Everytime I try, nothing shows up on the camera screen!! I don't know if I have a nighttime setting for my camera, either... Any tips? Suggestions? Thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by Jim A
Compact cameras are not capable of time exposure and that's what you're after, like this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimsphotostuff/4070889784/sizes/l/in/photostream/
To do this I had to have the shutter open for 8 seconds. Only a bridge camera or an SLR can give you that control.
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Stars need to be shot with a longer shutter time. Most compact cameras like the Powershot do not have that option. DSLRs do.
ReplyDeleteThe Canon Powershot SD models do usually have a long exposure mode, even those that are mostly autoexposure only. You still will not get great results, as the small sensor gets noisy. You can probably capture all the stars visible to the eye and maybe some more. Anyway, you can get up to 15 seconds. The exact button pushes may vary a little from model to model. On my SD 890 IS:
ReplyDeletePush Func Set button.
Select exposure compensation
Push the Disp button.
Now you are in Long Shutter mode and can use the controller to select from 1 to 15 seconds.
Hit the Func Set button again to lock in your choice.
To get out of Long Shutter hit the Func Set button.
Select Long Shutter.
Hit the DISP button to turn Long Shutter off.
To photograph the starry sky you want to have a tripod. Use the Self Timer to open the shutter so you do not add vibration from when you push the shutter button.
You should set the white balance to daylight, and set the focus to manual infinity.
Turning up the ISO beyond 200 may add more noise than detail.
The camera has no lens hood. Avoid pointing it in directions where streetlights are strong enough to add lens flare.
Hi Mini!
ReplyDeleteTo answer this question, you need to know about something called Shutter Speed. Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the camera shutter is open. The longer that it is open, the more light the camera will collect to form an image. To shoot a starry sky, using the "Auto" mode on your camera won't work. Your camera will realize that it's dark and try to open the shutter for a long time (Use a longer Shutter Speed), but it doesn't know that you want to get stars, which need a 3 minute shutter speed at LEAST to capture most stars. On my Powershot, I can do up to a 15 second shutter speed. I can do this by going to manual mode, going into the shooting settings, going to exposure compensation (Marked by a +/-) and then I can go into another menu to use a long shutter speed. I'm not sure if that's how it works on your camera though. A 15 second shutter speed will get a few stars, but nothing much.
To get a good starry picture, you'll need at least a DSLR camera that has a bulb mode, meaning that you can have the shutter open for as long as you want. Under a very dark sky, I'll use a 3-5 minute exposure to get in some nice stars, the Milky Way and some of the Pleiades. Using a night mode won't do any good. Your camera isn't designed to take pictures of the stars. It's made to take pictures of people or day shots. Your night mode is for taking pictures of people or other things at night, not stars. Using a 1-15 second shutter speed will get you some stars, but not very many. One solution would be to take many 15 second exposures, then overlay them in an image editing program. Here's a picture of 6 15 second exposures put together:
http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000399.shtml
Stars don't emit much light to a camera, so you need to let the camera collect lots of the star's light, using a longer shutter speed. Another problem arises though, and that's the spinning of the Earth. Since the Earth spins, the sky will appear as it's moving, and the stars will make a trail. Here's an example:
http://www.myastrophotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/startrails-580x402.jpg
As you can see, there are lines in the sky. That's because the stars move, and since you're using the 3-5 minute shutter speed, you can certainly see how the stars make a trail. It's like when you take a picture of somebody, they move, and the picture comes out blurry. It's simply because while the shutter was open, they moved too much and made it blur. In the star photo, the stars moved too much and blurred.
A solution to all this would to buy a DSLR camera ($ 400-$ 4000), a wide-angle lens ($ 300-$ 1000) and a telescope mount ($ 500-$ 5000). The telescope mount will track the sky, so as the earth rotates, it rotates as well to track the sky, so it appears as if it doesn't move. You can also buy a telescope with the mount, so that you can hook your camera up and use it as a telephoto lens. This is all very pricey, but that's a downside to photographing the stars.
Some tips:
Use a tri-pod. Though it will get you star trails, some star trails can be attractive and pretty art.
Use a self timer mode. This is done, so that there's no vibration when the shutter is pressed.
Hope I helped!