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Meteor shower photography

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chacharlie
Posts: 228 - Karma: 20

 i was pretty excited about the meteor shower tonight. It was then that i realized "OH SNAPZ. PHOTOG OPP". anyway, i dont know shit about taking pictures at night, taking pictures of meteors, or taking any kind of time lapse. SO: is there anything i need to know to get some cool pictures of this apparently exciting event? is there any use for time lapse or are the meteors going too damn fast? any obvious techniques? i have a nikon d40 if that matters. if ive overlooked a thread or anything point me to it. muchos gracias!

Nov 16 2009 11:33PM
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chacharlie
Posts: 228 - Karma: 20
eh? neh? nobody?
Nov 17 2009 12:22AM
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Dr.NS
Posts: 640 - Karma: 19
k first get a tripod
or a way to make your camera not move AT ALL

then set your shutter speed really low (slow)
your apeture really high

and your iso low

thats BASICALLY how to take time lapse photography. basically.

theres alot more to the details than that though, but thatll get you through it
Nov 17 2009 12:34AM
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Brock.
Posts: 5698 - Karma: 1,327
by that you mean low apeture value... right? ex. f 3.5
Nov 17 2009 12:45AM
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Pippin
Posts: 4846 - Karma: 661
If you want star trails you don't want a wide aperature (f3.5), the higher the aperature the less light that will come in thus allowing longer shutter speed.
Nov 17 2009 12:58AM
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freshlyDIPPED
Posts: 1160 - Karma: 121
anyone know the correct way of merging say 60 photos together?

i took a whole bunch of indivual 30 sec exposures think i could overlay them or something.
Nov 17 2009 1:02AM
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chacharlie
Posts: 228 - Karma: 20
sweeet sauce. ok i figured out shutter speed, aperture im fiddling with, and iso i havent figured out yet. so with the shutter really slow/bulb and the aperture low (3.5) the camera won shoot a dark sky, but it will shoot like a floodlight outside. it says subject is too dark. so when i figure out the ISO will that help? thanks for the help!
Nov 17 2009 1:03AM
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benk
Posts: 1342 - Karma: 988
I've never done this but have you tried the overlay feature in photoshop?  You might only be able to do 5 or so though. But I've never tried but you might want to look into it. 

and this file will most likely be massive so hope you have a good computer
Nov 17 2009 2:01AM
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IanAvery-Leaf
Posts: 9926 - Karma: 9,344
thats a wide open aperture, you want close to f16, or higher, depending on how slow your shutter is
Nov 17 2009 10:13AM
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*Fujative*
Posts: 8554 - Karma: 183
I have found that between f/8 and f/11 is the best to use for stars.
Nov 17 2009 5:38PM
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Pippin
Posts: 4846 - Karma: 661
Fair enough, my depth in star photography is limited at best.
Nov 17 2009 5:40PM
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DrZoidberg
Posts: 5675 - Karma: 4,268
I've always read that f5.6 or something is good. The size of the aperture is related to the width of the star trails, I think I read that somewhere once. I heard that one that was supposed to happen soon or yesterday or whenever was supposed to be good.

All those sentences sound really awkward.
Nov 17 2009 6:12PM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,270
f/9
focus set to infinity or use a flashlight to find something in the foreground
tripod
bulb shutter speed with a remote release, set it to like 2 mins at first and then experiment, but for star trails 30 seconds won't get you much
Nov 17 2009 8:47PM
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hanksy
Posts: 659 - Karma: 265
So last night I took some night shots for my photo class, and I was processing them today and whatup! Totally luckboxed and got a shot with the meteor shower right in it. So stoked

Click for larger image
Nov 17 2009 9:02PM
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WikiWiki
Posts: 5584 - Karma: 426
haha sick
Nov 17 2009 9:15PM
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AgentOrange11
Posts: 470 - Karma: 15
thats a dope picture dude, i really like that
Nov 17 2009 9:21PM
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miroz
Posts: 10333 - Karma: 3,947

Hahaha that is pretty sick, great catch!

Do you feel like it's leaning a little bit to the right, though?  I think because of the way the cars line up and the road falls, it seems uneven to the right.  Did you play around with rotating it at all?  Because just a fraction of a degree could make it even better...but I'd have to see it first.

Nov 17 2009 9:36PM
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chacharlie
Posts: 228 - Karma: 20
ah no fair.  i stayed up for 2 hours waiting and it was cloudy the whole time!
Nov 18 2009 1:32AM
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thenick
Posts: 235 - Karma: 57
i agree, it looks like a fraction to the right. its a sick photo, but if you can rotate it a little bit it would do alot.
Nov 18 2009 3:14AM
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no_steeze
Posts: 23992 - Karma: 4,270
also maybe consider cropping a bit off the right

there's some light pollution that turns into noise and it takes away attention from the fucking awesome shooting star

it looks like a lens flare haha but that's a sick photo
Nov 18 2009 12:13PM
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.jr
Posts: 5313 - Karma: 356
Not hating, but those stars dont seem right.. since when can you see stars when there is car lights pointing at you..
Nov 18 2009 1:08PM
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GORlLLA
Posts: 1950 - Karma: 45
My Threads
Nov 18 2009 1:29PM
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