1/31/2012 3:03:04 PM

Remember to keep your background clean. Use a large enough f stop to use a high speed and stop the motion blur and isolate them from the background. The 18-55 will probably be best unless they are far off.

First and foremost, get out of the city. Ideally, you can see the M-W with your naked eye. Tripod is a must. Bump your ISO to the max...6400 or so, and open up the lens to the max; e.g., 2.8 or 4.0. And set shutter speed around 20 seconds or less. Much more, and the stars will blur as you get star trails.

I use a wide-angle lens to get more of the stars. Most importantly, set the exposure to manual focus. Auto won't work. Ahead of time, focus on a distant object. Some people put tape on their lens, to prevent the focus from changing. I have live view, and it's easy to zoom into the night sky, magnify, focus using live view...then unzoom to the widest angle, then 20 second exposure.

Then, use noise reduction software on your home computer. I do NOT use the camera's on-board noise reduction, as I read about this tip in Outdoor Photographer; e.g., turn it off and use software after-the-fact.

Star trails are the next extension. Same concept. Point camera towards the north because you'll get more rotation. And adjust the aperture to something like F8 and go for 10-15 minutes. There's much more to star trails then what I've just typed, but you can at least experiment using the info above.

You can also use flash fill to illuminate a foreground object. Or a flash light to illuminate an object during the exposure.

Let me know how it works out!

The usage will be limited to reproduction of the image on the CD.

The 40D can be used at an ISO of 800 with little extra processing if any when shooting RAW. For inside the barn use the higher ISOs so you can get a fast enough shutter speed to prevent shake. For backlight subjects use the spot meter for correct exposure. Otherwise use partial metering.

I checked your gallery and you have many lovely photos in it. I couple were suffering from camera movement and a few were out of focus. You must shoot at a higher shutter speed and hold the camera perfectly still or use a tripod.
A correction for a couple of your photos. "Trio" is a photo of swans NOT snow geese as well as the four flying in a single line.(Diagnolly from lower right to upper left.)

If you WANT to have a new lens I will suggest the "nifty fifty f1.8". It will give you more options for exposure and more opportunities to use a shallow DOF.

Good Luck and keep on shooting.

Lynn

I knew I could count on either you or Carlton to have some good suggestions!

It's been so long since I've added new images, due to the large SD-cards, there's such a vast amount of them to pick & choose from, not sure where to begin.

I did p-up an 85f/1.8 last year, sure having fun with it!!

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGall2.asp?catID=560