Luckily it started working again once it warmed up and dried a bit. My shot was ruined and so was my camera gear! I remember setting up for a long wheel in the Golden Gate Highlands, South Africa - I was going to be really ambitious and do a three-hour wheel, sleeping in the vehicle next to my tripod and camera.Īfter the three hours was up I went to check on my gear and to my horror, it was drenched in dew and the lens was completely misted up. One other problem with long exposure night photography is changing atmospheric conditions. The South Celestial Pole is where these two imaginary lines intersect. However, the actual pole is a little higher and you can identify it by drawing a couple of mental lines between the Southern Cross (towards the Small Magellanic Cloud) and another perpendicular to the line joining Alpha/Beta Centauri towards the Large Magellanic Cloud. The South Celestial Pole is closest to Sigma Octanis. Unlike the Northern Hemisphere, where the Northern Celestial Pole almost exactly coincides with Polaris, the Southern Hemisphere has no such star. If you are shooting for a traditional wheel in the Southern Hemisphere you need to point your camera towards the South Celestial Pole. The compass points, North, East, South and West all have different trail characteristics. With a single exposure, you better have timed it exactly right! Where To Point Your camera If you are stacking, you should also be able to easily discard any blown shots at the end of the run. One of the most effective techniques is to set up in the genuine dark but time your last frames for the rising moon. If you plan your shot carefully, you could take advantage of the increased ambient light to paint your landscape while still capturing the wheeling stars. Moonlight is far brighter than starlight and a moon that rises above the horizon during your shoot must be compensated for. Of course, when photographing for such long periods of time it is important to consider the effect of a change in ambient light. So, using the same technique for a 3 Hour exposure would mean my settings would need to change by 8 ⅓ stops: ISO 100, F9 for 3 Hours. The same applies if you want to achieve a wheel in a single exposure. My final settings would, therefore, be ISO 800, F4, 4minutes. I can adjust my ISO downwards by 3 stops: 6400 - 1 Stop = 3200 - 1stop = 1600 - 1stop = ISO 800. In this case, my exposure is 3 stops longer (30 second base + 1 stop = 1minute + 1 stop = 2minutes + 1 stop = 4minutes). So, for example, if my stars as points of light image required an exposure of ISO 6400 at F4 for 30 seconds and I wanted to take 4-minute exposures for a star trail instead, all I need to do is adjust for the increased exposure duration. Essentially all one does is to take the same settings (obtained experimentally - see part 1) and adjust them for any change to exposure duration. It is a total pain in the butt - just leave it off, especially for trails!Įxposing star trails is quite straightforward. The idea being that subtracting this black mask will remove much of the noise associated with long exposure and a hot camera sensor. All this feature does is to take another image for the same duration with the shutter closed. If you are going to photograph star trails, then it is vitally important (and anti-intuitive) to TURN OFF ‘Long Exposure Noise Reduction’. I would also opt for shorter exposures where there was a lot of air traffic, thankfully, in Africa this is another factor we rarely have to consider! If I was somewhere busy (for example the Quivertree forest in Keetmanshoop, I might opt for shorter exposures). Admittedly, I tend to photograph stars in exceptionally remote locations. I find this helps to create smooth wheels while mitigating the risk of light pollution. I expose my image stacks for 4 minutes at a time. My preferred method sits somewhere in the middle. In a stack of up to 300 shots, you may be able to afford a few damaged ones. With stacked images, you have a degree of safety because you can simply discard the ruined frames. I use a little wireless one made by Hahnel. Make sure it is the right kind for your brand of camera. Canon 7D mark ii - limited to 30 second exposures), however, if yours doesn't then pick up a cheap one from your local camera supplier. Many cameras now have them built in (e.g. In both cases you are going to need a method to hold your shutter open. For example, you might be two hours into your single exposure shot when suddenly a lone car drives by, or someone flashes you with a powerful torch.High risk! Longer exposures create beautifully smooth wheels but they are at significant risk of additional noise and worse, inadvertent or accidental light pollution. There are pros and cons for both of these methods, as one would expect, nothing is ever cut and dried in photography!
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