Chez Spud

I’m SO excited about this guest post [Spud does a little dance]. I know absolutely nothing about shooting stars (as in taking photos of them rather than those ones that scoot across the sky, although knowledge of the latter is also shockingly scant) but I DO know that our guest blogger Amber is the bee’s knees when it comes to this subject; it’s one of her many areas of real strength. The woman is a legend in her own galaxy.

I can’t wait to give this a go, she makes it look and sound suspiciously easy. As you can see I’ve never tried star shooting as the best I could offer as a photo to head this post with is a picture of my bracelet! Also, I finally learnt what ‘focusing on infinity’ means from reading this post…I’ve been wondering since last November when I made my first attempt at shooting fireworks. Hoorah, knowledge and insight is all mine…mine, mine, mine.

With huge thanks to the lovely Amber who, you’ll remember, was our first Camera Club guest blogger with a wonderful post about getting the most out of your point & shoot. Welcome back! x

Shooting Stars

I am fascinated and obsessed with star trails.  What are star trails you ask?  Well, They are bascially just light trails, which you learned about in the guest article by FS Photography…Stars are light trails with a twist. You see, stars stay in their assigned places in the sky, but we here on the earth are constantly moving in an orbit. That being the case the stars seem to change their position in the sky constantly. When taking a long exposure of the sky on a clear night, the camera actually captures the trails of light left in the sky as the earth rotates. Fascinating isn’t it ;)

What do you need to capture star trails?

Well you need a DSLR camera, a tripod, and a place where you can see the stars at night with limited light pollution. A remote or cable release is also VERY useful, but not necessarily essential. I’ll explain…

Preparing the shot

The most difficult part about capturing star trails is setting up the shot. It takes planning, and seriously, who likes that?  But it’s worth it. Take time during the day to scout out possible locations for your shot. This is essential as once it is dark enough to capture the stars you usually can not see anything around you. lol. I learned this the hard way. Take note of things that might damage your shot, such as street lights, nearby roads, etc.  Ideally you will want to be shooting away from distracting lights. You also want to take note of the landscape. While the stars in themselves are dazzling, including foreground in your shot makes for a stronger composition. Be sure that all foreground elements are at least 10 feet or more away from you.

Another interesting tidbit to keep in mind is…the direction you shoot will affect the movement of your light trails. Don’t worry about this at first as any star trails you capture will be amazing.  But, it is interesting to note that if you face North, the light trails will move in an arc around the North Star, or Polaris.  If you want to capture circular trails in the sky, therefore, it is handy to carry a compass while you scout for locations. Then, once it is dark, you will know exactly where to find North :) Ok, so have you picked a location? Good. Let’s move on.

Taking the shot

So it’s a nice clear night, you have a location, and it’s time to take your shot.  Now for the technical bit ;)  First, set your focus on infinity*. Next, ask yourself some questions. How dark is it? Are you way out in the country with hardly any noise pollution? If so, keep your aperture wide open to soak up the light, something like f/5. If you live where there is more light pollution though, start out with a smaller aperture like f/10. With practice you will learn what is best for your area.  In super dark places you may need to increase your ISO, but I suggest trying it at the lowest number first ;)

Next question…how long do you want to shoot for? When I first started I over eagerly insisted on super long exposure times. Don’t make my mistake. Try shorter exposures first, like 3 minutes. See how the shot comes out. Was it sucessful? Great, now try 5 minutes. Remember, the longer the exposure time, the more noise in the image. To take exposure times longer than 30 seconds you will most likely need a remote for your camera, or a cable release. Set you shutter speed to “bulb” and use your remote or release to take the shot. Be sure to time your shot carefully.  If you do not have a remote or cable release then take consecutive 30 second shots over the course of 3 minutes, or whatever you want your exposure time to be.  For a 3 minute exposure using the 30 second method, you will have a total of 6 images. Layer these images one on top of the other in Photoshop and set the blend mode to “lighten”. Voila, you now have a 3 minute exposure ;)

