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First Light With My New DSLR

toilandtrouble123

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Adamar98

Adamar98

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What lens are you using? I would keep the iso at 800 (maybe higher). If your using a fixed tripod then up your exposure times to around 30 seconds. With the wide lens your using, you won't get star trails. But you'll capture a little more light. Have you thought about having a crack at the milkyway?

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Adamar98

Adamar98

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Exactly the same as what I started out with. It's a good little lens. You'll be surprised with what you'll get from it. Its ok wide open at all focal lengths, better when stopped down one stop. But I would up your exposure times. Even at 55mm you'll get 20 second exposures with no trailing.

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toilandtrouble123

toilandtrouble123

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Exactly the same as what I started out with. It's a good little lens. You'll be surprised with what you'll get from it. Its ok wide open at all focal lengths, better when stopped down one stop. But I would up your exposure times. Even at 55mm you'll get 20 second exposures with no trailing.

Wicked, so summary for constellation shots/night scenery:

-Increase exposure times to around 20secs

-Keep ISO at 800, or increase

-Turn noise reduction on, to allow camera to take the "dark frames"

Should I keep the aperture the same? Have I missed anything?

Summary for star trails:

-Lower ISO to maybe 200

-Lowest aperture (f/3.5 is the lowest I can achieve)

-Try taking lots of shorter timed exposures and stacking them

Should I turn noise reduction off, or keep it on for star trails? Have I got this down right?

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

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I would turn it off and take your own dark frames. You do this by keeping everything on the camera the same, but putting the lens cover on. I take 1/3 of the number of lights i had. Then stack them in deep sky stacker or something similar.

People with more experience may be able to advice better though

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toilandtrouble123

toilandtrouble123

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I would turn it off and take your own dark frames. You do this by keeping everything on the camera the same, but putting the lens cover on. I take 1/3 of the number of lights i had. Then stack them in deep sky stacker or something similar.

People with more experience may be able to advice better though

erm, when I received my dslr, it didn't come with a lens cap....

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JamesF

JamesF

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Agree with Matt regarding the dark frames.

For the constellation shots I would take anything up to 20 "light" frames and five to ten dark frames and then combine them in Deep Sky Stacker as Matt suggests. You may then need to load them into GIMP or Photoshop if you have it and stretch the histogram to reveal all the detail. Don't worry if this doesn't all mean much right now. Get the data and we can find a few tutorials or walk you through it. It sounds intimidating, but it's really not that hard.

If you're capturing images of several constellations over the course of an hour or so you can probably use the same set of darks for each as long as you stick with the same exposure time. The idea is that you use a set of darks matched to the exposure time and the temperature of the camera.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Ebay :)

I forgot. You live in a town. Perhaps there's a camera shop you can buy one from. Should only be a couple of pounds, if that. I got one from ebay because it costs more than the postage just to drive to the nearest town.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Wicked, so summary for constellation shots/night scenery:

-Increase exposure times to around 20secs

-Keep ISO at 800, or increase

-Turn noise reduction on, to allow camera to take the "dark frames"

Should I keep the aperture the same? Have I missed anything?

Summary for star trails:

-Lower ISO to maybe 200

-Lowest aperture (f/3.5 is the lowest I can achieve)

-Try taking lots of shorter timed exposures and stacking them

Should I turn noise reduction off, or keep it on for star trails? Have I got this down right?

Experiment with exposure times for constellation shots. You may be able to get up to 30 seconds without star trailing. ISO800 should be fine. ISO1600 may introduce a fair bit of noise. Then 20-ish lights, darks and processing in DSS following by GIMP/Photoshop.

Not sure for star trails myself as I've never done one.

Keep the camera noise reduction off all the time though.

James

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toilandtrouble123

toilandtrouble123

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Ok cool, so noise reduction on the custom functions is a big no-no then lol.

Agree with Matt regarding the dark frames.

For the constellation shots I would take anything up to 20 "light" frames and five to ten dark frames and then combine them in Deep Sky Stacker as Matt suggests. You may then need to load them into GIMP or Photoshop if you have it and stretch the histogram to reveal all the detail. Don't worry if this doesn't all mean much right now. Get the data and we can find a few tutorials or walk you through it. It sounds intimidating, but it's really not that hard.

If you're capturing images of several constellations over the course of an hour or so you can probably use the same set of darks for each as long as you stick with the same exposure time. The idea is that you use a set of darks matched to the exposure time and the temperature of the camera.

James

And, yeah does sound confusing as hell lol!! But taking shots with the cap on, not touching any of the settings, that seems simple enough, it'll be the processing part that''ll be a head ache, and the stacking of the shorter star trail shots. Well, here in Banbury, the cloud is starting to break up, so I might just send the boyfriend off to the pub whilst I head down to the park if it clears up, to put these tips into action :D

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Scott

Scott

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great start toilandtrouble. all seems a bit daunting at first but with all the helpful/friendly advice you'll get here it'll soon become a lot clearer to you. quite like the startrails. i'm yet to try this

Scott

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JamesF

JamesF

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Oh, regarding light pollution. I've not tried this yet, though I have the necessary bits. I just don't know how well it will work. It's not often I have problems with light pollution and if I do it usually means the sky isn't clear enough for imaging.

The end of the 18-55mm lens has a 58mm filter thread on. It's possible to get a 58mm to 48mm step-down ring that will fit a standard 2" LP filter. So by fitting the step-down ring and filter it is in theory possible to get rid of a lot of the LP if it's from the yellowy-orange sodium street lights.

I also bought a 52mm(?) to 48mm step-down ring so I can attach the same filter to my 50mm f/1.8 lens should I want to.

And I meant to mention the aperture issue you raised, too. With the zoom lenses it can be the case that you don't have the full range of aperture sizes at all focal lengths. From memory the 18-55mm lens will only go as wide as f/4.5 at 18mm. It's just the way the lens works.

James

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