What am I doing wrong?

[dullbird]

Ok so went out to take a few photos of the moon this evening

and while I was out there I figured I would let some long exposures off.

WRONG

for some reason even when my camera is set to bulb the shut releases and closes straight away. I have tried it in manual with manual focus and auto focus I tried it in s mode but would only allow me to go to 30" and well I cant adjust in aperture priority anyway.

I had the tokina on

what am I doing wrong, I must be missing something simple as I have done bulb exposures on this camera before?

[dullbird]

Think I may of found the answer to my own question.

as I can't find my remote I have been trying to set off with the timer, I'm wondering whether this is the issue

[bblaze]

dont know if this is any help - D90
Bulb, manual focus, setting camera to manual and using a remote, push button on remote to open shutter then push button again to close. My understanding if you use the button on the camera you need to hold it in for the total exposure required, maybe wrong though
cheers
blaze

[werdan]

Hi db. You should need a long exposure if you are exposing for the moon. It is basically reflected sunshine that you are exposing for.

In the days before electronic metering, there used to be a rule of thumb called 'sunny 16' where to shoot in bright sunlight, you'd set the shutter the the reciprocal of the iso (eg 1/125th sec for 100ISO) and set the aperture to f16. There is a corresponding rule for shooting the moon was 'lunar eleven' ie same shutter speed but use f11.

[dmdigital]

Shutter speed will only go out to 30". After that it's Bulb setting in M mode. When using Bulb you need to keep the shutter pressed in for the length of the exposure, hence the need for a remote release cable.

When shooting the moon meter on the spot moon and you will find you may need 1/200. Use a reasonable f-stop f/8-f/11 though it's not that important as the focus is on infinity - for some strange reason - just that a lens will usually be sharper around this aperture.




OK this last one is ISO12800 but both are taken hand held.

[dullbird]

no I wasn't doing a long exposure for the moon..I went out to take pics of the moon then decided to do a long exposure on the stars

[dmdigital]

OK, then it's M, Bulb, f/2.8, ISO400 ... and a shutter release cable to hold the shutter open for as long as required. Also turn Long Exposure Noise Reduction ON (I think the D80 has this)

Only reason I say ISO400 is you don't want to go too high as this induces noise in the image at 800 and upwards on the D80.

One more thing, make sure the battery has a good charge left in it.

[dullbird]

with the wide angle on I can only go as low as f4

Time to buy an actual cable release me thinks

is it just a case of experimenting or is there a rough time that usually gives good shots....I mean not to light

[one_iota]

Arthur posted this handy calculator:

Moon exposure calculator | ADIDAP

[dmdigital]

If f/4 is as low as you can go then you compensate by taking a longer exposure. Thats 1.5 stops off f/2.8 so in round terms 1min becomes a 2min 30 sec shot.

As to the time, you've got it right. All depends on the conditions and I'm hopeless at star shots and never seem to get it right yet.

One more thing, check your D80 firmware version as I noticed on the Nikon support site that there was an upgrade that fixed a few issues with Long Exposure NR. Should be V1.11 if up to date (Nikon D80 Firmware Update Ver. 1.11 (Windows))