topic Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos in Share Your Photos

Share your Astrophotography Photos

lindam — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:07:38 GMT

Are you a fan of astrophotography? Post your favorite photo you've taken and share the story behind it. Be sure to include the Canon gear you used.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

kvbarkley — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:34:57 GMT

Is this one "Astrophotography"? 8^)

I took this in Albuquerque NM during the May 20th 2012 Eclipse. It was taken with a T3i and Sigma 150-500, without a sun filter. I had taken many with the filter, but as the sun set, it darkened enough to take the filter off.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

ebiggs1 — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 13:20:18 GMT

Multiple exposure of the last "Blood Moon" in Sept. 27th, 2015.

Camera is my EOS 1D Mk IV. The best camera I have ever owned.

Lens is a SIgma S 150-600mm f5-6.3 @ 600mm

Exposure varies, of course, as the Moon changed. They ranged from ISO 100 to ISO 3200.

Aperture values also varied from f6.3 to f11

Shutter speed was from 1/100 to 2 sec.

The heavy 1D Mk IV and super zoom lens was mounted to a Manfrotto 501 tripod.

RAW files were processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshp.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Peter — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 14:01:38 GMT

http://kameratrollet.se/2015/10/02/manuppgang-over-angelholm/

6D and 70-200/2,8IS II. Was actually taking some pictures of WW2 bunkers but got that picture on my way to the car.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

inactive010823 — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 14:33:33 GMT

Hi Peter!

Amazing! Some of the best photo opportunities present themselves when you least expect them. Can you tell us what settings you used for this one?

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

ebiggs1 — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 14:56:39 GMT

"lindam" did not share his/her settings!

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

inactive010823 — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:05:06 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
Is this one "Astrophotography"? 8^)

Sure is! Astrophotography is the imaging of celestial objects such as the Sun, Moon, planets, comets, stars, clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Astrophotography captures the beauty and majesty of the night sky and wonders of the universe.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

RobertTheFat — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:08:30 GMT

@ebiggs1 wrote:
"lindam" did not share his/her settings!

In my experience, it isn't exactly trivial to keep the Exif data from being stripped off when posting to this or any other forum. If you have some suggestions as to how to get around that difficulty, I'm probably not the only one who would like to hear them.

I believe this came up once before, in a different thread. I forget just what was said; but I seem to recall that the methods discussed were considered unreliable.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Peter — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:13:28 GMT

@inactive010823 wrote:
Hi Peter!

Amazing! Some of the best photo opportunities present themselves when you least expect them. Can you tell us what settings you used for this one?

regex.info/exif.cgi and you will see almost everything.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

TheCanon — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 15:47:01 GMT

Just got a new Canon 70D and a tripod. Looking forward to capturing some great astrophotography photos and sharing them here. I need to watch a few more tutorials on YouTube before I give it a shot.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Danny — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 15:53:47 GMT

Hi, TheCanon!

We'd love to see your astrophotography photos, but don't feel obligated to wait until they're perfect. The Canon Community Forum's full of expert photographers who'll be glad to give you pointers. If you're open to some constructive criticism, they can help you get even better!

We look forward to seeing what you can do!

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Waddizzle — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:09:06 GMT

@TheCanon wrote:
Just got a new Canon 70D and a tripod. Looking forward to capturing some great astrophotography photos and sharing them here. I need to watch a few more tutorials on YouTube before I give it a shot.

YouTube? No, not so much. No, you don't. Just do it, as the saying goes. All you need to know is how to take long exposures, which the camera can pretty much do for you in Av mode.

All you need is a very sturdy tripood. You also need to watch the weather for good opportunities. Use your camera's timer, shutter lock-up, or a remote shutter switch. I use the 2 second timer for wide field stuff, and moon shots. Try shooting the starscapes during a new moon. Try shooting long exposures of wide angle landscapes with the full moon at your back, and no light sources in front of you, too.

It also helps to have access to information that tells you when what is where in the night sky. I use a freeware application called Stellarium. It is basically a digital planetarium, with a library of tens and tens of thousands of objects. It even offers a "red eye" mode, which is suitable for night viewing with less eye strain.

