Photo Competition #22 - Ends 23-August

[slt]

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/1146.jpg

Australia is blessed with some of the darkest and least polluted skies in the world (though if you live in the Big Smoke that might come as a surprise). Anyway, the aim of this competition is for you to produce images of the starry sky!

Rule No.1
The submitted photo has to be of the night sky (after dusk and before dawn). Other ground based objects may appear in foreground (and are in fact encouraged), but the primary subject is to be the sky.

Unfortunately Rule No.1 will pretty much rule out anyone who doesn't own (or has access to) a DSLR and tripod. (P&S cameras simply don't have the manual controls required to take long exposures at night.) To keep this interesting for them, here's:

Rule No.2
If you don't own (or have ready access to) a DSLR and/or tripod, you may submit photos of any kind of 'star'. (Hints: star - Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/star))

Rule No.3
You may submit 2 photos. If Rule No.2 applies to you, then these must have been taken after the commencement of this competition (ie. 12 August 09).

Tips on how to achieve a night sky image:
1. Find a dark clear sky (ie. try to get out of The Big Smoke!).
2. Use a wide angle lens (or the wide end of your zoom lens).
3. Set your camera onto a tripod.
4. Set your camera to fully manual, including manual focus.
5. Try the following settings:
Exposure: 30 Seconds
Aperture: start with the largest aperture your lens can achieve, eg. if you have a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens you'll want to use f/3.5 (at 18mm)
ISO: try 1600 to start with
Focus: It will be impossible for your autofocus system to achieve focus on the night sky. It may be equally difficult for you to manually focus through the view finder. The alternative is to visibly set the focus ring on the lens to the infinity position (8). Take a test shot and confirm the focus.
6. Use a remote shutter release to prevent camera shake. If you don't have one of these, set the auto timer to 2 seconds.

Or if you want to try star trails...
Capturing Star Trails on a D-SLR Happy Snapper (http://stevencastle.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/capturing-star-trails-on-a-d-slr/)
Photographing Star Trails (http://www.danheller.com/star-trails.html)

For inspiraton...
http://www.twanight.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpn/sets/72157621779113151/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpn/sets/72157621779113151/)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffc/sets/72157594297380650/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffc/sets/72157594297380650/)

The competition ends at 10pm on Sunday, August 23.
Happy snapping!
slt

[dullbird]

nice one Slt

[Chucaro]

Well guys, tomorrow 1 am we are going to have a very unique display with a
"Sky set to sparkle with meteor shower"
The news are HERE (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/12/2653700.htm'section=justin)

Happy photography for you all, I do not have a lens for this kind of photography :(

[dmdigital]

Just remember if you do intend doing LOOOOONNG exposures over 30" on the DSLR you may get hot pixels. This can happen after about 10-20 minutes. Another way to avoid this is to use PS (or similar) and photomerge/overlay several continuous shots of much shorter duration (e.g. 40 shots @ 30" which equals 20min).

Now all we need is cloudless skys for the week:p

[werdan]

Happy photography for you all, I do not have a lens for this kind of photography :(

Of course you do! :)

Night sky in Poland on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://tinyurl.com/pempfo)
star~trails1 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://tinyurl.com/r6r7qw)

taken with a tokina 12-24.

[mjm295]

6. Use a remote shutter release to prevent camera shake. If you don't have one of these, set the auto timer to 2 seconds.



With an exposure of 30 seconds the fraction of a second shake when pressing the button should not matter too much???

[werdan]

With an exposure of 30 seconds the fraction of a second shake when pressing the button should not matter too much???

It can. You are basically drawing with light points. If you bump your 'pencil' at the very start, the drawing while not necessarily ruined, can end up a bit smudged.

[Chucaro]

Of course you do! :)

Night sky in Poland on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://tinyurl.com/pempfo)
star~trails1 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://tinyurl.com/r6r7qw)

taken with a tokina 12-24.

