AT Shot of the Day Thread

[Renob]

What did you do in post? Any color correction?

Yes in LR but not much, just got a 70D and it's my first DSLR so much to learn and the same for LR I'm just now getting my feet wet.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Couple night star shots I took while camping. Nice to get the opportunity to do it without much light pollution. Can get decent shots in town too as there's a field in front of my house but nothing beats being in the bush.












The thing I find the most tricky with night photography is actually getting the focus dialed in right, it's very hard to see in the viewfinder if you are 100% dead on.

 

[CuriousMike]

Well, the last one had potential with the tree's framing it and the collection of stars looked incredible.

I think you need to work on your focus technique at night - it's really really hard, I know.

These shots could be a lot better if the focus was slightly better.

 

[CuriousMike]

Wacky EXIF is wacky.

For future night sky reference:

f/1.8 is good - lots of light.

ISO 800 was a bit conservative - with your D7000 body, I would have tried ISO1600 if not even ISO3200.

30 seconds is a little too long of exposure time for night shots.
The "rule" is 500/focal length = longest time for exposure before you get blur caused by the fact the earth rotates.
So, 500/35mm = ~15 seconds.
But it's more damning than that, because the D7000 is DX so there's a 1.5 multiplier on your focal length.
So, 500/(35*1.5=52) = 500/50 = ~! 10 seconds.

So next time you're trying for galaxy shot, remember:
- focus is hard - have your buddy run up on top of the hill and hold his flash light so you can get camera to focus on it ( infinity ) then turn off auto-focus.
- open aperture all the way up ( you did )
- crank your ISO up to max useable ( you came close )
- Maximum shutter time = 500/focalLength

 

[Red Squirrel]

Max ISO would be super grainy though, even 800 you can tell it's quite grainy. Never thought about a flash light trick though. Suppose I could probably use a laser in situations I'm alone? How far out would it have to be though? I presume like several miles?

Some of these I had previously auto focused at trees across the lake during the day but did not quite turn out as good as I would have figured, maybe I accidentally touched the dial though, it was pitch black other than burning coals of the fire. (cause of the orange tint on trees). I had let the fire die down enough to get these shots in before adding more wood.

 

[CuriousMike]

If you want stars, you need to collect light. Many "oh wow!" star shots you see are recorded at high ISO, are as grainy as you think, and are then processed.

The other thing with "super grainy" is when you look at then at screen resolution (not 1:1), they don't look quite as grainy.

The alternative for focusing is exactly what you did - pre-focus at tree's across the lake. But you need to either (a) notice where the lens focus indicator is so you can replicate if necessary (which means your lens needs a focus range indicator, not all do - the 35 f1.8 does not ) or (b) switch the lens to (M) and don't move it ( which is difficult because moving the camera you often bump it.)

 

[Spoooon]

Spent some time at the KKK rally today. Intense.

There's a fight in the middle of this one, fallout from the white power dude getting arrested in the previous pic. I opted for safety and distance.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you want stars, you need to collect light. Many "oh wow!" star shots you see are recorded at high ISO, are as grainy as you think, and are then processed.

The other thing with "super grainy" is when you look at then at screen resolution (not 1:1), they don't look quite as grainy.

The alternative for focusing is exactly what you did - pre-focus at tree's across the lake. But you need to either (a) notice where the lens focus indicator is so you can replicate if necessary (which means your lens needs a focus range indicator, not all do - the 35 f1.8 does not ) or (b) switch the lens to (M) and don't move it ( which is difficult because moving the camera you often bump it.)

Yeah I had switched to it to manual after, but could very well be I accidentally moved it. And yeah mine is circular, it can keep turning, sorta. Like say I turn it one way, use autofocus, I can keep turning it after. So even if I was to draw a line to indicate infinity it would not always align that way.

But yeah I'll have to figure out a better technique. I could probably crank the ISO to max though and just keep taking a pic and slightly changing it till I feel that it's clearer as on the LCD it wont seem as grainy. I can still take decent sky pics in town so definitely need to play with that again. It seems 1am is the best time as the sky is at it's darkest. at midnight there is still a bit of sun light left and by 2-3 it's starting to come up again so sky starts to turn blue with light. I have taken some pretty nice ones around that time though:







Can't recall if I had posted these already.

 

[CuriousMike]

Spent some time at the KKK rally today. Intense.

I would have no desire to attend one of those - the hate, superiority complexes, misunderstandings, grievances and any other emotion you can throw out would be sky high.

As a nation we've definitely taken strides in equality and tolerance--- but we still have a long, long way to go.

 

[EOM]

I went to the rally in Waco for the incarcerated bikers in early June. Lots of LEO presence but there was very little tension between the protestors and the LEOs.

 

[CuriousMike]

Went to the beach with the pup today - first time using the Oly in earnest. Pretty challenging with sunset, but it surprised with pulling out a lot of shadow detail.

Nikon D610

Olympus E-M10

Dogger fell in a deeper pool than she was expecting - temporary panic!

 

[bigboxes]

That is pretty bad ass!

 

[xSauronx]

i just have an ok point and shoot, so getting this done without noise is basically impossible...but i like it anyway.

this is looking south at the cape lookout lighthouse.

 

[007ELmO]

Very good.

 

[EOM]

i just have an ok point and shoot, so getting this done without noise is basically impossible...but i like it anyway.

this is looking south at the cape lookout lighthouse.

Fully zoomed in i can see the motion blur, but from the resized image i couldn't tell. Nice shot.I don't get that kind of starfield where I am.... and nowhere near the variety of colors!

 

[xSauronx]

the irony there is that i had it mounted on my friends iOptron star tracker, but the thing is such a pain in the ass that i turned it off and took a 30 second shot for that.

anyway, near the outer banks in NC there is not much going on so the night views are amazing.

also, lightroom helps the lx7 a lot, too

 

[Nohr]

That's a nice job for a point & shoot. You got the Scorpius constellation with Antares in the middle and also Saturn in the upper right.

 

[EOM]

 

[carlton_fritz]

This was taken with my New Ricoh P&S.

This one was using the 1 cm Macro mode.

Still playing with the camera to learn how to get the best shots.

 

[CuriousMike]

The Olympus is proving hugely popular in my own mind as it's easier to hike with and provides surprisingly good DR.

 

[carlton_fritz]

The Olympus is proving hugely popular in my own mind as it's easier to hike with and provides surprisingly good DR.

Very nice.

 

[CuriousMike]

More from the Oly - capable little camera.

 

[Renob]

Woke up to thousands of these guys going to town in my garden.

 

[Spoooon]

A7, Minolta 24/2.8, Sony FE 55/1.8

1.

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3.

4.

 

[carlton_fritz]