You may also want to get your hands on a good image stacking application. I'd be willing to bet that the first shot on this thread was not taken in a single shot. I would not be surprised if anywhere between 5 and 20, or more, exposures were involved.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

ebiggs1 — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 19:31:05 GMT

"YouTube? No, not so much."

I have to agree here! You need to be real careful choosing Youtube vids or reviews you read. It has confused many. Some are downright wrong in their info.

Start with the easy stuff and progress to the more difficult. The Moon for instance is a good starter photo. For it you need a long lens. Something beyond 300mm will do. It does not have to be a fast lens or a particularly great lens.

For big sky shots you need a short lens and it helps if it is on the faster side. And in this case the better all the better!

Maybe Tim Campbell will see this thread. He is talented and knowledgeable in astrophotography. More than any of the rest of us 'regulars'.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Waddizzle — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:16:10 GMT

"Start with the easy stuff and progress to the more difficult. The Moon for instance is a good starter photo. For it you need a long lens. Something beyond 300mm will do. It does not have to be a fast lens or a particularly great lens."

The Moon. Yup, that's what go me started on it, quite by accident, too. You need a long lens, and a STURDY tripod. The longer the lens, the sturdier your tripod/head setup needs to be. Manual focusing, using a magnified LiveView, can look like an earthquake with a weak tripod/head setup, and focusing becomes nearly impossible due to vibrations and shake.

I typically manual focus at the Moon. Depending on the phase of the Moon, you will want to vary your exposure somewhat, usually downward as the phase increases towards full. Experiment. Take shots at different exposures. With a long lens, try to keep exposure at 1/100 sec, or faster. You are trying to capture contrast, just as much as you want to capture focus.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

TheCanon — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 21:39:01 GMT

Wow great help here guys! Thanks for the tips. I just ordered a wireless shutter remote that has timed exposures. I'm looking forward to using "Bulb Mode" and catching some star trails. I need to be on the lookout for a good night to do this.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Waddizzle — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 01:35:19 GMT

TIP: The best star trail photos are created by stacking multiple photos of short, clean trails into an image with longer ones.

For example, with a full frame sensor and 14mm lens, you will only be able to get 25-30 seconds of exposure before star trails begin to significantly appear. You can use a longer focal length to get star trails. You may need to take a couple of hours worth of consecutive, 1-3 minute images to get very long star trails. Then, you will need to stack the photos in post-processing to combine all of the short trails into a single long trail.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

TheCanon — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 18:09:02 GMT

@Waddizzle wrote:
TIP: The best star trail photos are created by stacking multiple photos of short, clean trails into an image with longer ones.

For example, with a full frame sensor and 14mm lens, you will only be able to get 25-30 seconds of exposure before star trails begin to significantly appear. You can use a longer focal length to get star trails. You may need to take a couple of hours worth of consecutive, 1-3 minute images to get very long star trails. Then, you will need to stack the photos in post-processing to combine all of the short trails into a single long trail.

Interesting. I was thinking one long 30min exposure shot would suffice. So you suggest several 1-3 minute exposed shots? What interval between shots do you suggest?

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

kvbarkley — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 18:28:28 GMT

As short as possible if you want continuous trails.

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Waddizzle — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 19:44:45 GMT

"Interesting. I was thinking one long 30min exposure shot would suffice. So you suggest several 1-3 minute exposed shots? What interval between shots do you suggest?"

The best interval would depend upon the focal lengtth and aperture of your lens. I forgot to mention f/2.8 in my example with a 14mm lens. Experiment with it. That's the fun part of it. Expect to have several false starts, too. A lot of the exposure setting also depends upon how much light pollution is at your shooting location, too, both on the ground and in the atmosphere. Use a lens hood, wihch goes without saying.

[EDIT] Check out this thread....

http://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Announcements/Astrophotography-Techniques/m-p/136350#U136350

It is a link to a great article!

Re: Share your Astrophotography Photos

Waddizzle — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 19:47:07 GMT

@kvbarkley wrote:
As short as possible if you want continuous trails.

Exactly. If your remote has an intervalometer, then set it up to take multiple long exposures back to back to back.