It can be done but depends what are the style of the photographer I guess, For that reason I do very little avian photography as well :)

For those that are interested in star photos with a normal lens HERE (http://www.weatherscapes.com/techniques.php?cat=astronomy&page=startrails) is a good article

Cheers

[stirlsilver]

Bello Horizonte Palm (La Paz, Cordoba, Argentina) (click the photo to see it in the gallery)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/1092.jpg (http://stirlsilver.smugmug.com/gallery/9104930_fwLY3/5/606772510_CucJM#606772510_CucJM)
Exposure: 15sec
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 400
Length: 17mm

Bello Horizonte Chimney (La Paz, Cordoba, Argentina) (click the photo to see it in the gallery)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/1093.jpg (http://stirlsilver.smugmug.com/gallery/9104930_fwLY3/6/606773086_uiTxY#606773086_uiTxY)
Exposure: 6sec
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 400
Length: 40mm

[Chucaro]

Nice images Stirling, what you was doing in that corner of the world?

[slt]

Slow uptake ... but I guess it is a challenge after all :)

Anyway, I'll throw one of my old ones into the ring. Taken at Chambers Pillar circa 1993 ... on film of course. I remember it fondly as we (me and my girlfriend at the time) were the only ones on the site. It was a phenomenally dark night (couldn't see the hands in front of my eyes ... except when looking upward), and freezing too. This was my first attempt at star trails (much easier on film actually than with digital), and it was meant to be a multi-hour exposure. Alas the battery failed after less than an hour :( Anyway, still quite happy with the result.

If you look closely you can see the Southern Cross in the upper left, next to the dark star-less patch, which is the Coalsack Nebula.

slt

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/636.jpg

[Bushie]

Slow uptake ... but I guess it is a challenge after all :)

Anyway, I'll throw one of my old ones into the ring. Taken at Chambers Pillar circa 1993 ... on film of course. .....................

If you look closely you can see the Southern Cross in the upper left, next to the dark star-less patch, which is the Coalsack Nebula.

slt

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/636.jpg


That ones going to be hard to beat.


Bushie

[moose]

Here's a couple I took a few weeks ago, only post editing was to darken them a little. Took me long enough to successfully get a few shots, so I might not bother trying to get another just for the comp!

From my front yard: (35min exposure)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/1045.jpg

From my back yard: (50min exposure)
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/1046.jpg

[mjm295]

Managed to take a few last night, but I need a remote button to take advantage of the bulb setting - so just ordered one from ebay :-)

Wont be here by the end of the week though :-(

so, I'm going to fashion a holder using an elastic band and whatever else fits to keep the shutter open. Watch this space.:wasntme:

[dullbird]

just use your timer!!!


I went out to take pics yesterday evening....but not many stars in the sky at all.....

I also have way to much light pollution at our place

[mjm295]

just use your timer!!!

2sec timer is great, but the most i can open the shutter for is 30 secs without using bulb and holding the button.

[dullbird]

ok didn't realise you couldn't use the timer on BULB

[stirlsilver]

Nice images Stirling, what you was doing in that corner of the world?

Thanks! It was a bit of a family holiday, meeting relatives and what not. La Paz in Argentina is one of those places where quite a few people get around on horse and cart!

[werdan]

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/789.jpg

So here I was thinking Good News! My camera has a build-in intervalometer! I'll just set it to take 30sec exposures every second. Bad news: minimum delay is 30secs. Add 30 secs of noise reduction per shot and you get dots!

If it stays clear tonight, I'm going to see if I can set it up with the continuous 'motor-drive' firing for 30sec exposures (without noise reduction).

[Bushie]

OK got a bit tied up last night, but comp is now closed.

Any votes can be entered into this thread up to 10pm on Tuesday night.



Martyn

[Bushie]

My vote for this week



slt
moose #1



Martyn

[WhiteD3]

1) slt
2) moose #1

I would have liked to have a go at this but I couldn't get anything decent with my camera.:(

[dullbird]

1) Moose second pic

[werdan]

1. slt
2. moose #2

Spewin' about this comp. It was cloudy at my place every night except for last night when I thought it was too late to try again. Never mind.

Thanks for a great subject slt. I pretty much gave up on long exposures when I went digital but now I have some new tricks to try out next time I go bush. Cheers!

[moose]

1) slt
2) stirlsilver #1

[slt]

1. moose (2nd)
2. werdan

[Bushie]

Winner for this week - slt

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/08/636.jpg

slt - Congratulations - You now have the honour of thinking of a new topic for competition #24 to finish on 6th September. The new topic can be posted up anytime between now and Saturday.

2nd - Moose



Martyn

[slt]

Thank you all! I had been hoping for a few more entries, but I realise this wasn't an easy subject. Maybe we can set up a thread where members can post their night sky photos as and when we get to take them.

Cheers
slt