Jeep, Stars, Night Scenes

I know this thread is old, but i wouldnt consider running a 30 second exposure on your dslr camera "Astrophotography"

First, pretty douchey comment if you ask me.

Second, read the FAQs and fix your signature or I'll do it for you. Pimping your own personal website and IG pages is not permitted here, no matter how much you like to geek out on Uranus.
 
If I intentionally wanted to pimp id make my own thread with a link to my website. Ive seen several people with their websites and social media in their sig so i must have overlooked it.

If I wanted to be a douche I could've said "Thats not real astrophotography, this is, blah blah blah" but instead just stated my opinion when i said "I wouldnt call it"
You might want to read some of the other threads if you think my comment was douchey lol.

The reason astronomy nerds get butt hurt about that is because they spend 3-5k on a camera setup, another 1-2k on astronomy equipment to track the stars thats plugged into their laptop that cost another 1k, with another 1k worth of programs that edit and stack the photos together. While some photos take hours, days, months, and sometimes even a year to achieve, you get on your knees and pray that no clouds come your way LOL. So imagine how they feel when someone buys a 300 dollar best buy camera and presses maybe 2-3 buttons and calls themselves an astrophotographer. Id roll me eyes too, but me? I personally dont give a fuck because people can do what they want lol, but i see where they are coming from.

Anyways, Im glad this thread was revived aswell, these kind of shots are really unique to the off road scene.
 
View attachment 226671
My Jeep was in the garage. Just a droid pic. Thought it was kinda cool.

Sent from my XT1080 using WAYALIFE mobile app

Which droid?

You'd be surprised how well some of these phones are getting at night shots. Androids that is , not iPhones.
Some androids have manual settings to run a 30 second exposure, and have the ability to run your ISO up pretty high. you do need to set it on a tripod though,
I have alot of night photos of the milky way with my LGV10 and LG G5. I'll have to dig them up and share them.

If anyone is interested in night photography and have a decent camera id be willing to share some of my tips with you based off of your set up. You dont need the most expensive gear in the world to take a good photo.
 
You might want to read some of the other threads if you think my comment was douchey lol.

Uh, I'm pretty sure he has...

Anyways, Im glad this thread was revived aswell, these kind of shots are really unique to the off road scene.

Agreed, I'd love to see more! I'm sure a lot of guys on here have a good enough camera to press "2-3 buttons" and come up with a decent night shot ;)
 
Which droid?

You'd be surprised how well some of these phones are getting at night shots. Androids that is , not iPhones.
Some androids have manual settings to run a 30 second exposure, and have the ability to run your ISO up pretty high. you do need to set it on a tripod though,
I have alot of night photos of the milky way with my LGV10 and LG G5. I'll have to dig them up and share them.

If anyone is interested in night photography and have a decent camera id be willing to share some of my tips with you based off of your set up. You dont need the most expensive gear in the world to take a good photo.

Hell yeah! It is a Motorola Droid Max. I love your pics. I also have a Canon g9 that I rarely use.
 
Does your canon g9 have a manual mode? if it does, you should be able to pull off a decent night shot on a tripod.

I believe it does. Gotta unpack it and check. I do have a mini tripod I can set on something or strap somewhere. Thanks!
 
OK, I've messed around with it a bit more.
GTStarsEdited.jpg
It was a 20s/3.5f ISO 800 on a Cannon Rebel T6i. Edited contrast etc. w/GIMP on Linux. I had to shrink it a bit to get in on here.
Now I just have to figure out how to get the focus on this lens to work better so the Jeep/foreground isn't blurry. It's a learning process for me and I'm a slow learner...
If anyone is interested in night photography and have a decent camera id be willing to share some of my tips with you based off of your set up. You dont need the most expensive gear in the world to take a good photo.
Any advice for this newb?
 
Last edited:
OK, I've messed around with it a bit more.
View attachment 227082
It was a 20s/3.5f ISO 800 on a Cannon Rebel T6i. Edited contrast etc. w/GIMP on Linux. I had to shrink it a bit to get in on here.
Now I just have to figure out how to get the focus on this lens to work better so the Jeep/foreground isn't blurry. It's a learning process for me and I'm a slow learner...

Any advice for this newb?

Honestly its hard because the stars and the jeep are far away from eachother. The best thing you can do is make sure everything is past the infinity mark. I cant see the full 100% file but it looks like your focus was just off in general, so the foreground got even more soft from being so open at 3.5. Also being leveled with the floor made the grass directly in front of you out of focus naturally, id place your tripod up a bit higher from the ground. There's several different methods to get your focus correct to infinity so the stars are sharp.

