Astro Photography in East Sussex 2012/09/03
Using any DSLR or camera with manual controls and you can start to
take some super interesting photographs of the night sky. With a long
exposure, messing around with focus and ISO you can see more than your
naked eye ever could. Astro photography is a fantastic hobby to get
into.
This was one of my first ever attempts at capturing stars with a
dslr. Astro photography requires some knowledge of shutter, aperture
and most importantly ISO speed. In addition to all these skills is a
tripod or something to keep the camera steady when capturing a photo.
Some basic settings to get you started would be:
- Aperture 2.8
- Shutter 1/15
- Focus Infinite -much easier to do with old manual lenses which
normally have a 'hard stop' at infinite.
- ISO - Experiment around with this until you find a sweet spot
where your camera is still capable of producing clean images free
from excess noise.
To capture these images I was using my old Canon 5Dmkii and a L lens.
This is a rubbish set up when it comes to astro photography as most
modern lenses are auto focus and do not have a hard infinite stop.
Nowadays I shoot Nikon with manual focus lenses that tend to come with
hard infinite stops. This makes getting that focus of the night sky much
easier than hunting with modern lenses.
