Monday, March 9, 2015

What exact settings do you have on your DSLR when shooting long exposure shots of stars?

So, I just recently got a Nikon D7100 and I'm trying to learn how to get better shots of the stars. Last night it was a clear night with a full moon and I went out in an open field to take pictures. The first couple of shots I set my camera to 1600 ISO with an aperture of 3.5. I set the shutter speed the highest it could (30 seconds), but the picture didn't turn out all that great. It was pretty black but you could see the stars and a tree in the foreground a little bit.
BUT then, I decided to try out the Bulb mode. I had the same settings except I only pressed it down for 10 seconds and the picture was significantly brighter than when I had it set to 30 seconds. It was so bright it almost looked unreal. What happened there? Is there a difference between bulb mode and doing it the normal way? Or did I accidentally change something in my camera menu between them? I'm just really confused and very new at this haha. Sorry this was so long. Would love if you had an answer! Thank you!

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