Bulb Photography Without Cable Release Or Remote?

[lsisaxon]

Many camera can do mirror lock up, so not necessary to use black card.

And when the exposure is like 5 minutes to hours, slight movement does not matter. in fact, i even move the telescope manually to compensate the tracking error, few seconds of movement does not matter because it is not even 0.1% of a 30min exposure.

A black card is probably useful when there is aeroplane fly by or got some idiot shining torch light at you.

For super long e

You use off axis guider??

 

[lsisaxon]

:bsmilie: Lim Chu Kang...I'm probably quite near there actually, since my camp is near Yew Tee MRT station. I've had exactly the same problem...can't expose for too long before the sky actually goes a murky brown. And even to expose for 30 seconds at ISO 100, I need to stop down to around f/22, which probably defeats the purpose of trying to capture star trails anyway, since my understanding is that the aperture should be quite wide to capture even the fainter stars.

Yeah.. but not too wide also otherwise the colours of the brighter stars are no longer obvious. Something like f/4 or f/5.6 would be good.

If I don't remember wrongly, the shot below was shot with Nikon AF28/1.4 stopped down to something like f/5.6 or f/8 on an FM-10 body.

 

[fWord]

Many camera can do mirror lock up, so not necessary to use black card.

And when the exposure is like 5 minutes to hours, slight movement does not matter. in fact, i even move the telescope manually to compensate the tracking error, few seconds of movement does not matter because it is not even 0.1% of a 30min exposure.

A black card is probably useful when there is aeroplane fly by or got some idiot shining torch light at you.

For super long e

Thanks. Glad to know that this works in practice. But if my camera cannot do a bulb exposure off a self-timer mode, then I might be getting a cable release anyway...it'll be mandatory. Did your post get cut off halfway?

 

[fWord]

you can use a small plastic disc which is slightly smaller than shutter release button. Just place the disc on the shutter release button and hold it in place with rubber band or tape.

Ah I see...silly me, never thought of that.

 

[fWord]

Yeah.. but not too wide also otherwise the colours of the brighter stars are no longer obvious. Something like f/4 or f/5.6 would be good.

If I don't remember wrongly, the shot below was shot with Nikon AF28/1.4 stopped down to something like f/5.6 or f/8 on an FM-10 body.

Yup...was thinking of an aperture of somewhere around f/4. That's as wide as my lens can go anyway.

That picture is beautiful, and it also looks familiar. Thought I might have seen it a while back where you also complained that the developer scratched your film. How long was your exposure? One hour or so?

 

[lsisaxon]

Yup...was thinking of an aperture of somewhere around f/4. That's as wide as my lens can go anyway.

That picture is beautiful, and it also looks familiar. Thought I might have seen it a while back where you also complained that the developer scratched your film. How long was your exposure? One hour or so?

Oh yes.. same one. I can't remember.. but you can actually measure the angle through which the stars have travelled and calculate. The angle is about 7deg. So the exposure works out to be 28mins. It's probably a 30-min exposure.

 

[Snoweagle]

Black card is only viable for bulb mode exposure. Only in this mode, you can manually determine the length of the exposure.

The viewfinder curtain will prevent stray light from affecting you exposure during the brief moments while the mirror is moving up/down and the closing/opening of shutter curtain. It has no effect during the exposure as the mirror up position will stop any light coming from the viewfinder. Generally, useful for self-timer mode.

But i never use this method to do bulb exposures. I just use my remote switch and my watch to time.

 

[Snoweagle]

Then you won't need to do a bulb exposure. Won't be dark enough anyway.

I mean as it a few street lamps around but not too many lights.

 

[Snoweagle]

Snoweagle: Yes, it's annoying. Sometimes I even wonder why people bother to shine a torchlight over. Isn't it obvious from just the shape that the person is a photographer with a camera on a tripod? Sometimes people are very kaypoh...I remember meeting up with someone to see his camera. This old man sitting behind the seller shifted his position and started craning his neck to see what we've got. I wanted to ask, "What the hell are you looking at?" But decided to just tolerate the attention and move on.

catchlights: Ahh...only $10? That doesn't sound too bad, and I could probably save up that much just by staying in camp for two nights, which I do anyway. :bsmilie: Wish home was a little nearer to camp.

DeSwitch: Heheh...if I were enterprising enough, it's something I could try, but I don't have the knowledge on how to build one. Care to share a picture of your DIY cable release?

lsisaxon: I was also wondering if there is even ANY place in Singapore where light pollution is low enough to attempt star trails. This is probably something I could only attempt overseas, and even then, only in the right places.

I think some people do not have any idea what bulb exposure is all about lor...for digital is ok cos spoil can delete but for film users like me, there's no 2nd chance.

 

[catchlights]

I think some people do not have any idea what bulb exposure is all about lor...for digital is ok cos spoil can delete but for film users like me, there's no 2nd chance.

