Shooting Night Sky Sony Alpha 100

pinkfloydian

I have a Sony Alpha 100 DLSR and I want to take a photo of the night sky, when I'm in Portugal.

What settings should I set the camera at (precise instructions for this particular camera) and what advice can anybody give me.

T

fret_wimp2

Depends what you're trying to do really. shoot night sky is quite a broad statement.

Do you want:

-to capture star trails?
-get stars pin sharp?
-do you want to capture some foreground and does it need to be bright?
-is it a wide angle shot or zoomed in only on the sky?
-will the moon be in the shot?
- do you have a tripod and a flash?

Im not trying to be awkward but more detail is needed. the current instruction is like going to a deli and just saying "i want a sandwich" without specifying type of bread, salad, filling, cheese, butter, mayo etc etc.

pixbyjohn

Have a look here >>> http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-And-Explore/Article/h20zblit/photographing-the-night-sky.html

pinkfloydian

Thanks guys.

I would like to be able to capture the milky way. Ideally, I would like to have a horizon of trees and buildings (so there would be a small amount of light, as they are at least half a mile away (e.g. streetlights), but if this is not possible, I would just want to shoot the sky.
This would be done from my back balcony which has little or no light pollution. I do not want stars as streaks.

No moon would not be in the shot.

I will be using a Sony Alpha 100, which has a flash. I also have a tripod (but no cable)

T

Myksyk

what lens?

Myksyk

My tuppence ha'penny ...
You need:
- A really dark clear sky on a moon-free (new moon) or reasonably moon-free night (these things together do not occur that often in Ireland...not sure about Portugal!!). You should research where your skies are darkest.
-An app to show you where the milky way is (like 'Star Walk')
- A reasonably wide angle lens (ideally something like 16-35 or 17-40 or in that ballpark)
- Manual focus - and focus to infinity
- Set high ISO to around 2000-3200 (but you can experiment - in my experience too much noise is introduced around 5000)
- Shoot with widest aperture you have (2.8 ideally but probably f4 as a max [2.8 makes a big difference for star shots]).
- Use the '500 rule' [500/focal length of lens] to work out how long you can shoot without capturing star movement (trails): (e.g. 500/16=31.25sec). Yours is a crop sensor and this rule applies to 'effective' focal length so therefore you would need to divide again by 1.6.
- Ideally you need to take multiple shots so you can stack them (plus 'dark shots' for some cameras) but this may be introducing an unnecessary amount of complication for your first shoots.

pinkfloydian

DT 18 - 70MM F3.5-5.6

Myksyk

With regard to light pollution you will be astounded how much light pollution there is once you are ANYWHERE remotely near a town. I took a shot which I posted in Random photos here ages ago which was 50km from the nearest city (Galway) on a new moon night in the darkest area of the Burren in Clare where the Shannon Astronomy club go for dark skies ... half the photo was still the orange glow of street light from Galway. It was very effective as it turns out but it's just amazing how much light a camera will pick up once you're opening that shutter for 20+ seconds.

pinkfloydian

I'll be taking the photograph in the Algarve, Portugal.

I can try to take a photo with a horizon, but if that does not work, I will just shoot straight up. There is very little light where I will be, so hopefully it will work.

Can anybody talk me through step-by-step (precise) camera setup and exposure timings etc.

The camera is new to me, so I assume some of the settings are made on the dials and others via the LCD menu.

T

Myksyk

I don't know this camera but have had a quick look online and suggest:

Set camera on tripod ...

1.Set your camera to manual (M)
2. Set your aperture to f3.5 (By default turn the control dial to select shutter speed, hold the exposure compensation button and turn the dial to select aperture).
3. Set your shutter speed to as close to 17 seconds as it will allow (Based on your current set up you can shoot up to 17 seconds at 3.5 before you will start capturing trails)
4. Focus to infinity (turn your focus ring til the line on top of the lens lines up with the infinity symbol in your lens window)
5. Set you ISO to 1600 using the Fn dial on the left (highest on this camera I believe)
6. Check whether the camera has an option called 'Long exposure noise reduction' - turn this ON
7. Also see can you use mirror lock up to reduce camera shake though this may not be entirely necessary.
8. The button to the right of your main dial on the right sets your drive mode. Select the self-timer and set to 2 or 10 seconds (this allows the camera to stop shaking after you have pressed the shutter).
9. Frame and shoot. Review shots.
I could have left something out but the more experienced guys here will be able to tell you.

Hope this helps.


Tbh this may make it fairly tricky to pick up the detail you want and extra hard if you are near any town. For example, I've seen excellent shots taken at 16mm f2.8 for 35 seconds but this set up is broadly speaking capturing twice the amount of light for twice the length of time as yours, possibly much more if the ISO can be set up to twice as high as your camera. [I'm talking here about single exposure, non-stacked shots].

Good luck tho and hope it works out.

pinkfloydian

Thanks myksyk.

I'll let you know how I get on.