mauroni

Thank-you my friend and let me wish you a happy new year! Mauro

Winter is a tough season for small birds so I decided to help them with a birdhouse and some food. I suppose that this photo is to be considered a prize for being kind to them

Ciao Giangiorgio, volentieri ti aiuto But allow me to write in english because there is a chance that Wayne is interested to in my answer. The formula I suggested above allows you to calculate the maximum exposure time to be sure that the stars will seem perfectly point-shaped and don't result in small dashes. On the other hand the shutter speed is just one of the three parameters you must control to have the right exposure. So we need to define the aperture and the ISO setting. Consider that you biggest enemy when you deal with night and low light photography is the sensor noise that is due to both the long exposure time and the high ISO. Since the exposure time has been fixed by the previous formula the only parameter you can control to keep the noise low is the ISO setting and, considering that as greater the ISO and greater the noise you shall minimize the ISO and, to do so, your unique chance is to open the lens as wider as possible. Of course a great aperture will affect you DOF and compels you to compose the picture according to this limitation. Fortunately the best lenses for this kind of photography are wide and ultra-wide angle lenses and this helps because they give you a good DOF even with great apertures. Consider for example that my brand new AF-S nikkor 20mm f/1,8 has an hyperlocal distance of 7,50meters at f/1,8! Taking all this in consideration your recipe should be: T = (500/f - 1) sec; A = as wide as possible; ISO = as low as possible. If you can set an aperture equal to f/2,8 make a try starting from ISO 800 and then adjust: I’m quite sure that the right ISO is between 400 and 1600. That’s all for now but there are a lot of other useful consideration that we can develop about this wonderful topic. I hope this post helps. Have a nice day Mauro

Tnx for comments and ratings

The picture is the composition of 29 images. Each image has an exposure time of 2min at 400ISO at f/4. Thanx for comments and ratings

The big dipper was particularly clear that night. Tnx for comments and ratings

I don't love the "instagram square", and this combo in 2x3 or 3x4 will be really better. Nevertheless the tones are very nice

wonderful composition and tones. Great job!

Great!

following Line's viewpoint (I agree with her) I made some alteration to your original that you can find here. Nice composition anyway! Mauro

nice composition and wonderful chromatic equilibrium. Compliments mauro

Nice picture, Sidsel. Pay attention to an excess of PP that creates artifacts along the perimeter of the tree. Mauro

You shall definitely try it because it's a great experience and can give great satisfaction. At a first impressioni what comes out of the camera is disappointing and a great work of post production is mandatory to give the images the look we are used to. In Italy is very difficult to find places dark enough and the few are on high mountain (like this that is the Nivolet Pass easy reachable by car but at 2.700m asl (8.200 feet). Even in september the temperature drops down below 0°C and it makes staying out for some hours and taking picture an experience far from a comfortable one. Maybe you'll find that this temperature is not lo low, but for a latin... it is! :-) Mauro PS: Wayne: the drift is a function both of the exposure time AND of the focal length. A raw formula that you can apply to find the exposure time limit to avoid drift is: T = 500/focal in mm (referred to the full format): for example: if you use a 12mm like mine (that becomes an 18mm on the full frame): 500/18=27,7777777 sec. If you exposure time is less the 28 seconds you won't have any drift.

The sensor noise in the D300 (it's an ancient sensor, indeed) required some post-production work, but now I feel quite happy for the result. Tnx for comments and ratings

Thank-you!

I get your viewpoint, Jim, but my goal was to show the greatest possible area of the starry sky, hence zooming was not a chance. On the other hand I wanted to keep the 2x3 ratio for printing reason and, consequently even cropping wasn't a chance. Mauro

Hi Rajat! Happy new year! Are you above or below the equator? Do you see this sky or another fascinating unknown (to me, of course) carpet of pearls when you point your eyes up in the night? I'm having great satisfaction with landscape and night photography. Why don't you take a wonderful picture of your night sky and share it with us? (in such case, please drop me an email since I'm not attending PN very constantly...) Warm regards, Mauro

the night before christmas was cold and clean at the Gardena Pass (Italy, South Tirol) and the Orion constellation was clearly visible as far as thousands of other stars. Thank you for comments and ratings