This is just an introduction to the wonderful world of star trail photogrpahy, which I also am still learning. Try these tips and with practice you can learn to make longer and longer trails through extended exposure times as well as layering consectutive long exposure shots in Photoshop, or in a star trail program like this. Have fun!! :)

* Question from Spud…”Erm, how do you set your focus to infinity?”…Amber…”Well, on some lenses you will see an infinity symbol where you can set the focus to. You know, a sidewise 8 symbol.  On my Nikkor lenses it means that I turn the focus all the way to the far right. I make sure the lens and camera is on manual and stays all the way to the right. As long as you do not have any foreground objects closer than 10 or 20 feet, everything should be pretty much in focus. The stars will definitly be in focus!” Spud shuffles off…

Funky Slug! What a ‘handle’, I thought mine was rather unique but I’m a mere pile of potatoes when compared with Funky Slug. Sigh, I’m so ordinary…

All of which is to say that this week’s guess blogger is a Slug called Funky who takes might fine snaps for a slimy one. Check out his site here and prepare to be dazzled. My absolute best favourite bit of his site is the ‘Slug’d’ section…as much for its name as its content of course. But how completely splendid…to create a new technique and called it ‘Slug’d'…in years to come we’ll all be showing off our award winning shots and going, ‘Oh, that one? Yes I Slug’d it…it works so well don’t you think? Now, that will be $bazillion for a limited edition print of 1,000,000′.

Seriously, all due thanks to Brian (alas, he’s not ACTUALLY called Funky Slug) for tackling some pretty knotty technical issues. He tackled 2 topics originally suggested by Kristine (night photography and ‘smooth’ water effects) and 1 from The Fragrant Muse (light trails). Enjoy!

As ever please ask questions…either related or unrelated to the post. I’ll be back in a couple of days to tackle more of your questions and suggested topics, plus more quick tips.

Over and out.

Low Light Challenges

So this weeks little saunter in to the “learnin’ stuff” corner is going to cover a few topics so I hope you don’t get bored, but ultimately they’re all linked (fortunately) and all involve getting the most amount of light in to the camera, from ultimately low light situations…

So we’re going for light trails / night photography and fluffy water… Best off I guess is to start with the topic of night photography.. Night photography tends to express a certain something that can be missing from daytime shots, almost regardless of the subject, and when done right they certainly attract attention… Now I’m not by any means an expert in night photography, but that’s mainly because I’m a big scaredy cat when it comes to going out late at night loaded up with camera gear… but I’ve done a fair few, and luckily we’re only going in to the technicalities, and therefore I don’t need to show evidence.. lol

Night Photography

So very firstly, for those who want to cheat, and don’t think it’s important to read all the “stuff”… Here’s a few initial tips… But you’ll need to read the rest to get the BEST tip of all…

• Make sure you have fully charged battery
• Take a tripod
• Know WHAT you want to shoot, and from where
• Set your camera to AV and set to approx f8 or lower for starters
• Keep the ISO low (100 – 200)

So now secondly first off, poor night shots can sometimes appear blurry or may not even come out at all.. which may be what those who have tried and not “yet” succeeded have experienced..  Hopefully we’ll be able to cover some tips to improve this.. but it basically comes down to getting enough of the available light in to the camera, whilst ensuring the camera is kept still.. therefore in pretty much most occasions a tripod is needed (or at least somewhere solid to stand the camera)… And although more expensive cameras don’t necessarily automatically achieve better night shots, it still has to be realised that some of the cheapest cameras won’t be capable of taking amazing night shots either

Sometimes too the best time to take dramatic night shots isn’t always necessarily at night.. A good tip is to try to shoot at dusk, or even dawn (for those daft enough to get up early).. The best time is a window of about 30 mins from sun up or sun down when there’s enough colour in the sky for some real dramatic effects..

