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| Night Sky Photography - Stills and StackedGear | Rate Topic |
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| Posted by Robert: Thu Jan 7th, 2016 17:43 | 1st Post |
| As you may have noticed I have taken to sitting on hill tops in the dark taking photographs of the stars. So far so good, however one of the classic images is 'star trails' where a (very) long exposure is made, preferably including Polaris, the North Star. I have a remote, the Nikon ML-3. However it has no provision to make 'bulb' exposures, I checked out the D300s User Manual before I went out, believing I had a way of making long exposures in 'bulb' without a remote, by latching the shutter release, I had misunderstood the manual. The wording is somewhat ambiguous and I read it too quickly. Net result, no images tonight, except numerous of the interior of my car, while I was trying to actuate the latching 'bulb' exposure. I now realise it doesn't latch. I have checked out the Nikon website and found theres various options: https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13803/~/which-remote-can-i-use-with-my-nikon-d-slr%3F I somehow suspect what I need will be very expensive, so I went looking for alternatives... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC0-YP-870-Wireless-Shutter-Timer-Remote-for-Nikon-D810-D800-D700-D300-10-Pin-/161721652457?hash=item25a75c94e9:g:xi0AAOSwl8NVa8qS I am a bit torn, in the interests of reliability and simplicity I would like hard wired ten pin remote which latches the 'bulb' shutter, on or off (latching so I don't need to hold the button in for hours). On the other hand, it could be useful to have wireless (not IR because it can be more fickle) radio control, but it must be able to make latched 'bulb' exposures, or better yet, self-time much longer exposures up to say, 8 hours? Given the eBay item I have given the link for is Chinese, the description is somewhat cryptic, I am far from sure this remote will do what I want. Can anybody suggest an inexpensive way to achieve what I need please, using a soldering iron and Dremel if need be. If I knew the pinouts I could possibly make up a bit of wire with a switch to simply switch the shutter on or off. JK? I do have an old ten pin radio control remote which I took apart a long time ago to try to make a sensor switch to activate the camera by a beam but not sure where it is right now. I don't remember it having a latching release for 'bulb' though.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Thu Jan 7th, 2016 17:48 | 2nd Post |
| Robert, There are some very cheap £10-15 remote releases with intervalometers that give up to 1 hour exposures on eBay. You can also make a hard wire version yourself.  PM if you want more info. How difficult is a switch and a 10 pin connector? Set camera to B and use a switch across the fire shutter connections. Main problem I found is the ability to power the camera for long periods and the long time needed to 'process' the file to save to CF card. Processing time = shooting time! :-(
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by jk: Thu Jan 7th, 2016 17:52 | 3rd Post |
| BTW: The camera get hot when you do long exposures and also a standard battery doesnt last a full 1 hour exposure. Also dont forget that you need a polar mount that tracks, if you dont want star trails. Some do, some dont!
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Thu Jan 7th, 2016 18:21 | 4th Post |
| Thanks JK, I knew you were the man! There is absolutely NO risk of the camera getting hot!!! There was a biting cold wind blowing and it's rarely ever anything else up there, esp. at night. I will PM you, As I said I have a ten pin plug and short bit of wire, all I need is the pinouts and to know which two pins to link to activate the shutter. I am still drinking the coffee I brewed to take with me stargazing! I should still have been up there. The internet connection isn't too bad, I was able to D/L the D300s User Manual onto my iPad to get to the bottom of why the shutter release wasn't latching.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Thu Jan 7th, 2016 18:23 | 5th Post |
| I will email you the info tomorrow when I get home after walking the dogs and having breakfast. If I forget then nag me!
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Thu Jan 7th, 2016 18:32 | 6th Post |
| NP, thanks! If I can find my ten pin plug it will be a cheap solution. I guess with a 555 chip I could make a timer... Mmmmm walk first, then run! 
