Monday 20 August 2012

Are the stars out tonight?...


As a very amateur photographer I am often dismayed at the results of my attempts at capturing 'the moment'.

One of the great things about our lovely part of France is sitting under the clear starry skies after the street lights have gone off (saving energy), sipping some wine and contemplating the universe - well perhaps not the universe. Last Friday was such a night and after saying goodnight to some guests I decided to have a go at capturing it - at first I thought I had been successful but then realised it was only smudges on my screen (must clean this sometime) but those of us living here will not need a photograph to understand the feeling and those who don't can only imagine!

4 comments:

  1. Like you Jim I have tried and cannot get a decent image either...

    ReplyDelete
  2. We were at a function at near Chatillion on Saturday night and as we were leaving around 1am the sky was the best I've ever seen. Great view of the milky way. Did Tim have his camera? What do you think....

    Luckily, we've all still got a bit of memory left!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Have you got a shutter open setting? Press to open, press to close.
    You will need a tripod or a table to rest it on. TURN OFF THE FLASH and ALL OUTSIDE LIGHTS... use a torch to set yourself up and turn it off before pressing shutter!
    Press... leave for a slow count of twenty... press again. Check result.
    Digital film costs nought to develope... try again if you are not happy with the result. If you leave it for too long you will get 'tracks', not stars... also...
    Try setting the film speed for the fastest it will allow you... there is a fine balance here between good stars and lots of film "noise".
    And just have fun!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also, I've just grabbed your pic and had a go in Pottyshop.
      There are stars there... but in that black area, there is the outline of a tree or shrub... but I can see some stars around that.

      Delete