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Long exposure on a boat?

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GSPhotography
Posts: 838 - Karma: 1,373
So I went sailing this weekend and came across this idea of taking a long exposure of the sky ( stars ) with the boat cabin.
The issue I had is that the boat was moving so I always had moving star lights.
The question is, how should I approach this , in order to keep the stars from being blury in the picture?
Here is the best photo I cough of all of them.
Exposure was 24 seconds. iso 100. aperture 4.0
Click for larger image
Jun 17 2012 10:19PM
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MACAQUE
Posts: 2811 - Karma: 696
If the boat's moving you're going to get blurry stars with long exposure. You could always try layering short exposures at high iso to eliminate noise and get detail in the sky.

And then photoshop is always an option, as in take a shot of sky from land with the stars how you like, and then replace the sky you get from the boat with the good sky.
Jun 17 2012 10:23PM
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rudedog41
Posts: 605 - Karma: 135
You could probably set the tripod on a dock nearby the boat and get close to the same composition of that shot you took....Although the boat light may be blurry from the wake the stars should be clear
Jun 18 2012 10:41AM
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Balto
Posts: 25985 - Karma: 4,398
unless you find someway to keep the tripod completely stable, you are kind of out of luck. The boat will be moving no matter what with the water, and even the slightest amount will be noticeable

a faster lens will give you a shorter shutter speed which would help but not completely fix the problem
Jun 18 2012 10:53AM
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Poop_nugget
Posts: 534 - Karma: -15
thats a fucking sick picture
Jun 18 2012 8:07PM
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GSPhotography
Posts: 838 - Karma: 1,373
Yea with some thinking I think you have the best answer. I dont think i could achieve the picture , getting both sky and boat clear, without layering different exposure\speed shots. Thanks !
Jul 4 2012 7:55PM
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MustBeMattyB
Posts: 495 - Karma: 2,147
Love it! really creative idea!
Jul 4 2012 9:38PM
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TijmenDal
Posts: 4849 - Karma: 1,295
This. Stacking is the best way to make night shots to start with and it would be the only possible way to get sharp shots really.
Save your selection, project it on all layers and then mask out the boat. That way you should be able to get a correct picture I guess.
Jul 5 2012 6:50AM
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.MintBerryCrunch
Posts: 750 - Karma: 346
So a friend of mine was actually able to take one of these "gravity bowls" and rig it to a tripod for this exact reason, not sure quite how he did it but it worked http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006E30WNC/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
Jul 5 2012 10:21AM
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bo0b
Posts: 2964 - Karma: 994
thats pretty smart
Jul 5 2012 11:22AM
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p.hawks
Posts: 2832 - Karma: 581
thats a good idea, kind of made me wonder if a glide cam would work. LIke if you have a heavy setup, and then found a way to mount it to the boat or something. I know they have a special base for it to make it easier to balance. This may be too complicated/expensive, but in theory it should work decently. other than that, wait for a calm night i guess
Jul 5 2012 2:22PM
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Benji.
Posts: 1146 - Karma: 88
Tom Lowe did something like this in his Timescapes movie. Did a "boatlapse" of the sky/cliffs through Lake Powell. He used a 16mm Master Prime on a 1D. Four tenths of a second rapid fire exposures.


Jul 5 2012 10:54PM
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pmsnow
Posts: 992 - Karma: 87
I don't know anything about photography but I do know that if you take the boat out of the water and put it on its little trailer, it wont move. Sick picture though!
Jul 6 2012 1:38PM
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the.cheat
Posts: 2859 - Karma: 171
that's not a sunfish.
Jul 7 2012 1:42PM
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