How to film a night sky time lapse?
I have a Nikon D300s and I would like to film the meteor shower tonight… I know how to use the film function on my camera, but when I point it at the sky it doesn't pick up the stars… What setting do I have to alter in order for the stars to show up on my video?
Well in the first place this camera has no "film" setting because it doesn't use film it shoots video.
If you want to film a meteor shower you're going to need some very expensive gear. If you want to shoot video then use the camera you have. Film and video are not, nor should they be expressed, as the same thing - that's completely wrong.
Second, you can't shoot video of the night sky and hope to come up with anything, you'll have to do time or long exposures. Here's an article on that subject… Still, there's no film involved.
You don't seem to understand the terms that actually describe what you want to do,
Using the sequential timer on your D300s you will need to set it up to take relatively long exposures sequencially.
Look on page 189
Using your camera in the manual exposure mode, determine the shutter speed and lens aperture for the proper exposure. Then use the steps to set up the intervals and number of shots you want to shoot.
There's NO way a video camera can shoot the night sky. If you think of it, shooting at 24 fps, fixes your shutter speed. The largest lens aperture further limits the exposure options. And ISO peaks out at 6400 before noise becomes an issue.
Night sky shots are usually at least 15 seconds long, maybe 30 seconds at lens apertures of f/5.6 at ISO 400 (I did some tests tonight)
So, you can't "film" anything with a dSLR. You can't video the night sky, so you are left with using the interval timer.
Time lapse and video are two different things. Time lapse is a series of still photos that you stitch together. The problem with videoing the night sky is getting enough light, which means a big aperture, slow shutter (the real challenge), and a high enough ISO.
I shot time lapse to try to get the Perseids and was lucky to get two in one frame. I think time lapse is your best shot, within a reasonable budget.
Oh the nitwits are out tonight…
we all know the question asker means video when he/she said film. No need to belabor the point.
The normal method of taking photos at night of stars is to take multiple photos - ala time lapse, but then "stacking" them together for a single photo rather than assembling them as a video.
For meteor showers, I'm thinking, perhaps long open shutter - perhaps 20 seconds per, then try to assemble them in a time lapse video.
I was going to try a few things, but the sky has been overcast for the last three nights.