Camera Labs

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd share my first attempt at night sky photography. I popped outside for a bit a few nights ago to try some shots with the 50mm 1.8.

After 30 minutes it got too cold so I headed back in. It was shot in Galway on the west coast of Ireland but there was still a lot of light pollution to deal with. The original was VERY orange. Well anyway, a little editing has revealed this:

Exposure: 15 sec
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 1600




Any comments/suggestions are more than welcome!

Mark

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Canon EOS 40D / EF-S 17-85mm IS / EF 50mm f/1.8 / My Flickr

why are they blue?

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D60 - SB-600
18-55VR
50mm f/1.8
90mm f/2.8

Yes, this is a problem. It's because the original had a lot of orange light pollution and they either came out blue or red when changing the white balance. I'm working on a black and white version at the moment, perhaps with a little colour. I'll post it up soon.

If anyone's got any tips for processing these kind of shots I'd be grateful as it's my first time!

Thanks,

Mark

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Canon EOS 40D / EF-S 17-85mm IS / EF 50mm f/1.8 / My Flickr

This shot reminds me of the good old star screensaver on all the old Windows computers...

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Canon EOS 50D | Canon 28-135mm | Lowepro Flipside 300

Not a bad attempt at all. I think the white balance just needs some fine tuning. Presumably the original colour cast was down to street lights? You should be able to tweak the white balance to look more natural - what software are you using to edit these shots?

As for editing Im not sure. I dont have the hang of editing myself. All I have done to date is take multiple short exposures and combine them in something like deep sky stacker. This allows me to reveal far more detail than in a single shot without the need to push the exposure post processing.

What this will allow you to do is (if you dont have a tracking mount) shorten your exposure time (the stars are showing some movement) and take and layer multiple shots to get the same effect as a single shot done with a tracking mount.

I hope this helps a little

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

Thanks for the tips Digz. I do want to try some multiple exposures at some point.

I was using photoshop for the editing.

Mark

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Canon EOS 40D / EF-S 17-85mm IS / EF 50mm f/1.8 / My Flickr