Night Photography

[ZephyrHawk]

DH and I are seriously considering a road trip out west this spring. We'd be visiting a lot of National Parks (Yellowstone, Badlands, Bryce, etc.). I see this as a perfect opportunity to take a lot of nature photos, which I love to do, and we've altered our itinerary a little to fit in prime photographic locations for me. Anyways, DH has seen a bunch of absolutely lovely night sky photos from the places we'll be visiting, and has encouraged me to try it out. The only time previously that I've done night photos was in the B&W photo class I took in college...and I wasn't too happy with the results. Regardless, I've never tried to take star photos as I always figured those were waaaaay too complex for me. But, I'm willing to give it a try.

I looked online for some info on suggested film speed and aperture/exposure lengths (No, I don't have a digital SLR yet...I'm poor, okay...but I have several nice 35mm's). However, I'm getting conflicting info. I suppose I could buy a book on it, but I don't want to waste money on something I might only try once just for the heck of it. And besides, most of the books I've seen that mention night photography start out with "set your camera to night mode." Ummm...sorry, doesn't really work for me.

So, does anyone here have experience taking night sky photos? Whether basic star shots or time-lapsed "moving" star shots? Or even low light sunset type shots? Can you give me any basic guidance or tips?

And while I'm at it, anyone have a favorite spot out west for taking amazing photos? Something off the beaten path that we should look for?

Thanks!

 

[jcb]

Two websites where you can see night photography are spaceweather.com and twanight.org.

This page from twanight.org is an article for beginners on night photography.

spaceweather.com is more about cosmic rays (hence the name) but it includes galleries of digital photographs of various astronomical events and the photographers will usually list the camera and settings used.

Kodak also had a publication on stellar photography. This page appears to be a reprint.