Posted by Jeff Wiebe on November 1, 2006 at 11:21 AM
As I browse this site on a daily basis and try to teach myself techniques as I go, I like to try new things as much as I can. One of the things that I've seen and really liked, but never really tried is a long exposure shot at night, bringing out the stars. I'd love to try it, but I'm not entirely sure that I know how. My camera (Rebel XT) seemingly doesn't have a shutter speed past 30 seconds, so I would assume that it's either a function of a certain cable release or buried somewhere in my camera. If anyone out there can let me know how to acheive this and give me any pointers that they know about, I'd love to give it a shot. Thanks!
You need a B or bulb setting for shutter speed along with the cable release, Jeff. And a stable tripod of course!
But in our experience very long exposures are the exclusive realm of film. When trying to capture start trails there's simply too much noise buildup with digital cameras. If others have sorted this out, I'd love to hear about it.
Posted by Jeff Wiebe on November 1, 2006 at 11:46 AM
I should have mentioned that I have the wireless remote RC-1. I'm not too sure if a bulb exposure will work with this... do I need a cable release that has a lock of some kind on it?
Posted by Bill Chambers on November 1, 2006 at 11:46 AM
I've taken up to 20 minute exposures with my D2X and was very surprised at the lack of noise, especially since I've been disappointed before with it's noise performance at much shorter exposures. I don't have much experience in that realm, only 8-10 exposures probably with the digital, but so far so good. Exposures I've taken at 30 minutes to an hour seemed to suffer greatly from noise however. No idea why the difference between the two times.
I have never been happy with very long exposures on digital. My 5D does ok up to 10-15 minutes, depending on the scene but even then results are not as good as what you might get from film. In my opinion this is one area where film has the upper hand.
Guy
Posted by Rod Barbee on November 2, 2006 at 12:14 PM
Jeff,
You probably do need a cable release but I don't know if your camera even has a cable release socket. Check your manual for Bulb setting; if your camera has it, there should be a way of using a cable release or your wireless remote.
Your other option would be to buy a film camera (that has a Bulb setting and can use a cable release) that is compatible with your lenses. Film cameras aren't too expensive these days.
Jeff, the bulb exposure will work with the wireless remote RC-1, I have used it several times.
Posted by Basil Greber on November 4, 2006 at 5:38 AM
Hank - my D50 makes exposures up to 30 mins (which is the maximum) with no noise problems at all. However, the scenes turn out reddish, so maybe the IR filter is too weak for that kind of shooting. I've not done it too often so far...
Discussion
9 repliesBut in our experience very long exposures are the exclusive realm of film. When trying to capture start trails there's simply too much noise buildup with digital cameras. If others have sorted this out, I'd love to hear about it.
Guy
You probably do need a cable release but I don't know if your camera even has a cable release socket. Check your manual for Bulb setting; if your camera has it, there should be a way of using a cable release or your wireless remote.
Your other option would be to buy a film camera (that has a Bulb setting and can use a cable release) that is compatible with your lenses. Film cameras aren't too expensive these days.
Some nice discussion by people with different cameras on how they get stuff done
Nice article on star trail photography currently over at Naturescapes.Net by E.J. Peiker...
http://www.naturescapes.net/112006/ej1106.htm
He specifically speaks of using digital and give detailed instructions for this type of image.
Good luck...
Bill
Basil