If you’re opting for the sun up / sun down window though, then planning the shot first is key, due to the relatively limited time available to get the shot, so make sure you get there with plenty of time to spare to pick the best shot…

So the gear… Tripod / fully charged battery and maybe even a torch too… Oh.. and a camera comes in handy… A fully charged battery is a must, as depending on your camera and the shot you’re taking your shutter may be open for 30mins or so… and a partially drained battery dying part way through the ultimate night shot isn’t too amusing.. And you can guarantee that if your battery dies it WOULD have been the best night shot ever…

So now you’re no doubt bored witless with my wafflings, let’s get in to the more techy stuff… The whole concept of night photography, as I said before, is getting the limited available light in to your camera, and this is achieved by extending the length of time the shutter is open and absorbing this available light.  In real basic terms I’d liken night photography to filling a bath through a straw… During the day you can fill it normally using the taps… At night though, you still need the same amount of water, but you can only fill it through a straw so it takes a lot longer to fill… Hence at night you need to allow the camera more time to absorb the available light (or get a bigger straw)… Doing this also requires you to hold the camera perfectly still for all of that time (not sure where the straw comes in to this one though, but make sure you don’t drop the camera in the bath)… For this you need to mount the camera ideally on a solid tripod, or at the very least a solid base like a wall… Any movement of the camera during a 2 second or 30 minute exposure will blur the edges in your shot and potentially ruin it… Also you may find it useful to focus on the main subject, and then switch your cameras focus to manual and only then compose your shot. This helps to limit any confusion the camera might experience trying to auto focus at night… Oh and a cable release or remote release is very useful too, but if you don’t have one then try using the camera’s timer function. This will prevent you shaking the camera as you press the shutter button, and stop you from blurring the shot… Or just have a few drinks first and then the blurred shot will look normal..

You can alter (shorten or even lengthen) the time required by changing the aperture or ISO speed… Be warned though that if you set the aperture too high (say f22) then the camera will struggle even more and take even longer to absorb light, and this will result in more noise and a higher risk of blurring the shot as it takes longer.. Similarly if you set the ISO speed too high (400 or above) then you’ll likely notice film graining of the image..

I’d recommend setting your ISO to 200 or below, and keeping a relatively wide aperture, such as f8 or lower… Another recommendation is to “bracket” your shots..  which will take a series of images at differing exposures.. Some camera’s will have an “AEB” or Auto Bracketing feature, and if you’re going to use this I’d personally recommend setting the camera on aperture priority “AV” and then auto bracket.. Doing it this way will then only extend / shorten the time the aperture is open and not adjust your depth of field (the amount of stuff that’s in focus)…. For those that don’t have cameras that can auto bracket, you can do this manually by setting the (EV) exposure compensation..  This will be a little +/- symbol on the camera, and is usually selected in increments of 1/3 EV… Positive adjustment will allow more light in to the camera and will brighten a dark image… Negative adjustment will naturally have the opposite effect…

You may also find that on some cameras you may even have a “Night” mode… in which case ignore everything I’ve said so far, and skip straight to this bit… Oooh… Guess I should have put this bit first… but where’s the fun in that… lol… So study your manual to see if you’ve got one… It will most likely be a symbol like a half moon… and then give that a go and mix it in with exposure compensation too…

Also, as a general rule… forget trying to use your flash for night time scenic shots, as it will only illuminate the immediate area within a few metres, and you’ll see nothing else of the scene you actually want…

One more bit too for those who don’t want orange photo’s… You’ll find you also will likely need to manually change the White Balance “WB” if you’re shooting after dark where street lights etc are visible.. Check how in your manual but you’ll need to set this to the “tungsten” setting for most night shots, which is normally depicted by a graphic of a wee light bulb..