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Fri Jan 8th, 2016 04:03 | 7th Post |
| Here is a PDF of the pinouts for the 10 pin connector. All you really need is a latchable on/off switch that shorts pins 1 and 6 or 7. Attachment: Nikon-10pin Connectors.pdf (Downloaded 1 time)
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by jk: Fri Jan 8th, 2016 04:15 | 8th Post |
| If you want a more fancy thing then you can use the Triggertrap solution or the Nikon wired remotes or a homemade timer that holds the shutter latched (open) for your desired times.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by jk: Fri Jan 8th, 2016 08:41 | 9th Post |
| If you cant find your 10pin cable then the cheapest solution is to get a Triggertrap cable for Nikon and also maybe the Triggertrap mobile hardware (~£25) as well then you can remote control the unit from your iPad or iPhone, Android phone or tablet.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Fri Jan 8th, 2016 18:59 | 10th Post |
| You know when you are waiting for a bird, then five come along at once... Well I found my Chinese radio remote, then somewhat surprised, I found a manual remote... then I found a brace of brand new, Chinese radio remotes, so now I have five!!! The surprise remotes came from Eric, when I got his D200 IR body, he kindly 'threw them in' commenting that I might find them useful someday; well Eric, I think they will be very useful for this project, thanks again. The batteries are down but I am expecting to visit Maplin in the morning, when I am done plastering the FINAL staircase wall!  These surprise radio remotes also have a 'Bulb' long exposure release, hold the button for more than 3 seconds, then let go, the shutter should stay open until the button is momentarily pressed again. The Manual release worked initially, but the full release has stopped working unless I tug at the connecting wire. Will fix it... JK, Why isn't the 'thumbs' at the end of para 3 working? I have noticed several times that the forum software inserts the text for a smiley, but when posted, the smily doesn't appear but the text does...
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Eric: Sat Jan 9th, 2016 13:02 | 11th Post |
Robert wrote:You know when you are waiting for a bird, then five come along at once... I wondered where they went. Generous to a fault.  The reason I didn't use them on my gear was that the guy who bought my D300 fried it....trying some Chinese remote control unit.
____________________ Eric |
| Posted by jk: Sat Jan 9th, 2016 13:31 | 12th Post |
| Seems like the thumbs is working. The old naming was :thumbsup: I have changed it
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Sat Jan 9th, 2016 15:59 | 13th Post |
| Thanks JK!
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Robert: Sat Jan 9th, 2016 16:08 | 14th Post |
Eric wrote:The reason I didn't use the remotes on my gear was that the guy who bought my D300 fried it....trying some Chinese remote control unit. Well as it happens I have managed to get my original Wireless remote working again (Chinese)... The wired remote of yours seems to have an intermittent broken connection in to the full shutter release, pin 1, it has worked a couple of times but not consistently. If I do use the wireless units I will test them rigorously before attaching them, but in all probability I will only use the leads with the ten pin plugs, rather than the entire unit. They could have other uses, for remote actuation of almost any device... Better not go there.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Eric: Sat Jan 9th, 2016 16:24 | 15th Post |
Robert wrote:Eric wrote: Am I glad I never used it?
____________________ Eric |
| Posted by Robert: Thu Jan 21st, 2016 09:53 | 16th Post |
| After a few distractions, last night I managed to make some star trail pix, it seems for digital the long exposure isn't needed. Even for bodies which perform poorly in low light, by taking multiple exposures and stacking them, either in Ps, or some other software like pano or StarTraX, which is free, although as you may expect for free software it isn't free from foibles! However StarTraX does a pretty good job and has several interesting useful features, it's also pretty quick. One thing I have learnt is that Nikon 30 second shutter speeds seem to be 32 seconds, not 30, which does make sense when you double numbers up from 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. It causes problems when you set the intervalometer to 31 seconds and the shutter to 30, which is actually 32 (ish). The answer is to set the intervalometer to 33 or 34 seconds. This is the post processed image before the star trails were added in the stacking software, the image was then straightened and adjusted in Ps.  After stacking and adjustments in Ps. This is a straightened and adjusted star trail photograph of Lowick Church. 
