Long Exposure Night Shots

Anyone here have experience with long exposure night shots? I have shot a few with my Nikon D40x - but was trying to get really long ones (like 20 min) to see the stars moving. I know how this works on film but perhaps it just doesn't work with CCD. What do you think?

Here's the best one I got - airstream trailer

http://lh3.ggpht.com/tob323/SC9VMRau..._cEk/stars.jpg

Any experience? I'm thinking long (20 min) exposure, small aperture, low ISO

Help

Thanks - TO'B

Welcome to the Forum.

I have taken a few star trail shots with my Canon 40D and I was very happy with the way they turned out. Here are a couple of threads that I posted a couple months ago with star trail photos.

http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=42095

http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=41655

One of the hardest things about taking long exposure night shots it to find a place far enough away from city and highway lights. The second hardest part for me is staying awake! Depending on how bright the moon is, you may have to use shorter exposures, and combine them later. It's really easy to do. All you have to do is drag one image on top of the other in Photoshop, and change the blend mode to lighten. It works great. That's how I created the images in the threads I linked to.

To solve the moon problem simply use a small apperture (f/16 so diffraction isn't too bad) and for some cameras (ahem D200) a battery grip or power adapter plugged in is quite handy. I've done a star trail shot (1 hour exposure) by using a Neutral Density filter, shooting at f/16 and keeping the camera plugged in via a car adapter and extension cord. These things have a tendency to drain your battery quite a bit. Also, shoot at a low iso to eliminate noise as much as possible.

Mike ..... that are some very ... and i say vary good shotos ....

Can u give me some tips on how to set my D80 to get something like that ?!

Best regards
Takumi