Strange theory,:think:


whether is digital or film, photographer still need almost the same time to make the exposure, IMHO photographers' time and effort are priceless, but you are telling people that when you shooting digital, your time and effort cost is nothing, but when you shoot film, your time and effort cost a little more, 10 cents to 30 cents pre frame.

 

[Snoweagle]

Strange theory,:think:


whether is digital or film, photographer still need almost the same time to make the exposure, IMHO photographers' time and effort are priceless, but you are telling people that when you shooting digital, your time and effort cost is nothing, but when you shoot film, your time and effort cost a little more, 10 cents to 30 cents pre frame.

Yes but now's not the issue of cost per frame and time, but the ability not to 'waste' any shots.

 

[fWord]

Oh yes.. same one. I can't remember.. but you can actually measure the angle through which the stars have travelled and calculate. The angle is about 7deg. So the exposure works out to be 28mins. It's probably a 30-min exposure.

I see...well, learnt something new today. Earlier on I read a book that talked about how fast the moon travels, but alas, I've forgotten it already.

 

[fWord]

I think some people do not have any idea what bulb exposure is all about lor...for digital is ok cos spoil can delete but for film users like me, there's no 2nd chance.

Or maybe it's been so long since they heard the last shutter click, so they shine a light over to see if you're still alive or not. :bsmilie: It's terrible though, I imagine...exposing for an hour or so, and everything is perfect till the torch comes around.

 

[duhduh83]

FYI, don't need to bother about the light come in thru the view finder, as you are doing a bulb exposure, the mirror is up the light can only come in thru the lens, and you are not doing A mode or P mode, it will not affect the metering.

a cable release is only about $10.

$10???? my EOS 5 cable release is selling at 50-60 plus!!! tell me if i got the wrong info or am i cheated.... :dunno:

 

[duhduh83]

if you open the shutter for 30mins exposure, you move your camera for ½ second will make no effect on the image.

camera movement wont affect the image? why? i thought thats why we are using tripod? teach me....

 

[Snoweagle]

Or maybe it's been so long since they heard the last shutter click, so they shine a light over to see if you're still alive or not. :bsmilie: It's terrible though, I imagine...exposing for an hour or so, and everything is perfect till the torch comes around.

Yeah...i've that experience before so it gets really annoying. So that's perhaps y my 'shi fu' quarrelled with that guy so aggessively when he shone a torch over.

 

[fWord]

camera movement wont affect the image? why? i thought thats why we are using tripod? teach me....

That's because the exposure itself is so long. When exposures are very long, I suspect that slight camera shake for a split-second doesn't affect the picture overtly. I think the same thing applies with motion blur. If we expose a scene for say, 5 minutes, and a person moves around the scene at normal walking pace without stopping...usually, the person simply blurs away and is not detectable in the final product. However the slower he moves, or the more often he pauses, the more likely he is to be recorded on the picture.

Try going to a busy night scene area and correctly expose a scene over a period of around 30 seconds, and most of the moving crowd will be blurred and be indistinguishable. More stationary ones are the people who will be seen in the picture afterwards. Thus, long exposure can turn a very busy-looking area into one that looks almost deserted.

 

[fWord]

Well, since it's obvious that some of you here are experienced film users, would you be able to advise me on the choice of film for long exposure photography? I understand that I should look for something as fine-grained as possible and use a film that's rated somewhere around ISO 50. But besides Velvia (which I remember is slide film, something I don't want to try yet), are there some cheaper consumer alternatives (on the negative film side) I can consider?

Is there actually an ISO 100 or ISO 200 film that works well for general shooting and also cope well for long exposure photography? I've read that most films tend to produce green pictures when exposed for a very long period of time. I found limited information about the common Fuji Superia 400 which states that it has a brown colour shift at long exposures...anyway, I wouldn't want to be using ISO 400 film for long exposures.

 

[fWord]

Yeah...i've that experience before so it gets really annoying. So that's perhaps y my 'shi fu' quarrelled with that guy so aggessively when he shone a torch over.

Heheh...I might have shouted, "Hey, WTF??!!"

 

[Snoweagle]

Well, since it's obvious that some of you here are experienced film users, would you be able to advise me on the choice of film for long exposure photography? I understand that I should look for something as fine-grained as possible and use a film that's rated somewhere around ISO 50. But besides Velvia (which I remember is slide film, something I don't want to try yet), are there some cheaper consumer alternatives (on the negative film side) I can consider?

Is there actually an ISO 100 or ISO 200 film that works well for general shooting and also cope well for long exposure photography? I've read that most films tend to produce green pictures when exposed for a very long period of time. I found limited information about the common Fuji Superia 400 which states that it has a brown colour shift at long exposures...anyway, I wouldn't want to be using ISO 400 film for long exposures.

I usually use superia xtra 400 for my bulb exposures and they're ok. If you just want a simple finer grained type, you can try of 100 or 200 of the equivalent.