Want to Buy an ND Filter

By Sir Topham Hatt
in Digital Camera Lab

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Grand Master

Sir Topham Hatt

Posted
Posted

I took some photos of the moon last night but when I went to take some of the stars to get that streaky look, the moon blasted all the light so ended up with a white photo.

Granted, it was the Super Moon but it got me thinking.

 

My knowledge of photography isn't that great but I understand to stop as much light getting through the lens, I need an ND filter?

 

I see prices are all over the place, but would something like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112684893080 be good to get me started in the technique?

 

Cheers

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Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

Posted
Posted

Sorry to be the one to say "don't skimp on filters"

 

I goes by the "are you really putting $5 glass in front of a $200 lens?"   I did... the amount of ghosting and flarring ended up with the filters working as cup holders. They are a nice starting point, but you start regreting it once you get to its limitations (Which is pretty fast once you see the above)

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Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, Mando said:

isnt doing nighttime astral photography more about ISO speed and long exposure times? I can ask a collegeue for you, she does loads of it with her DSLR.

ahh good on you, the shutterbug gets me everytime...

 

3 hours ago, Sir Topham Hatt said:

I took some photos of the moon last night but when I went to take some of the stars to get that streaky look, the moon blasted all the light so ended up with a white photo.

Granted, it was the Super Moon but it got me thinking.

 

I think this is more down to technique rather than the lack of ND filter.

Post the photo and exif info so we can help:

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Sir Topham Hatt said:

I think this is the photo:

 

 

 

 

Details:

Untitled.thumb.png.1efc110ea4e60057844930fde52bb897.png

 

13 minute exposure! at those sort of exposures any light (even a cellphone) Can cause a blowout, where you in a pitch black area?

 

Why don't you give it a try at 60s, then double, etc. so you can control the results .   Also, ISO should be at the lowest value.

Grand Master

neufuse Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted (edited)

yeah your ISO is way too high and exposure time is way to high for night time photography to give you good results, and you want to focus on infinity if you want to get a clear star shot

 

HDR is another idea... then you can bracket photos and merge them into one shot to get detail other exposure ranges may leave out

Rising Star

jmc15john

Posted
Posted

Don't get a ND to shoot the moon.  It's not that bright.  Your aperture is to fast.  F/4.5.  Shoot at a high aperture, F/11 for example.  That will let in less light just like an ND filter would.  

 

Though if you're just interested in shooting the moon you don't need to do a long exposure.  A full moon provides you with more than enough light.  

  • Draconian Guppy
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Grand Master

Astra.Xtreme

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'm not too knowledgeable about the camera aspect, but the moon orbits around the Earth at a pretty high pace, so a long exposure time is likely to be a big blur unless you have some sort of motorized tripod that tracks it.  When I'm looking through my telescope at something, I have to lock the object in it's orbital speed, otherwise it swoops out of lens frame really quickly. 

 

I would think that even a 60 second exposure would be long enough to make stars look like streaks. The moon will be way worse. There's so much light coming from the moon that I would think that a super short exposure would be fine.  Contrast would be tough on a full moon, so you might have to do some sort of HDR method and stack multiple photos.

  • Draconian Guppy
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  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

Sir Topham Hatt

Posted
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Posted

Hi

 

Sorry, we're confusing the two issues or star trail shots and moon shots :p

 

I accidentally got a nice star trail shot before and left the exposure on for at least 10 mins.  The difference is that I was camping, and there was no super moon.

 

I can't find the photo now but I guess there was a fair bit different with the F settings and ISO.

 

I seem to have lost a good number of photos recently :(

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