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Archive 2014 · Night star and moon photo help

  
 
FLSTCSAM
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Night star and moon photo help


I am planing on (for me ambitious) project to shoot a pano with stars and red moon tomorrow night. The attached photo is a quick shot on an overcast day of the location for reference.


My plan is to use my 24mm T/S lens with an anticipated tilt of 1 to 1 1/2 degrees forward tilt, at f11. Towards evening I will shoot the foreground. Then later the city lights.

Still later the stars, and moon. Here is where I am unsure. I want to use the the same set up without moving the camera or lens. I can change the aperture, iISO, and shutter speed via my lap to there by avoiding any physical touching of the setup. I plan on using f3.5 (wide open for this lens) at say ISO 1250 to 1600. Also set the focus at infinity.

I am however wondering if I should change the tilt to 0 degrees, or even maybe 1/2 degree negative tilt for the stars and moon shots.

Any thoughts from more experienced night photographer will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

Sam



Apr 13, 2014 at 02:33 PM
MikeW
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Night star and moon photo help


If you aren't going to be low to the ground with something interesting in the foreground then you'll probably only need the tiniest bit of tilt. Are you using the shift vertically?

I actually did this last night. Camera in landscape & shifted with a slight amount of tilt. I have thought of whether it would affect the stars but I didn't change the tilt while doing the stars/sky in fear it wouldn't stitch properly.

I am not an expert so someone will hopefully chime in with the technical stuff



Apr 13, 2014 at 02:46 PM
Justin Grimm
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Night star and moon photo help


I have done a few shots with a mix of exposures like what you are describing, even while using a TS lens. At least for the composition you have shown, I doubt any tilt is needed to get everything in focus. You could shoot the foreground and city with your desired f-stop and probably get sharper results then tilting that much to where the lens performs less then perfect. Manually adjusting your camera settings won't be a problem either. Even if the composition does change a little bit, you will only be blending in the sky, so nothing really needs to line up perfectly. I have done these shots with flowers 4" from the lens and still didn't have any problems with alignment.

Personally I think shooting twilight scenes like these is very easy and fun while out there, however making the blend look natural and clean is the biggest hurdle. Good luck!



Apr 13, 2014 at 02:51 PM
dgdg
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Night star and moon photo help


I have seen one person post star shots with tilt, and focus didn't look right. You shouldn't need any tilt for the sky, so I would set it to zero. Not sure about the 24mm ts-e, but not all lenses give a hard infinity stop - you should confirm perfect focus with magnified live view if not sure. Justin's point is well made, making the natural blend is the most difficult part. Are you planning a pano crop or true mutishot pano? Of the wide angle distortion can make stitching your image together difficult. Maybe with the shift feature not so much.

David



Apr 14, 2014 at 07:47 AM





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