Shooting Stars

[Update: when Frank posted a comment, it reminded me to make a note about batteries, look at 4. Odds & Ends] Photo by Andrew Ebrahim

With the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower coming up in a few days (August 12-13, 2010) I thought I’d share some tips about photographing stars. 

1. Use a tripod

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, so I’ll say it again. You NEED a tripod! Not just some $15 el-cheapo tripod you bought at Wal-Mart, you need a rock solid tripod. Buy the most stable tripod you can afford, and be willing to carry. This is one area I see a lot of photographers cheap out on, not all tripods are made the same. How do you tell how stable a tripod is? Most manufacturers will give a weight rating for their tripods, say 15kg, I would cut that in half and only put a max load of 7.5kg on the tripod. Also, you want to consider the weight of the tripod. You’re not going to carry a tripod with you if it weighs too much, so consider carbon fiber tripods. Secondly, you’re going to need a ball head, again get the best one you can afford. 

It’s all about having the most stable platform for your camera, especially when you’re going to have extremely long exposures. Things like camera straps and shutter release cables blowing in the wind will cause some vibration leading to blurry photos. You really want to lock down your camera as much as you can. 

Here are some folks who make some great stuff: Manfrotto, Gitzo, Induro, Acratech, and Really Right Stuff. 

2. Get out of the city

When you’re photographing stars and meteors, you want to be as far away from any light source as you can get. Stars and meteors put off only very little light, and light from a city will do two things: 1. Lower the chance of you seeing anything. 2. Over exposing your image before your camera can capture the light from the stars. (You can see the light from small towns at the bottom of my photos).

Drive further than you think you’ll need, and research the area you’re driving to. 10 minutes in Google Maps can save you hours of random driving. Keep an eye out for small towns and villages; you don’t want to be near them either. You want to be in the darkest area you can find!

3. Shooting

This is more trial and error than a science. There’s no one perfect exposure. It all depends on your location, the weather, your camera, the lens you’re using and the lastly, what you want to show? Here are some general tips:

If you’re looking to do star trails, like image at the top of this post, you’re looking at doing extremely long exposures, not 20 sec, or 30 sec, but minutes, many many minutes. You should check with your cameras’ manual on how to perform long exposures, many cameras have BULB function which keeps the shutter open as long as the shutter is pressed. It’s going to take a couple of tries to find the right composition, since your image is being made over a long period of time. You want to also be careful of lights from towns and villages in the area. Where you’re standing, your eye might not be able to see the light from these places, but when your cameras’ shutter is open for long periods of time it will pick up things you might not notice.  

Also when doing star trails, you’ll notice that everything rotates around the North Star. It’s the only star in the sky that stays in the exact same position all night (That’s why sailors use it for navigation). You can use this as a point of reference in your photos for composition.

I made the star trail image, above, using a 36 minute exposure, ISO 100, 10.5mm f/2.8. 

Lastly, when you’re framing your photo, you want to provide some kind of context oh where you took the photo. Include the horizon, trees, buildings etc. Even if you can't see the horizon with your naked eye, when you do long exposures, there will just be enough light to outline objects in your horizon. It just lets the viewer ground themselves in the image. 

When photographing stars or constellations, like the Big Dipper below, you want to be using long shutter speeds again, but shorter than those used for star trails. A good place to start would be anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds. Longer shutter speeds over a minute, you begin to see the movement of the stars and you get short little start trails. Aside from shutter speed, you can use ISO to help make your exposure. Of course this depends on your camera, some cameras can shoot at a high ISO and still have a clean image, others not so much.

I shot the Big Dipper image, below, using a 8 second exposure, ISO 8000, 26mm f/2.8. 

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim 

So this brings me to the meteor shower, it's one of those things that’s in the middle of everything. You want to keep the surrounding stars still, while capturing the movement of the meteors. Also, you don’t know when a meteor will appear, so it’s a lot of guessing and hoping for the best. The Persieds Meteor Shower will be coming from the North East part of the sky, so I would recommend just point your camera in that direction and do multiple 10 second exposures throughout the night.

4. Odds & Ends 

So just a few final notes to wrap up this post:

• Bring a flashlight, its dark, you might not be able to see your camera controls. A red light works best so you’re not ruining your night vision.
• Don’t stand in the middle of the road! While you might be in the middle of no where, you never know if a car is going to come down the road. Stay save and move to the side of the road, or even in a field. If you’re going to be on the side of the road, stand a few meters in front of your car with the parking breaks on. You rather someone hit the back of your car than they hit you. I also bring a few small flashing LEDs at the back of my car to get any drivers attention. 
• Bring a chair and warm clothes,  you’re going to be out there for a while so you might as well get comfortable!
• Have a remote trigger/cable release for your camera, this will allow you to trigger your camera without touching it and have longer exposures.
• Charge your battery and bring an extra. Probably one of the most over looked thing for most people, is the battery, make sure you charge your battery before you go out and shoot (not just for stars, but for everything!). I can't being to tell you how many times I have seen friends of mine run out of juice during a shoot. Many dSLRs can work off AA batteries in addition to the standard battery for the camera, so throw a couple in your bag just in case.

Anyways, that’s it for me. Hope all this helps! As always, happy shooting :)

Comments

[Frank]

very useful tips. :)