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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> Time Lapse Photography
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 05/11/2006 07:48:12 PM · #1
I am fairly new to photography and have always been fascinated with the shots of stars, with time lapse i guess, that makes them appear to streak across the sky. I was reading one guy's web site that is big into this and he is using like 15 minute long exposures or more. Is there a way to do that with my Nikon D50?
 05/11/2006 07:52:37 PM · #2
Sure you can. You might not be satisfied with the results though. The longer you leave your shutter open, the more noise you'll accumulate in the exposure. Most of the cool long exposure star trail shots you see are shot with film, not digital.

BTW, time lapse usually refers to a series of shots over a long period of time collapsed to animate a short "movie" with accelerated action. Your question refers to long-exposure.
 05/11/2006 07:56:31 PM · #3
yeah, he says on his website to make sure to try it on a night with no moon showing and no other distractions such as city lights and things. I thought the D50 could only do up to 30 second exposures. Is there a way around this?

Thanks for clearing up the confusion there. I would also like to maybe try a time lapse movie (like driving through the city where there are lots of lights). Any thoughts on how to go about that?
 05/11/2006 07:59:31 PM · #4
not sure about your camera but the canon 350 can be set to bulb and will stay open as long as i keep the button pushed. you need a remote release to avoid shaking. so see if your camera has that setting.
 05/11/2006 08:11:01 PM · #5
Check to see if you have a bulb setting on your camera. It will probably be in the manual setting. This will allow you to keep the shutter open for really long periods.

I tryed the star shot a couple of weeks ago with my 300D with the shutter open for just over an hour. Unfortunetly the shot was not as good as I had hoped due to a street lamp off to the side of the camera but the potential was certainly there. I did get some nice streaking lights though. Next time I get a clear night I will give it another go. I saw it done in a "Best of" National Geographics book where a photographer did a 10 hour exposure. What an amazing effect.
 05/11/2006 08:14:26 PM · #6
Originally posted by diamond6:
yeah, he says on his website to make sure to try it on a night with no moon showing and no other distractions such as city lights and things. I thought the D50 could only do up to 30 second exposures. Is there a way around this?

Thanks for clearing up the confusion there. I would also like to maybe try a time lapse movie (like driving through the city where there are lots of lights). Any thoughts on how to go about that?


It can be done with your camera, I'm sure. As Elvis notes, you need a wired remote to do it though. Using the remote, you can set, or program, your shutter to stay open in bulb mode as long as you want. For s star trail shot, you will be able to dampen the noise somewhat in post-processing, but you'll want the darkest skies you can manage, far, far away from any artificial lights (30-50 miles outside a city of any size).

For the time lapse, I have the remote timer for Canon cameras that allows me to program pretty much any series of exposures I want. E.g., shoot a picture every 2 minutes for the next 2 hours, etc. I've done a number of these over the past few years. See example below:

click

I have another one I shot a year or so ago. I set up my 10D pointed at the southern summer milky way and had it take a 30 sec shot every 3 minutes until the battery ran out. I edited them together into an animated GIF that shows the earth's rotation as the milky way marches across the sky. It's a huge file and I have to upload it to my server, but I'll post it later if anyone's interested.

Message edited by author 2006-05-11 20:17:39.
 05/11/2006 08:18:15 PM · #7
You're not really describing time lapse photography if I'm reading you correctly but simply long exposures. However, you don't need to use one long noisy exposure you can use as many short exposures as you want for the total time and stack them. Image Stacker is a good program for this sort of thing.
 05/11/2006 08:18:55 PM · #8
Here's the milky way animation. WARNING, large file!! (>7 megabytes)

Milky Way animation
 05/11/2006 08:23:59 PM · #9
what model is this remote?
sounds great... also, what's thae price range?
 05/11/2006 08:24:50 PM · #10
Originally posted by strangeghost:
Here's the milky way animation. WARNING, large file!! (>7 megabytes)

Milky Way animation


simply awesome
 05/11/2006 08:26:27 PM · #11
Originally posted by mo5988:
what model is this remote?
sounds great... also, what's thae price range?


I think this one will do all those things

remote

my camera came with software do do this with my laptop as well

Message edited by author 2006-05-11 20:27:31.
 05/11/2006 08:27:38 PM · #12
Originally posted by Elvis_L:
Originally posted by mo5988:
what model is this remote?
sounds great... also, what's thae price range?


I think this one will do all those things

remote


That's the one I have, but it won't do Diamond6 any good, with his Nikon. Anyone know if Nikon makes something similar?
 05/11/2006 08:31:36 PM · #13
Very cool animation! Are the trails all from planes, or were some shooting stars?
 05/11/2006 08:32:50 PM · #14
Originally posted by strangeghost:


That's the one I have, but it won't do Diamond6 any good, with his Nikon. Anyone know if Nikon makes something similar?


This one looks like it should be the right one.

nikon remote
 05/11/2006 08:33:27 PM · #15
Originally posted by dahved:
Very cool animation! Are the trails all from planes, or were some shooting stars?


Airplanes. The location where I shot that faces the approach lanes for Milwaukee and Chicago international airports. Urgh!!
 05/12/2006 11:49:55 AM · #16
hey, thanks for all the advice, folks!
 05/12/2006 12:09:48 PM · #17
Originally posted by Elvis_L:
Originally posted by strangeghost:


That's the one I have, but it won't do Diamond6 any good, with his Nikon. Anyone know if Nikon makes something similar?


This one looks like it should be the right one.

nikon remote


Actually that is likely way overkill for what he needs. Just pick up the ML-L3 remote for $25 and you press the button once to open the shutter and press again to close it.
ML-L3 remote

Another option would be to use a laptop and Nikon Capture's Camera Control utility.

Edit: Note, on the Nikon d70 at least there is a maximum exposure time of 30 minutes hard wired into the camera.

Message edited by author 2006-05-12 12:11:11.
 12/25/2006 04:12:16 PM · #18
Nikon Camera Control Pro makes for a GREAT companion for photography. it allows for your DSLRs to be controlled from the computer and all shots to show and store on the cpu after taking them. So you know THEN and THERE that the pic sucks or not.

There is also timelapse with it. Allowing all the fun settings of long shutter and the rest, to give that nice beaming effects for streets and lights.

good stuff.
 12/25/2006 04:29:09 PM · #19
Originally posted by strangeghost:
Originally posted by dahved:
Very cool animation! Are the trails all from planes, or were some shooting stars?


Airplanes. The location where I shot that faces the approach lanes for Milwaukee and Chicago international airports. Urgh!!


Great animation, strangeghost. I just love looking at your astronomy shots.
 12/25/2006 04:44:03 PM · #20
Originally posted by Elvis_L:
Originally posted by strangeghost:


That's the one I have, but it won't do Diamond6 any good, with his Nikon. Anyone know if Nikon makes something similar?


This one looks like it should be the right one.

nikon remote


had one of these under the tree this morning ;)
wheeee .....

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