How can I improve a beginner star photo with a house in the foreground?
Asked 8/7/2014
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2 answers
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I’m practicing star photography before a trip and tried shooting the night sky with a house in the foreground. My test shot was made at f/3.5, ISO 100, 30 seconds on a tripod with the self-timer.
The result wasn’t very satisfying: the foreground house isn’t sharp, there are fewer stars than I expected, and there is yellow light from a nearby street lamp. It was also a somewhat cloudy night.
What can I do to improve this kind of image? In particular:
- How do I get more stars to show up?
- How can I keep the house in the foreground sharper?
- What shooting conditions and camera settings are better for this type of night photo?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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I agree with the comments made by JohannesD. It is easy to see that your tripod moved, when you magnify the picture of the stars. You can clearly see that the star trails are not small circle segments, instead they have an irregular curvature which is indicative of tripod movement instead of the usual trail casued by the rotation of the Earth.
It is possible to correct for the unsharpness using post processing. In this case it's easier than usual as you can use the star trail as the so-called "point spread function". Each single point of light should have affected only one pixel, but unsharpness causes a brightness profile that affects a group of nearby pixels, this is called the point spread function and knowing this allows you to deblur the image. Ideally you should use the average of a few stars. Also in case of motional blurring, it's best to carve up the image into small parts and deblur each part separately using point spread functions that apply for that part (in case of rotational movement the point spread fucntion will not be uniform).
This is your original image:

Using just the brightest star as the point spread function and deblurring the entire image with that gives the following result:

This was done by splitting the image in its 3 color components and then applying 25 iterations of the Richardson–Lucy deconvolution algorithm using the brightest star at the top left of the image as the point spread function. There are some "ringing" artifacts visible at the high contrast edges of the picture. Also the right hand part isn't that sharp.
Sharpening has made more of the weaker stars visible in the picture. A dim star that has become a smeared out trail in the unsharp image may have a surface brightness that barely exceeds that of the background while in the sharpnened image it will be represented by a sharply peaked brightness function.
Originally by user28357. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user28357
12y ago
0
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Several things worked against this shot: bright foreground lighting, clouds, moonlight, and likely some camera movement. For better star photos, use a very sturdy tripod and avoid any movement during the exposure.
To capture more stars, shoot from a darker location with less light pollution, on a clear night, and ideally near a new moon or with the moon out of frame. Clouds and a bright moon will wash out the sky.
Your settings also limited the stars: ISO 100 is very low for this type of shot. Use your lens wide open and raise ISO substantially (for example around ISO 800–1600, sometimes higher depending on noise tolerance). Keep exposure length within typical wide-angle astro limits to avoid obvious trails.
For foreground sharpness, focus matters: if you focused at infinity, the house may be outside the depth of field at f/3.5. You may need to refine focus in the field rather than relying on the infinity mark alone.
In short: darker sky, moonless/clear conditions, sturdier support, wider aperture, higher ISO, and careful focus will improve both the stars and the foreground.
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