So there you go… There’s an introduction to night photography, and for those that were lazy (like me) and missed the main points… cos lets face it – who reads everything…

• Go fully equipped with full batteries and a tripod
• Use a remote / cable release or try to use the timer function
• Allow yourself plenty of time to set the shot up
• Setting your camera to manual focus once focused will help for DSLR users
• Set the camera to semi manual (such as aperture priority)
• Stick with relatively wide apertures (f8 or lower) to keep the shooting time shortest
• Keep the ISO setting low (100 to 200) to reduce noise
• Set the “WB” White Balance to Tungsten for after dark shots
• Take bracketed shots
• Cheat and put the camera on “Night Mode”

So now the ultimate tip you’ve been desperately waiting for

• If at first you don’t succeed, try try again, and only then give up and go home…

The REAL benefit of digital though is that you’ve got instant results, so can see if your tinkerings have paid off… and if they haven’t.. tinker some more and go again…

Light Trails

So that’s the basics of night photography, and if you’re still awake then lets cover light trails… Now this still involves shooting in low light situations, and ensuring that the camera is recording the image long enough for any movement of light to blur in to a continuous stream, such as headlights of cars, or the lights on a fairground attraction.. You will most likely still need a stable base unless you’re going for the more surreal handheld approach to light trails which can yield some amazing results too..

Essentially though shooting light trails tends to be a case of trial and error.. You need to decide how long you need the camera to be recording for to capture the amount of light trails you need to make the shot impressive… This can be anything from 1 or 2 seconds (for a fairground ride) to 30 seconds or more (as per my car shot)… The way to set up is to decide on a suitable time you think you want, set your camera to “TV” shutter priority… and then set the time you want manually, and also keep the ISO speed as low as you can. The camera will then decide itself what aperture you require to keep the shutter open for the required amount of time.

I say this is trial and error, as you may find the camera has been fooled as to the available light, and hasn’t therefore calculated correctly… In this case you can either adjust the “+/-“ exposure compensation to let in more or less light, or be really brave and switch to fully manual… and set both the shutter speed AND the aperture… Depending on the light though you might not be able to achieve the desired time, and may need to opt for a shorter time if your images appear too light…

Remember though… The longer the shutter is open, the lighter and brighter the resulting image will be.. And also low “f” numbers let more light in too, and mean the shutter doesn’t need to stay open as long, so for the same exposure time you’ll also get a brighter and lighter image… And the converse applies if you need to darken the image… Shorter shutter speed and / or a higher “f” number…

And also, speaking of light trails, be sure to check back in regularly, as I hear there’s an amazing guest blog coming up soon on how to do star trails, by a certain very good friend of mine. And if her star shots are anything to go by, then her guest spot will be amazing too.

Lastly – if you fancy trying something like my car shot… The settings I used were 30 second exposure / f11 / ISO 100 / manually focused on the A-pillar… And also essential for this shot is a VERY stable tripod…

Soft Water

Now the last bit… then you may sleep… This too comes down to shooting in low light conditions, or at least “simulating” low light with the use of ND (Neutral Density) filters… ND Filters are dark grey filters of varying “darkness”, that make the whole scene appear darker to the camera, and allow you to leave the shutter open longer without actually having to wait for it to get dark… As they are “neutral” though they don’t affect the colours in the scene…

To make the water soft and fluffy, you need to be achieving shutter speeds of anything up to 30 seconds, but it’s best for water to achieve this by setting your camera to “AV”or “A” (aperture priority), and letting the camera decide on the shutter speed, or you may tend to find the highlights in the water may blow out (are too bright) and you’ll lose detail. You can then adjust the “f” number to alter the shutter speed… A higher “f” number will increase the length of time the shutter is open, and for the soft water effect you’ll likely need to choose something quite high, like f22… and the longer the shutter is open the softer and fluffier the water will end up..

If you can’t achieve the shutter speed you need, even when shooting at f32 or higher, then you’ll need to fool the camera by using ND filters… These can be expensive though and are really only available for DSLR cameras… Or just wait a while for it to get darker… lol…

You may also notice a touch of “post processing” on a couple of these shots, specifically the sunset and waterfall shots.. These are HDR, and this process was briefly mentioned earlier in Aswirly’s guest spot, and can really bring an image to life. It’s a complete topic on its own though when you’re all feeling brave..

So there you have it.. here endeth today’s lesson, and if you actually made it this far then you do realise that you’ll need to forget all about night photography for a while, as you’ll likely sleep for a week after reading this…