Night Photography in Tioman?

[hueyyy]

hello all, will be going to tioman in a few weeks for a short holiday, thought i'd just bring along my camera and get some practice on night shots.. was thinking about shooting the stars..any tips?
as in..
are there a lot of stars?? (i know nuts abt astronomy)
which time of the night: 8-10pm, midnight, early dawn (3-5am)?
is shutter release remote control important?
what aperture to set?
anything else i shld know?
thanks! =)

[traveler]

Originally Posted by hueyyy hello all, will be going to tioman in a few weeks for a short holiday, thought i'd just bring along my camera and get some practice on night shots.. was thinking about shooting the stars..any tips? as in.. are there a lot of stars?? (i know nuts abt astronomy) which time of the night: 8-10pm, midnight, early dawn (3-5am)? is shutter release remote control important? what aperture to set? anything else i shld know? thanks! =)

Hi,

There'll always be stars in the sky no matter where u are on earth. It's a matter of clouds and light pollution that determines how much you can see. Not too sure how dark is the sky over in tioman.

Anyway at this time of the year the brightest portion of the milky way can be seen rising from southeast ard 11pm and sets at dawn in southwest. The longer u expose, and the longer focal length you use, the more trailing you'll get. And if there's light pollution, the image will get washed out too.

Try 30sec wide open at ISO 1600-3200. Stop down 1-2 stops if the stars at the edges are not pin-point sharp. But you'll capture less stars.
Basically just play ard the settings. I usually set to a 3 sec self-timer so vibrations can die down first.

The hard part is focusing. Many ED zoom lens focus past infinity. Check your LCD and see if the stars are pin-point sharp. Better still, use wide angle prime lens cause they don focus past infinity.

Here's how it'll look like under dark clear skies in Mersing. You can see a little trailing of the stars already. Light pollution is seen at the horizon.

30sec ISO 1600
35mm prime lens stop down to f/2

[Quest]

wah! so many stars!!! been to mersing and tioman many times but never seen so many stars. is it true that 30 sec exposure and iso1600 see more stars than our naked eyes? (my eyesight is not so good - abt 130 deg shortsighted).

[hueyyy]

thanks traveler! yah! i didnt know there could be so many stars. haha. erm. what do you mean by focussing PAST infinity? the stars wont be sharp? hmm. i rented a 12-24 tokina for my trip..any experience with that? so basically, when i shoot stars, its just trial and error and shootshootshoot? haha. thanks so much!

[hueyyy]

Originally Posted by Quest wah! so many stars!!! been to mersing and tioman many times but never seen so many stars. is it true that 30 sec exposure and iso1600 see more stars than our naked eyes? (my eyesight is not so good - abt 130 deg shortsighted).

then i should be seeing even less stars! i'm ~600 deg shortsighted.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by Quest wah! so many stars!!! been to mersing and tioman many times but never seen so many stars. is it true that 30 sec exposure and iso1600 see more stars than our naked eyes? (my eyesight is not so good - abt 130 deg shortsighted).

Hi
Ops....sorry the pic was taken actually at iso 800. So 1600 should have revealed more stars. Also i forgot to mention using the in-camera D-lightning (only in Nikon bodies) will bring out even more stars. I think u can do that in photoshop too....but i'm not sure how to do it.

But in-camera D-lighting gives far better results than the PictureProject. Don't know why....

Here's the original before using in-camera D-lighting.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by hueyyy thanks traveler! yah! i didnt know there could be so many stars. haha. erm. what do you mean by focussing PAST infinity? the stars wont be sharp? hmm. i rented a 12-24 tokina for my trip..any experience with that? so basically, when i shoot stars, its just trial and error and shootshootshoot? haha. thanks so much!

Lens that uses ED/SD/flourite/LD glass are able to focus past the infinity mark to compensate for any expansion of glass due to temperature differences. So u must focus as precisely as possible at true infinity. Otherwise individual stars will look like blobs of light rather than sharp pin-points. Check using your LCD is best.

Never tried the tokina 12-24 lens. But since it uses SD glass i think most likely the focus will go past the infinity mark. Would love to see how it performs under the stars though Do post your pics here for us to see!

Yeah u can say that. If you don like trailed stars u can use shorter exposures. It's all a matter of taste.

[hueyyy]

Originally Posted by traveler Lens that uses ED/SD/flourite/LD glass are able to focus past the infinity mark to compensate for any expansion of glass due to temperature differences. So u must focus as precisely as possible at true infinity. Otherwise individual stars will look like blobs of light rather than sharp pin-points. Check using your LCD is best. Never tried the tokina 12-24 lens. But since it uses SD glass i think most likely the focus will go past the infinity mark. Would love to see how it performs under the stars though Do post your pics here for us to see! Yeah u can say that. If you don like trailed stars u can use shorter exposures. It's all a matter of taste.

wow, thats a big difference. okay. great! thanks loads! yupp.. i will. just a fewww more days. HEH.

[hueyyy]

Originally Posted by traveler Lens that uses ED/SD/flourite/LD glass are able to focus past the infinity mark to compensate for any expansion of glass due to temperature differences. So u must focus as precisely as possible at true infinity. Otherwise individual stars will look like blobs of light rather than sharp pin-points. Check using your LCD is best. Never tried the tokina 12-24 lens. But since it uses SD glass i think most likely the focus will go past the infinity mark. Would love to see how it performs under the stars though Do post your pics here for us to see! Yeah u can say that. If you don like trailed stars u can use shorter exposures. It's all a matter of taste.

my pics were HORRIBLE (spelt w caps). when i viewed them on the lcd, all i saw was a black sky!...(the milky way and orion and "bei dou qi xing" was clearly visible but somehow it didnt turn up on my cam..its only when i was processing, then i used auto correct and suddenly ALL the stars appeared..... so weird la..i used bulb mode range frm 40s to 3min..f9 i think. shall post the pics asap..

[weixing]

Originally Posted by hueyyy my pics were HORRIBLE (spelt w caps). when i viewed them on the lcd, all i saw was a black sky!...(the milky way and orion and "bei dou qi xing" was clearly visible but somehow it didnt turn up on my cam..its only when i was processing, then i used auto correct and suddenly ALL the stars appeared..... so weird la..i used bulb mode range frm 40s to 3min..f9 i think. shall post the pics asap..

Hi,
What ISO are you using?? F9 is a bit too slow, so stars may appear very dim on LCD if ISO is too low.

By the way, Orion is not visible during this period of time.

Have a nice day.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by hueyyy my pics were HORRIBLE (spelt w caps). when i viewed them on the lcd, all i saw was a black sky!...(the milky way and orion and "bei dou qi xing" was clearly visible but somehow it didnt turn up on my cam..its only when i was processing, then i used auto correct and suddenly ALL the stars appeared..... so weird la..i used bulb mode range frm 40s to 3min..f9 i think. shall post the pics asap..

Hi, F/9 is too slow already. Given the Tokina's moderate speed of f/4. The most i'll stop down is f/5.6. Still, 3min should be able to see quite a lot of stars. Can you post some of the processed pics?