Long exsposure shots

[Jimmy B]

1. My canon 350d doesnt like to focus on dark objects
2. Would a wireless trigger work the same for bulb shots
3. Old tripod is a POS and I need to find a new one.
4. Who on this site are the long exsposure gurus?
This one one I took last night, cropped and played with it. It's a start
Thanks Jimmy B

[cyberlord]

Jimmy, you'll find that focusing in low light is a problem for any autofocus camera, digital or film. Don't blame the camera. A faster lens will aid autofocus in certain low light conditions, but it won't help with night sky shots. You will have to use manual focus or infinity focus (tipped over 8 symbol on the focus scale if you have one).

I'm not sure on the wireless remote if it will do bulb or not. I know my wired remote does. It has a separate toggle switch that holds the shutter open until I switch it back.

A good tripod is a must!! And I still don't have one myself!!

If you don't want star trails you will also need some sort of equatorial mount that moves with the stars. If star trails is what you are after you don't need one.

Good luck with your astrophotography!

Tim

[livin4lax09]

AF relies on contrast. Low contrast=crappy AF. Yep, it sucks.

my remote does bulb, I think most do. Even the cheap ones on ebay.

Tripod? check out amvona.com's ebay items. I got a metal leg one with ballhead for about 80 shipped, 9 lbs altogether. that one aint goin anywhere.

and that one looks decent, how long was the exposure?

[DaveLC2]

I love to take long exposure shots but I'm just learning and experimenting,

Dave

[Jimmy B]

Thanks for all the input. What I was doing was going as long on exsposure with going bulb.
Brent the setting were:
tv 30 seconds
F4
with 28/135.
Jimmy B

[another view]

If you don't want star trails you will also need some sort of equatorial mount that moves with the stars. If star trails is what you are after you don't need one.

In the shot above, the stars wouldn't have trails - but the trees would be blurry...

Long exposures are a whole different animal. I haven't done much of it with digital, and what I have done has topped out at about 30 seconds. Going longer than that will be a problem for digital due to noise and the sensor heating up - as well as battery power - but digital has gotten a lot better here than it used to be.

Very true about autofocus, an f1.4 prime lens will make life easier but anything other than a 50mm will be very expensive. Since you probably won't shoot at that aperture anyway, it's not that important to have.

Sturdy tripods are a requirement. You can also tie a piece of rope from the tripod base (where the head attaches to) to something heavy like a camera bag or a log for more stability. Bogen/Manfrotto tripods are very good, I've had a 3001 and a 3021 leg set and 3025 head. They're very sturdy and a lot of people use them.

[jsmith75]

I have an RC-1 wireless remote with my 350D and it does bulb (press once to open press again to close shutter). I rely on manual focus on night shots using a spotlight to assist with the focusing helps in some cases.
http://gallery.photographyreview.com...=55420&cat=542
in the above photo I actually focused on the stars and the tree still shows a lot of detail. this was 30sec at F3.5 and the star trails are not too bad.
Don't forget the custom functions menu on the 350D to enable mirror lockup and long exposure noise reduction.
In this photo.. http://gallery.photographyreview.com...t=542&size=big
we actually shined the cars headlights at the mill to assist focusing.

[freygr]

Just remember long digital exposure will have noise! And the noise varies from camera to camera with major differences between makes and models! For supper long exposures check out the astronomers digital photography web pages, for software and how to.

[readingr]

At night I set the lens to the highest F# possible, focus on infinity, ISO as low as possible, and then expose for as long as necessary to get the effect I want.

Some photos don't need as long as you think, practise makes perfect.

Roger