Star Trails and Shutter Release cables

[nlefaivre]

Hi There...

Question again from a newbie.

1. Star trails - we are going to be in Nevada camping in the desert at the end of the month. I would like to try and take some shots of star trails and or moon pics.

What do you recommend for settings and how do I get my shutter to stay open if the camera thinks it is too dark to focus on anything?

I bought a cable release cord today (and have no idea how to use it) so I will be able to set my camera up on a tripod, but after that I am not sure.

I am hoping anyone can give me a point in the right direction for this mini project either some do's or don't will certainly help as well as how to use the shutter release.

I have a Nikon D70s and this will be my first attempt at this particular task!

Thanks
Nathalie

[codiac2600]

Try to set it to Buld mode (setting B on my pentax), in this omode it keeps the shutter open for as long as you hold down the button, and when you get ready to focus just switch to manual if you have to and just hold the shutter button down for about 30 seconds and see what happens. Keep tweaking the amount of time you hold the shutter open until you get the results you like, it might take a long while, write it down and use again and again. Oh and it's good to have you eyepiece cap on too and make sure it's on a tripod cause any camera shake at all will make for some sad results. Hope this helps since I haven't tried it in forever but since you mentioned this I'll have to go out tonight and try it myself if it isn't cloudy.

[Rocketball]

What he ment to say was "Bulb Mode".

[codiac2600]

whoops! LOL, you're right, thanks for the fix man.

[radugrozes]

Originally posted by nlefaivre


1. Star trails - we are going to be in Nevada camping in the desert at the end of the month. I would like to try and take some shots of star trails and or moon pics.

If you have a digital camera you may be out of luck.

For proper star trails you will need several hours of exposure and most digital cameras can't do this, both to prevent overheating of the CCD and because the batteries will discharge much sooner

If you really want star trails, borrow or rent a mechanical film SLR with a wide angle lens - something as a 28 mm will do, put it on the tripod, on Bulb and go to sleep for a few hours.

Make sure you wake up to close the shutter while is still very dark or you will need to do it again the next night.

If you want an interesting effect, point your camera directly at the North Star, because apparently (from your camera's point of view) the other stars rotate around it.

Don't worry about film consumption, it will be only one frame every night.

Why do you need hours to get star trails ?

Because Earth is rotating at 15 degrees an hour, and for real trails you would like some 6 hours of exposure.

I presume it is easier done during polar winter

[Rocketball]

I did this with my Canon AV1 in college many years ago, it was a neat assignment.
When I developed the film (B&W), I noticed small lines of dots going accross the image in a few different places that looked like minature footprints.
After many hours of trying to figure out what it was, I realized it was the blinking lights from airplanes passing overhead.
Fireworks are another good subject for bulb exposures.

[radugrozes]

Originally posted by Rocketball

Fireworks are another good subject for bulb exposures.

Actually you can take fireworks images handheld, I do not have many at hand, but you can go to

www.radugrozescu.com/photo-tech/nikon-18-70-review.html and see one small image.

The exposure for fireworks is around 1/30 F 4.0 at 400 ISO.

Of course, YMMV.