SHOOT STARS WITH APERTURE 3.5 FULL
SHOOT STARS WITH APERTURE 3.5 ISO

Effective means what the lens would be on a full frame 35mm, so an 18mm lens on a DSLR with a 1.5 crop factor has an effective focal length of 27mm. The answer is approximately the longest exposure in seconds you can use that will show stars as points rather than trails. Divide 600 by the effective focal length of the lens you are using. If you want stars as points of light then the 600 rule is a good place to start. If you want star trails then just experiment with different length exposures (though I have heard that long exposures, ie several minutes, can overheat some sensors). If you want star photos you need dark skies. Given that it seems the church in your second shot is illuminated, I think getting any stars is pretty good. Camera sensors are, unfortunately, quite brilliant at picking up light pollution. I don't know, but have heard there are some filters that will reduce light pollution, but they expensive and generally there is not much you can do about it. The orange glow in your third photo is simply light pollution. You can see some of my night shots in the Brisbane gallery on my PBase site. That's about all I can think of for now - it's all about practise practise practise. Shoot raw and work in 16 bit in ACR and CS5 (if you have these apps). You can tolerate a bit of over-exposure of the bright lights provided that you don't go too far until blooming occurs - where the brightness extends to neighbouring pixels. eg building edge.Д®xposure is usually a compromise - if you get the bright lights nicely exposed, the rest of the image is probably under-exposed too much.

In live view mode, enlarge the screen view and shift the viewing point with the cursor keys until you are looking at a suitable point to focus on. In each set try a few different exposures. I usually arrive around sunset and set up the tripod and camera - frame the shot and even do a bit of a test shot - while you can still see what you are doing ! Incidentally always take a torch (or should I say flashlight for our US friends ).ДЄfter that I take a set of shots every 5 mins or so. (If there is no sky in the shot then this is not important)

With this sort of time, there is still enough residual light in the sky to give a nice deep blue colour and also to give a bit more definition to the edges of the buildings etc. I feel the best time is about 15-30 mins after sunset although this may depend on where you are in the world (ie what latitude).

SHOOT STARS WITH APERTURE 3.5 ISO

The lower the ISO setting, the lower the noise and the better the dynamic range of the image. Also I use an ISO setting of 100 almost exclusively for night shots - generally you will need to use a tripod so shutter speed is not important. I don't think you'd really need to use an aperture any smaller than about f/11 (unless you are after some special diffraction effects as mentioned above). Often, long exposures will show a glow in the sky - this is from light polution! The awful color of the street lights is due to the type of illumination here is a humorous blog on that subject. Don't be fooled into using the night portrait mode, it won't work well. You also may be able to combine the images into an HDR image. Usually, you will get one decently exposed image out of the 3-bracketed images. Using the -1 stop exposure compensation will counteract that tendency. I find that the major problem in night exposures is over, not under-exposure. That way I get the following three exposures: First: as the meter reads, Second: 1-stp below the meter reading Third: 2-stops below the meter reading. I select a -1 stop exposure compensation. I have the camera in auto exposure bracketing mode (AEB) usually with a one stop variance in the various exposures. Perhaps a multi-exposure HDR image might help.ДЄs far as nailing down the exposure in night images I use this simple method. Streetlights are normally brighter than the stars, so it is difficult to get the correct exposure for stars and streetlights in one image.

Shoot stars with aperture 3.5