I usually just autofocus on something far out and lock it into manual so it stays there. And then you can manually tweak the focus if you think the stars arent sharp.
If youre in complete darkness you can try focusing on the brightest star your camera can pick up in live view and manually move it til you think the star is sharp. (more on youtube about that if you really wanna learn it)


Also what lens are you using?
im not big on canon but you should try going past 800 iso if you can, there will be more noise but you will pull more stars out the sky . Not sure if GIMP has a noise reduction but that always helps ALOT smoothening it. just go higher and higher and then look on your computer to see where its just unusable.

it wouldve been cool if you flipped on your headlights in that photo. To keep them from flaring and washing out your photo just flip them on and off, dont keep them on the whole exposure.
 
OK, I've messed around with it a bit more.
View attachment 227082
It was a 20s/3.5f ISO 800 on a Cannon Rebel T6i. Edited contrast etc. w/GIMP on Linux. I had to shrink it a bit to get in on here.
Now I just have to figure out how to get the focus on this lens to work better so the Jeep/foreground isn't blurry. It's a learning process for me and I'm a slow learner...

Bad ass picture :thumb:
 
Honestly its hard because the stars and the jeep are far away from eachother. The best thing you can do is make sure everything is past the infinity mark. I cant see the full 100% file but it looks like your focus was just off in general, so the foreground got even more soft from being so open at 3.5. Also being leveled with the floor made the grass directly in front of you out of focus naturally, id place your tripod up a bit higher from the ground. There's several different methods to get your focus correct to infinity so the stars are sharp.

I usually just autofocus on something far out and lock it into manual so it stays there. And then you can manually tweak the focus if you think the stars arent sharp.
If youre in complete darkness you can try focusing on the brightest star your camera can pick up in live view and manually move it til you think the star is sharp. (more on youtube about that if you really wanna learn it)


Also what lens are you using?
im not big on canon but you should try going past 800 iso if you can, there will be more noise but you will pull more stars out the sky . Not sure if GIMP has a noise reduction but that always helps ALOT smoothening it. just go higher and higher and then look on your computer to see where its just unusable.

it wouldve been cool if you flipped on your headlights in that photo. To keep them from flaring and washing out your photo just flip them on and off, dont keep them on the whole exposure.

Good tips, thanks! The lens is an EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. I tried a few at ISO 1600 and 3200, but they came out really grainy. It goes higher, but I didn't try those. Getting the focus set to infinity seem to be where I'm having trouble. The focus on this lens doesn't have any markings on it. I should have used auto focus on the moon or something like you suggested... next time. GIMP does have noise reduction that helps a little; It looks like the camera has a long exposure noise reduction feature built in too. I'll have to play around with that next time.

Bad ass picture :thumb:

Thanks!

Milky way and Mars, southern New Mexico. Box Canyon where the Chile challenge was once placed.
Stacked shot.

Nice shot, I'll have to experiment with layering and stacking soon...
 
Last edited:
Good tips, thanks! The lens is an EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. I tried a few at ISO 1600 and 3200, but they came out really grainy. It goes higher, but I didn't try those. Getting the focus set to infinity seem to be where I'm having trouble. The focus on this lens doesn't have any markings on it. I should have used auto focus on the moon or something like you suggested... next time. GIMP does have noise reduction that helps a little; It looks like the camera has a long exposure noise reduction feature built in too. I'll have to play around with that next time.



Thanks!



Nice shot, I'll have to experiment with layering and stacking soon...

The noise reduction feature in cameras are garbage, waste of your time running two exposures and also wastes your battery, youre better off using the GIMP noise reduction. But you never know, you may like the way it comes out on your specific camera. just my opinion. I barely have enough patience to run a 30 second exposure let alone twice lol

i wouldnt go past 1600 on your camera for sure, but id still play with it. And if you are serious about getting better shots, throw that kit lens off the cliff LOL. kit lenses are literally the worst lenses for night shots. You should aim for something that goes down to f/2.8 atleaset. maybe a wide angle.


Also , the infinity mark on the lens isnt precise when you focus it on the stars, it will actually be off, so moving it yourself to the infinity mark would do nothing basically. you always want to shoot and zoom into your photo to check aswell. once you feel its sharp lock that bad boy into manual and keep it there.
 
Top Bottom