How to start photographing the sky?

a reply to: Golantrevize
Hey Golan i thought I'd give my opinion and view on starting off doing night time photos as I've only been into doing those kinds of photos for the last couple of months in this thread www.abovetopsecret.com... on page two there are a few of my beginner shots that I done while I was getting into it and trying to understand how to get the shots I wanted

I started off with buying a second hand Canon 450d DSLR camera which I purchased for £100 and then I purchased a second hand canon 75-300 mm zoom lens which costs me around £85. You don't need to go out and spend thousands on equipment

Once you got you camera the only advice, which is what I done, I purchased one of those 'dummies guide to' books for my relevant camera. I was able to purchase this on eBay. You don't have to but it helps understanding your cameras settings and what they do. Also I went on to YouTube and searched for videos that could help me. So get use to your camera first and understand the settings then once you've got some basic knowledge get yourself out and start snapping away. I've always believed there is never a bad picture you take, any pictures that come out a bit poor you can work out where you've gone wrong then you can work on narrowing down as to what settings you've used and eventually start getting the pictures you want

Don't be afraid of thinking for example you look outside and see the weather is pants, some pictures I've took I've thought 'no that's going to come out terrible in these conditions' only to find that the picture has come out better than i thought it would. Photography can be a bit of trial and error when you're starting off but it's the beginning stages is where you learn

So to summarise, don't go out spending thousands on equipment, learn your cameras settings and what settings are required for the environment you're in and lastly just get out and snap away .. oh and never doubt yourself stay positive even if some pictures come out terrible you'll soon learn as to what you need to do never be discouraged by bad photos

Good luck and happy snapping !!

originally posted by: ThePeaceMaker
a reply to: Golantrevize
Hey Golan i thought I'd give my opinion and view on starting off doing night time photos as I've only been into doing those kinds of photos for the last couple of months in this thread www.abovetopsecret.com... on page two there are a few of my beginner shots that I done while I was getting into it and trying to understand how to get the shots I wanted

I started off with buying a second hand Canon 450d DSLR camera which I purchased for £100 and then I purchased a second hand canon 75-300 mm zoom lens which costs me around £85. You don't need to go out and spend thousands on equipment

Once you got you camera the only advice, which is what I done, I purchased one of those 'dummies guide to' books for my relevant camera. I was able to purchase this on eBay. You don't have to but it helps understanding your cameras settings and what they do. Also I went on to YouTube and searched for videos that could help me. So get use to your camera first and understand the settings then once you've got some basic knowledge get yourself out and start snapping away. I've always believed there is never a bad picture you take, any pictures that come out a bit poor you can work out where you've gone wrong then you can work on narrowing down as to what settings you've used and eventually start getting the pictures you want

Don't be afraid of thinking for example you look outside and see the weather is pants, some pictures I've took I've thought 'no that's going to come out terrible in these conditions' only to find that the picture has come out better than i thought it would. Photography can be a bit of trial and error when you're starting off but it's the beginning stages is where you learn

So to summarise, don't go out spending thousands on equipment, learn your cameras settings and what settings are required for the environment you're in and lastly just get out and snap away .. oh and never doubt yourself stay positive even if some pictures come out terrible you'll soon learn as to what you need to do never be discouraged by bad photos

Good luck and happy snapping !!

Edit: also read through the threads on here there's plenty of people sharing their skills. I've learnt a few things from Eriktheawfuls threads especially for night time captures

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

thx alot for your help, will let you know how things go.

As a beginner myself, i understand it can be somewhat overwhelming. Just jump in feetfirst, the water is fine and there is a very beginner friendly atmosphere here. Im loving the digital aspect of things. If something comes out wrong change a few settings and keep going.

I started out trying to see what i could do with as little as possible. (Not much of a budget to work with) Manual settings are a must and a quality tripod. A higher grade tripod will probably be my next investment along with a mount. As far as post processing goes, i can only speak from experience about gimp on my pc and snapseed for an android app. Both are free and give you alot of flexibility as you progress. I have run into an issue with my snapseed adjusted photos not wanting to upload, but so far its just a minor problem.
As mentioned before, stellarium is an excellent resource. I ran into it a few years ago when i found out about a usb drive utility called portableapps. Its customizable to your location and offers more functions than i know i will ever use, all for free. Free is good.

Most of all, have fun with it. Find some spot with dark skies and take it all in.

Edit: although a dslr is probably in my future, im currently using 2 different bridge cameras. A canon sx10is, and a sony dsc-h5. Nothing earthshaking by any means, but with a very minor inital investment. The pros with a bridge camera, for me anyway was a good blend of full adjustment of all aspects, shutter speed, aperture, manual focus. They offered good lenses but were fixed. Interchangeable lenses are nice but when i used my ae-1 program, i was toting lenses all over. Portability was a plus.

The main thing i dont like is the use of a small sensor when compaired to a dslr. I personally would give up some of the zoom capability for a higher level sensor. I don't know all the tech issues but,with older bridge cameras they got their super zoom capability in part to using smaller sensors. Like i said i dont know the technical issues but i would change this if i could. Price was an incredible enticement for me. $16+shipping on the sony, $25+shipping on the canon. Everybody is after ever higher megapixel count so the older stuff is sometimes almost given away. All with good lenses. The zeiss lens on the sony has turned out to be very good at what it does. I figured even if they were bad cameras, i could open them up, pull out the hot mirror and use them for infrared landscapes, my other photography pursuit. Anyway, i just made a long post longer, sorry. Main thing, have fun with it.

a reply to: eql612

hey thx for this post, would you happen to have any pictures you could share of what youve accomplished with that material.

a reply to: Golantrevize

I have them scattered about but let me re-edit my snapseed stuff so it will upload here. I need to get it all in one place anyway. It may take a bit but pics are forthcoming

Having some issues getting my edits right. I really wish my snapseed edits would load. Oh well i'll keep working at it.

I took this shot of orion a couple nights ago. Its a 15 second exposure at iso 100. It was taken with a sony dsc-f717, another inexpensive bridge camera. Great lens and build quality just old tech. Works for what i want though.

The resulting photo was really blue colored due to me not setting the white balance correctly. I was able to clean it up in gimp. While not on the level of some of the other pics shown in these threads, zooming in reveals many more stars than what first appears. Got around $15 invested.

The moon pic was taken with the canon sx10is. Its so bright that fast shutter speeds are needed to keep detail from washing out.

a reply to: eql612

Good stuff