Hello guys,
yesterday I had a short time to practice some night pictures.
Long story short, I got a bunch of crap jobs, everything is already deleted.

I'd be glad if you could help me out here.

My idea was to take a long exposure to take a picture of a house in the night, in my mind it had to be pretty dark but sourrounded by stars.
I used my tokina @ 11mm, f/2.8, ISO 100 and 30s exposure.
I got pile of really bad results.

Too bad I had to go back home and couldn't experiment any more.

What do you suggest? Should I go for a 800 ISO, f/8 maybe? To achieve more sharpness due to the closer shutter? Or just raise the ISO and keep shorter times?
I'd love to get something like this, but with less movement:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victorvonsalza/2767623568/

Thanks a lot in advance!

Unfortunately, I cannot help you.

Anyway, try with f 5.6 or 8 and keep low ISO. I would not use 11mm, better 16 imo.

Let us know if you get good results!

it coud help us if you would have posted your result(s), so we are able to determine the problems and your faults. just saying "I got crap results" makes it really hard for us to give you good advice. Basically it´s quite hard to get stars exposed together with a well light building. usually you need at least 30 seconds of exposure to even be able to make stars visible, preferrably much longer. but of course, with sucha long exposure you might get a completely overexposed building. usually such shots are taken with an wide open aperture and a rather high ISO. you could also use a graduated neutral density filter in order to darken the bottom part with the building for around 2/3 stops.

but then again, I´m just guessing, I never really tried.

This post was edited by RecoveryChannel on Nov 30 2010 04:41am

Are you using a tripod?

Are you using a remote shutter release?

If not, are you using the 10 second timer?

Are you using mirror lock up?

Keep in mind that stars will move more than you think due to the earth's rotation...if you want starts in your picture, expect them to be blurred with a 30 second exposure. Otherwise, 30 seconds is no problem if you used what I said above on a tripod. Just make sure your subject is stationary.

Thanks guys, I'll try to answer to every question.

I used a tripod, 10s timer, 30 seconds exposure, and yes the stars looked blurred due to their movement I guess.

This is what I got:



It seems quite good once resized to 800px on the largest side, but it's very very blurry once cropped to 100%.

Probably it's the low f/2.8. I should use something like f/8 and then raise the ISO to avoid the motion blur.

I will do some more experiments during the next night with clear sky

Don't use high iso at night! I learned my lesson about that. It just creates a lot of noise. I made myself a rule now, that to only shoot at iso 100 for night shots. Then again, I don't have the most upgraded camera, so it could all depend on the camera itself, too. I love night shots, they are so fun. Have you tried maybe getting a remote to do a longer exposure? That is always fun, too! Other than that, I am not sure what advice to give. I've always wanted to try a very long exposure (maybe ten minutes), with a higher F number, and iso 100. And of course, play around with all those settings :D.

I will be traveling to White Sands, NM, to take a photo of Andromeda and of the Milky Way Trail. I'll also be shooting the moon with a telescope hooked up to the 5d MK II. Hope to do it next year
I really dislike moved photos.

AlPi is affected by Delirium Tremens due to alcohol excess

I think light pollution is the main culprit here. It see tons of it in the background.

I'm going to go home tonight and see if i can find a solution to that problem. (If the storm clouds clear that is).

I think the only way to get the house and the sky both exposed correctly is by merging two different exposures or use flash to light the house.

When i try it tonight, i think i might use a higher ISO and a shorter shutter speed to stop the stars from moving too much.

Well I guess I can't avoid the light pollution, my only chance would be to find a very dark place.
There are town's lights behind that house and I can't turn them off
And it was ok to have a dark house too, I just wanted to enhance the stars.
I need to find a good balance for ISO, f/ and exposure time somehow.