Photography Tips for Capturing a Meteor Shower
August 7, 2018 7:10 AM Subscribe
How to catch meteors! NASA has tips for those of you who live where you can see the meteor showers and have a camera handy!! Perseid Meteor Shower is Coming up!!!
New Moon this weekend too, so viewing conditions will be pretty good if you have dark(ish) skies)
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:28 AM on August 7, 2018
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:28 AM on August 7, 2018
Hey, I just asked a question about this meteor shower!
I'm pretty excited for it. Need to download some camera apps so I can do long exposure shots..
posted by Grither at 8:37 AM on August 7, 2018
I'm pretty excited for it. Need to download some camera apps so I can do long exposure shots..
posted by Grither at 8:37 AM on August 7, 2018
When I read the "How to catch meteors" headline I thought this post was about John Larsen finding micrometeorites.
posted by rdr at 8:49 AM on August 7, 2018
posted by rdr at 8:49 AM on August 7, 2018
11. If your camera has in-body image stabilization, turn it off. It consumes a lot of battery power you'll want to preserve, it adds vibration that blurs stars in long exposures, and since your camera will be mounted on a tripod it shouldn't be necessary anyway.
12. If your camera has built-in long exposure noise reduction, turn that off too. It will cut your acquisition time in half and there are other ways to clean up the noise later.
13. If you're truly crazy, look up your camera's high ISO noise characteristics and avoid using problematic ISO settings. One of my cameras is good at ISO 1600, but the other one has a horrible drop in quality going from ISO 800 to ISO 1600. I have to shoot that one at ISO 800 and push the processing a bit more.
14. Take notes on paper and leave them in your camera bag for the next time you do all this. Looking at notes on your phone will blow out your night vision.
15. Batch process your images with some basic adjustments, scan for keepers, adjust a promising sample, and then apply those adjustments to the rest of the batch and scan again. That's how I found the second meteor trail in this photo and both the trails in this photo.
posted by fedward at 11:43 AM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
12. If your camera has built-in long exposure noise reduction, turn that off too. It will cut your acquisition time in half and there are other ways to clean up the noise later.
13. If you're truly crazy, look up your camera's high ISO noise characteristics and avoid using problematic ISO settings. One of my cameras is good at ISO 1600, but the other one has a horrible drop in quality going from ISO 800 to ISO 1600. I have to shoot that one at ISO 800 and push the processing a bit more.
14. Take notes on paper and leave them in your camera bag for the next time you do all this. Looking at notes on your phone will blow out your night vision.
15. Batch process your images with some basic adjustments, scan for keepers, adjust a promising sample, and then apply those adjustments to the rest of the batch and scan again. That's how I found the second meteor trail in this photo and both the trails in this photo.
posted by fedward at 11:43 AM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
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I will try though. I love star gazing and meteors are the icing on the cake. Man-made satellites are the sprinkles on top.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 7:44 AM on August 7, 2018