Astrophotography (The Night Sky)
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:43 am
Surprisingly good quality, wide-angle photographs of the night sky can be made by almost anyone using readily available single lens reflex 35 mm traditional film or digital cameras.This method of photographing is known as Astrophotography.
- Mount the camera on a sturdy tripod. Load the camera with high-speed (at least ISO 200) film, or set the digital camera speed to between 200 and 800. (400 film speed and higher will be noticeably grainier.)
- Turn off the autofocus mechanism, and manually set the focus ring of the lens to just before infinity (or landscape/distance autofocus setting). If you are including a foreground in your image, make sure to take two images, one with the stars in focus and one with the foreground in focus. These can be combined later in most editing programs.
- Set the shutter speed to either the bulb setting, or a range of settings between about 2 and 30 seconds.
- Point the camera at the desired area of the sky, trip the shutter (preferably using a cable release, or the camera's self-timer in order to minimize vibration), and keep the shutter open for the desired length of time.
- Set the widest aperture, lowest f-stop for your lens.