Shooting at Night

[keithwms]

Kangaroos bumping into the tripod, haha! I've had the problem of naked undergrads almost taking my tripod out, but fortunately I was there.

RGS, I agree with Poisson's exposure recommendations. If there is a lighted subject in your composition then you will need to take that into account, but usually, you stay away from any light sources and aim to get as many stars as possible and hence want to shoot close to wide open and for as long as you care. I've done exposures up to ~4 hrs with my rb67 on 64T, that worked well.

If you're in the northern hemisphere then locate the north star, you will get longer trails from the stars encircling that. For that reason a longish lens may be in order.

[RGS122]

Keith and Poisson, thanks for your replies. I am in the northern hemisphere so I'll locate the north star. Where I am going, I don't have to worry about Kangaroos bumping into me, but I might have to worry about what ever lurks at night at 7,000 feet.

[Poisson Du Jour]

Ah—, Keith...parallels...
The reason that 2-storey building is dark in my image is because the shot took place at a nudist resort. If the buffies didn't want themselves in the frame in the illuminated top storey, the lights had to go out — and stay out! Goodness knows how they whiled away time in the pitch black for nearly 2 hours (downing grog, I believe). The night before the first attempt was botched when a 'roo crashed into the tripod, bending a leg (a tripod leg I mean!). Really, 'roos are much better undressed and served up on the dinner plate — I've got a kilo here in the freezer if you'd like to drop in and have a yum-cha?

I haven't tried tungsten balanced film for star trails; might be something I'll dabble with this Spring-Summer. The North Star is Polaris, is it? We locate the South Celestial Pole by first locating the Southern Cross, then extending the length of the cross arm 1.5 times to approximate the position of the South Celestial Pole. It's actually then 3,000th brightest star so no point in actually poking a finger at it.

[keithwms]

I haven't tried tungsten balanced film for star trails; might be something I'll dabble with this Spring-Summer. The North Star is Polaris, is it? We locate the South Celestial Pole by first locating the Southern Cross, then extending the length of the cross arm 1.5 times to approximate the position of the South Celestial Pole. It's actually then 3,000th brightest star so no point in actually poking a finger at it.

I *highly* recommend fuji tungsten slide film for this task. Not just for its reciprocity, but, actually the sky becomes the most gorgeous, smooth deep blue when you do long exposures. A 3 hour example from my backyard, that I call "almost north" for obvious reasons, may be found on the second page of the gallery here. There were no adjustments of colour for this; what you see is what I got. The blues are luscious, I tell you!

The tungsten film also renders artificially illuminated buildings quite accurately, a nice bonus. I have relied on this capability many times.

Interesting about the procedures for locating the pole Down Under. Funny, I lived for about 15 years below the equator and never once thought about the lack of a true south-polar star. When I came to the states and learned about polaris I was really amazed. But I was a kid without a camera I was more interested in whether the water spiraled the "wrong" way down the toilet

[Poisson Du Jour]

I've located a roll of 64T Keith at my usual pro dealer and will take it for a spin on a remote area camp in early August and an even more remote camp in the wilds of Tasmana and the end of August. Usually employ Provia 100F but only because I'd continue shooting colour scenes with it; with 64T I can whip it in/out. I've only ever seen star trails results on the Velvia, Provia or Astia emulsions so this experiment should be interesting. Might even push it to 100.

[keithwms]

Yes, the tungsten film actually pushes very well, even 2 stops. I did handheld fireworks with it once, with some success, pushed 2 stops.

P.S. In terms of pushability, I don't think anything beats provia 400x.

[RGS122]

I *highly* recommend fuji tungsten slide film for this task. Not just for its reciprocity, but, actually the sky becomes the most gorgeous, smooth deep blue when you do long exposures. A 3 hour example from my backyard, that I call "almost north" for obvious reasons, may be found on the second page of the gallery here. There were no adjustments of colour for this; what you see is what I got. The blues are luscious, I tell you!

The tungsten film also renders artificially illuminated buildings quite accurately, a nice bonus. I have relied on this capability many times.

Interesting about the procedures for locating the pole Down Under. Funny, I lived for about 15 years below the equator and never once thought about the lack of a true south-polar star. When I came to the states and learned about polaris I was really amazed. But I was a kid without a camera I was more interested in whether the water spiraled the "wrong" way down the toilet

That is a really nice blue you have in that picture.