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Fri Jan 22nd, 2016 06:42 | 17th Post |
I prefer the version with the star trails. 
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Fri Jan 22nd, 2016 07:01 | 18th Post |
| Thanks JK, what do you think about the brightness? I am trying to get away from it looking like daylight, which the top image almost does, yet I don't know how far to darken it without loosing the visual appeal. I am not my best critic!
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Fri Jan 22nd, 2016 08:24 | 19th Post |
| I think the tones in the church wall are perfect for a night photo.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Fri Jan 22nd, 2016 11:12 | 20th Post |
| Thanks!
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by richw: Mon Feb 8th, 2016 02:28 | 21st Post |
| Looks good. Could you use the sky from the trails but the church from the first? Might make a nice composite.
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| Posted by Robert: Mon Feb 8th, 2016 04:55 | 22nd Post |
| Hi Rich, thanks for the suggestion. What is it that you prefer about the church from the first? Is it too dark? Is it overworked? Is it distorted badly? Or some other let down... I appreciate the critique, I wasn't completely happy with the image but not sure what was wrong. I don't have the intermediary image before I warped the church, I was trying to correct the perspective and make it look like a night time image, rather than a daytime image with stars... This is the image after stacking with gaps in the trails caused by me extracting light contaminated images before the blending process.  This is one of the frames I removed from the stack before blending because of the light contamination:  Edit Finally got back home so I could replace the image.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by amazing50: Mon Feb 8th, 2016 12:07 | 23rd Post |
| Other than the star trail gaps the immage has come out quite well for this effect. Thinking about it, I am planning to shoot some trails, but with minimal foreground. Then shoot some foreground immages, exposed and corrected to look as night scenes. Combining in PS for the final print.
____________________ There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept ;~) Mike Grace |
| Posted by Robert: Mon Feb 8th, 2016 12:27 | 24th Post |
| I posted a second image but am away right now and have managed to mangle the link to the second image.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Robert: Wed Feb 10th, 2016 09:15 | 25th Post |
| Have replaced the mangled image link. It's an example of the results of passing cars, About four cars passed the church during the sequence, I was able to shorten the sequence by not using early and late frames but the ones in the middle had to be extracted from the set.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Robert: Wed Feb 10th, 2016 09:28 | 26th Post |
| While this thread is entitled Gear for NightSky Photography, I don't think I am stretching the meaning too far to include software. I have found a very useful application called The Photographers Ephemeris, it calculates the sunrise, sunset and moonrise, moonset angles and times which is extremely useful for photography at twilight and at night so you can plan dates and times to take these photographs. http://photoephemeris.com/about After all photography is by definition dependent on light, it's good to know when it will be available and at what time on any given day. I am now regularly referring to the Ephemeris to plan my early and late photography.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by jk: Wed Feb 10th, 2016 12:56 | 27th Post |
| Ephemeris is a brilliant application that I use if I am trying to plan a landscape shot. It shows many different things as well as the ones Robert mentioned. It shows moonrise, moonset, elevation, eclipses, etc.... The application os available on Mac and Windows plus iOS and Android.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Mon Jul 2nd, 2018 09:21 | 28th Post |
| Might as well resurrect this thread as start another. Yes, JK it's really valuable for anybody wanting to plan the light. I was stunned by what happened yesterday morning at dawn after I took this star trail series. D3, 16mm f/2.8 fisheye, 56 images, 20 second intervals, 8 sec at f/8 ISO 1600. The main peaks to the right are, left to right: Yewbarrow, Kirk Fell, Great Gable, Lingmell and Scafell.  I was awoken at about 03:15 by the noisy arrival of a large group of people, several car loads of film crew then a large Transit van full of actresses or models, who proceeded to get changed in full view, the sheep seemed quite unimpressed!!! There were not many people about by then. The whole ensemble trekked off down to the shore of Wastwater, set up camera and do their thing. Just before dawn all the actresses trooped back to the van but the film crew remained... I started to take an interest, dawn was close, jumped out of car and ran down to the island, ignoring the film crew who seemed non too pleased to have company. As I leapt onto the island the sun broke, exactly between Great Gable and Lingmell. Absolutely perfect. Soon after, the film crew wandered off, presumably they got what they were waiting for. Now whether the film crew had planned it or simply lucky I don't know but so close after the solstice I wonder if they had been filming a pagan ritual or some such, I don't know. This is what I got, hand held, five shot HDR. D3, Nikkor 24-120 VR >< 500 sec at f/16 ISO 200  Back with the first image, unbeknown to me a 'Three Peaks' challenge was in progress The runners or walkers? can be seen with their lights ascending Scafell to the right, below Lingmell. I have taken quite a lot of images of the lights as they made their downward journey back to Wasdale Head for their drive through the night, down to Snowden in Wales. I may have enough to make a time lapse movie. It seems these events take place throughout the summer...
