Photographing The Stars

Photographing The  Stars

Star photography requires an area with dark skies with near zero light pollution. High elevation, (above 5000 feet elevation), and less than half of a full moon. Although the lower the light, the more visible the stars, some moon light enables the composition of a good photograph.

Stars will start to show movement in about 30 seconds. Given that, you'll need a digital camera with at lease a f/4.0 lens and and ISO of 4000 or better to capture stars without movement.

 

Figure 1. 

Figure 1 was captured with my Canon 5DSR at ISO 6400 with a Canon TS-E 24mm, f/3.5,  and 15 second exposure. This short exposure setting captures the stars without movement. Notice the milky way in the center of the photo.

 

Figure 2 

Figure 2was captured with my Canon 5DSR at ISO 100 with a Canon TS-E 24mm, f/8,  and 30 minute exposure. The 30 minute exposure creates star trails as the earth turns which changes the relative position of the stars leaving a trail for each star. The blue in the sky comes from the moon light of a third quarter moon (half full).

Roosevelt Bynum

robynum@rooseveltbynumphotography.com

http://www.rooseveltbynumphotography.com/

 

Canon TS-E 24mm 1:3.5 L II

Canon TS-E 24mm 1:3.5 L II Lens

I recently purchased the Canon EOS 5DS R 50MP camera. Since I also shoot with a 4x5 view camera, I decided to try the Canon TS-E 24mm 1:3.5 L II to see if I could emulate the Tilt/Shift movements. 

Albeit 50MP is not quite 4x5 sheet film detail, it is enough to consider as a replacement.
The Canon TS-E 24mm lens enables you to execute view camera like movements  

Figure 1.

In figure 1 you see the normal distortion common to a wide angle lens.

Figure 2.

In Figure 2, I used the TS-E 24mm to perform a rise movement to remove the distortion
For more detail on this lens see the DP Review at http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_24_3p5_tse_c10.