Joshua Tree National Park Night Photography

Posted on | August 3, 2009 | 10 Comments

Night Stars, Joshua Tree National Park, California

Night photography is something I have very little experience doing so I decided to try it out at Joshua Tree National Park. It is usually cold and windy at night there during the winter so it made sense to try a 75 degree windless summer night. (Don’t bother going during the day.) I wanted to shoot star trails but there were several problems with that plan. One was that the moon was half full so my exposures would be completely over-exposed with 30 minute shutter speeds. The other problem was that the spot I picked was too close to the road so every 15 minutes or so a car would come by and light up the joshua trees with artificial lighting. I had photographed this spot before at sunrise last winter and it went well but clearly not right for night photos.

Not knowing what I was doing, I tried everything from ISO 100, 200, 400 to 800 and apertures from f2.8, f3.5, f5.6 and f8 in addition to using flash to sidelight the trees and a Mag-Lite for light painting. My conclusion is that you need a dark night with either no moon or a crescent moon then use ISO 200 at f5.6 for 25 minutes to an hour to get good star trails. If there is no moon, you will probably need to do a few seconds of light painting to get some detail as well. It is also adviseable to scout out some of the trails during the daytime behind the boulders so you won’t have a problem with car headlights.

The biggest limitation to night photography however is the cameras themselves. Even with the Canon 5D Mark II, the noise was way too high with 10 minute exposures particularly anything above ISO 200.

See more of my Joshua Tree National Park pictures.

Comments

10 Responses to “Joshua Tree National Park Night Photography”

Leann Greene
August 4th, 2009 @ 8:57 am

It’s still a cool result. It will make it more worthwhile when you can implement what you’ve discovered in your own experience and achieve the image you wanted.Artifical lights can make for cool b&w conversions.
Richard
August 4th, 2009 @ 10:53 am

Thanks Leann. I might give it another try in September if the timing works out right.
Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images
August 4th, 2009 @ 4:43 pm

That’s a fabulous shot, Richard; Very much worth the effort. Also, not sure.. but that tree looks familiar…
Richard
August 4th, 2009 @ 5:05 pm

Thanks Gary. You have probably photographed them before too.
Younes Bounhar
August 6th, 2009 @ 7:25 am

I think you did just fine. I really like the contrast of the yellow trees against the deep blue sky. I’d love to head back to JTNP some day.
Richard
August 6th, 2009 @ 12:53 pm

Thanks Younes. Let me know when you’re down here and maybe we can do some night photos.
Ron Niebrugge
August 7th, 2009 @ 12:46 pm

For some reason when I think of night photos, I think of JTNP – it just seems like the perfect place for this type of photography.

Great job!
Richard Wong
August 7th, 2009 @ 3:33 pm

Thanks Ron. I agree. Perhaps because the shapes are so recognizable even in the dark.
Jim Goldstein
August 17th, 2009 @ 1:06 pm

I think it came out well. Capturing star trails with a digital camera is tough to do. Stacking images is the way to go. A good rule of thumb for night photography is manual focus to infinity and either use the setting f/2.8 at ISO 50 or f/4 at ISO 100. You’ll need to adjust as needed per your specific lighting situation but this is what I used to do for low light evenings back in the days of film.
Richard Wong
August 17th, 2009 @ 6:06 pm

Thanks for the tip, Jim. I will have to try again for a much longer exposure it seems.