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by amazing50: Fri Jul 6th, 2018 23:02 | 29th Post |
| The Nikon MC-36, 10 pin wired remote has a manual button lock. Works on the D850 and others with an adapter.
____________________ There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept ;~) Mike Grace |
| Posted by jk: Sat Jul 7th, 2018 02:57 | 30th Post |
| Surprised you didnt go join the film crew that were making the event. I guess it was a piece to camera for sale somewhere. Like the sunrise shot. The 24-120 f4 really is a go to lens. Good spot of the lghts on Scafell. With all the HSE in modern life people resort to all sorts of more dangerous stuff to bring some adrenalin into a boring life!
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
| Posted by Robert: Sat Jul 7th, 2018 04:37 | 31st Post |
amazing50 wrote:The Nikon MC-36, 10 pin wired remote has a manual button lock. Works on the D850 and others with an adapter. Interesting Mike, I only have the ML3 infra red remote, but for what I do I prefer to take many shorter exposures, for several reasons, the D3 sensor can be very prone to overheating on long exposures which results in ugly banding and excessive noise, If there is an intrusion into the field of view such as a wandering sightseer or an unwanted car headlamp etc. I can delete that one frame without jeopardising the entire sequence. The software technique I use tends to remove wandering intruders into the frame but if not that frame can either be removed or doctored to fix the intrusion. Another reason is it gives me more control over the exposure, at this time of year particularly the light is constantly changing, I can adjust the exposure as the light changes. In order to get meaningful star trails I need at least 30 to 60 minuets of exposure time otherwise the trails are just too short. Star trails per se are not particularly photogenic, while they make an interesting background, in my opinion you need a subject too! I attempted one a couple of nights ago, while I got a lovely sunset to darkness time-lapse, as darkness fell security lighting kept coming on and ruined many of my exposures, way too many to ignore so I gave up.
____________________ Robert. |
| Posted by Robert: Sat Jul 7th, 2018 05:00 | 32nd Post |
jk wrote:Surprised you didnt go join the film crew that were making the event. I guess it was a piece to camera for sale somewhere. No thanks! They looked like a bunch of weirdo's. With that many involved it must have been commercial, they all seemed to know exactly what they were doing, like they did it every day? Perhaps it will appear in Coronation Street soon? I am extremely pleased with it, I had been dithering about a 'mid length' zoom lens for years, feeling the 24-70 being way too short a range for my taste and well overrated in the quality department for my needs. It was Malcolm with his steam punk photography which first raised my awareness of the Nikkor 24-120 f/4.0. It's a convenient focal length range on FX and not too heavy, with VR, which is very useful. I am very pleased about how it responded to shooting directly into the sun like that. It seems there is a 'three peaks' challenge every weekend throughout the summer. We are back up there tonight to try again, maybe get a better time-lapse set this time.
____________________ Robert. |
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