My most recent one I used 25 second exposures for about 45 minutes. I had around 91 images to stack. Hope this helps.
Quoted for epicness.
Ok, thank you for your reply. I picked up a shutter remote. I set my shutter speed to bulb and just leave the remote locked down for 30 minutes?
GentryGoon
New member
I've never done a single exposure star trail, I've only tried the stacking method. I don't know what kind of Aperture and ISO settings would properly expose an image with a 30 minute exposure. That's a ton of light! It may even require a neutral density filter...
Anyways, try leaving your camera locked shooting on continuous mode taking 30 second exposures. With your shutter remote locked down it will take them over and over as long as you leave it locked. The longer you leave it locked the more images you will get and the longer your trails will be. An hour would be good trail. Hopefully I'm making sense. Play around with your settings and your composition until you get an image you like, before you leave it out there for an hour. Try shooting with your aperture wide open. (For my garbage kit lens that's 3.5 when I'm at 18mm) and try ISO 800, and just use auto white balance. Remember to turn off noise reduction. Also later on you can try shooting in RAW so you can adjust each frame's white balance and tone to your liking in Lightroom. Here's a link to a video explaining the program StarstaX which you will need. (super intuitive program!)
How To: Star Trail Photography - Stacking - YouTube
Good luck! :reddance:
MCObray
New member
Great place to be... when the sun wants to cooperate! Patience goes a long way, as well as LR4 :eyebrows:.
I understand to set my shutter speed to 30 seconds then to lock my remote. But how does this create the trails? How do the images get stacked?
Hepar
New member
I've never done it, but you'll probably stack them in photoshop or some other specific stacking program. You can do it manually, but I'm sure there are programs that will save you the time.
Like this photo kind of. Stacked and stitched from about 5 other shots.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkusuiphotography/8640690149/" title="DSC_1082 by Hepar1977, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8111/8640690149_f7dcbfa357_b.jpg" width="1024" height="219" alt="DSC_1082"></a>
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GentryGoon
New member
After an hour of having the camera on continuous, you will have many frames of what look like the same thing. You throw them all into StarstaX, which the video shows you how to do. in the output image you will have a star trail.
Stick Figure
New member
This page needs more photos.
Stopped by the local "Rose Garden" park thing (sorry real name escapes me) :shrug: and snapped a couple of photos to give some samples from a lens I am selling.
all hand held
all shot with this:
the Minolta "beercan" from around 1985. All metal construction, constant f4 70-210, and overall amazing lens for its color and clarity.
The photo of the lens was actually taken with the pop up flash and macro mode of the "mini beercan" which is an old Minolta Kit lens from the same era. 35-70 with a constant f4.
Few more example pics from that lens as well as all the exif data beercan | ignore the first 2 shots those were a different lens.
and if flowers, benches and lenses aren't your thing..
how about a Camaro from yesterdays cars and caffeine
More from that get together at Most Designs
Stopped by the local "Rose Garden" park thing (sorry real name escapes me) :shrug: and snapped a couple of photos to give some samples from a lens I am selling.
all hand held
all shot with this:
the Minolta "beercan" from around 1985. All metal construction, constant f4 70-210, and overall amazing lens for its color and clarity.
The photo of the lens was actually taken with the pop up flash and macro mode of the "mini beercan" which is an old Minolta Kit lens from the same era. 35-70 with a constant f4.
Few more example pics from that lens as well as all the exif data beercan | ignore the first 2 shots those were a different lens.
and if flowers, benches and lenses aren't your thing..
how about a Camaro from yesterdays cars and caffeine
More from that get together at Most Designs
Offroader5
New member
You should just set your lens to infinity for the focus. Infinity is the symbol on the lens that looks like a figure 8, but some lenses don't show it on the barrel. If it does show it, your lens may go past it a touch (a lot of lenses do, but some stop right at infinity). If it goes past it, hopefully it has a line showing you where infinity focus actually is, but sometimes getting it right in the middle of the infinity symbol is all you can do if they don't give you a line.
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