Night/Star pics

I've seen some killer shots of night scenes, particularly stars, which call for some obcenely long exposures (even catching the rotation of the earth in the stars). I tried getting some of these a couple weeks back but ended up with a lot of noise. Is this just ambient light playing tricks in the atmosphere or do I need to lower my ISO (set at 1600 for my shots) and keep things open longer?

The pics I'm referring to were taken by Walt in the Photo's 11 thread
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87667/630031.html?1223836173

(Message edited by dirwoody on November 10, 2008)

Darin,

Use ISO 100 and shoot on the bulb setting. Go into your main menu and turn on (LONG EXPOSURE NOISE REDUCTION)

Nice, Thanks, I was wondering because they're SICK!

also, you can take about 60-100 30 second exposures and then join them together with a photoshop action. It's pretty simple.

Good call Bakes, I'm not super proficent (sp?) with photoshop yet, I dabble, but that's it thus far. Hope to get a lot better this winter
I'll have to try that!
Just waiting for a fridgid night in northern NE to get some really clear ones.

Here is one I did in the back-yard a while back. It also includes instructions on how to make them using the multiple shot technique rather than the single long exposure technique.



I like the multi-shot stuff because it allows you to get star trails in the city that would otherwise be blown out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakes/2319613053/in/photostream/

Mirror up and self timer to get a rock steady shot. Plus a good tripod, which is my next camera related investment.

IMO there's no need to lock up the mirror on exposures this long. I don't think you can use the timer for bulb shots.

Most would agree that mirror lock-up is useless on long exposure shots, but I still do it anyway