Panasonic G9 Live Composite
Imelda Matchett
Great coverage! Just what I needed to learn about Live Composite and star trails.
One question: do you know if the E-M1's Noise Reduction option is turned off when making a Live Composite shot? I'm not sure, but I think, in my few tries so far, With Noise Reduction set to Auto, Live Composite does apply noise reduction with a time exposure set to the interval picked for each Live Composite exposure.
After reading this article I thought I'd try it over the city of Perth in WA & it worked a treat and I found that I didn't need a high iso (iso was 300)
Although the city was altitude out of focus it worked out amazingly so thanks Peter for a very well written and useful article.
Another question: In your "how to" you said that your first exposure was 4 sec. and the rest were 10. Is there a way to change the time once the composite has started or did you somehow preset the two different times?
Jim, it would seem to me that the 4 sec exposure was for the image with the house. the 10 sec exposure was for the "second" image - the tree. That is, for the first image, all photos were 4 sec. For the second image, all photos were 10 sec. This is what i understood from "first" and "second" in this context. Hope that helps.
Great coverage! very helpful. once question regarding the Live Composite on mark ii. I had a Mark ii and i couldn't get to the live composite mode by dialing the shutter speed all the way to the extreme left, I can only see the BULB and Live Time in M mode. Not sure what step I missed.
Hi Michael. Thanks for the comments and the read. LiveComp is definitely on the E-M5 Mark II and it is accessed in the same way (dialling all the way to the left in Manual mode). It is not on the older E-M5 (Mark I).
Great article Peter, thanks. This is a function on my OMD-M1 of which I was unaware - it's not mentioned in the PDF camera manual which I have! I wonder how many other hidden gems can be found on this camera...?
Hi,
With em1 I would think you set NR to auto, as long exposures 2 sec and onward result in hotpixels or does live composite also account for those "artifacts"? As it is not brightness that is change in the photograph.
I took some the other night.The basic scene(before any airplane light trails crossed)was 1/2 sec at F/8.What exposure does the camera do on the light trails or any other light that enters/eminates from the subject area?Same 1/2 sec?Thanks
Thinking about it, I could imagine it. I had a good lightning shot once on single exposure film, but so long ago I don't remember settings or if I was just lucky to press at the right moment. It was over sea, taken from a vantage point that was not being rained on.
I am still waiting to do star trails but the weather here in South Australia has not bee too good to us have to travel out into the county to do it but at the moment it is looking to rain again all week end.. will notify when i get to do it
Hi,
I would like to know some more details about the photos above:
- Which lens did you use?
- Which aperture?
I read about star photography (not star trails) and people always recommend using a wide angle lens with F/2.8, ISO 3200 or so. Does this also apply for star trail photography?
Michael
Hi Michael. For all of these photos I used the Olympus OMD E-M1 with the 12mm prime lens. Just like for regular night sky shooting it is important to have a fast lens. I had the lens wide open at f/2.0. Cheers!
Yes, with star trails you still want a fast wide angle lens using a wide open aperture and high-ish ISO as a general rule. However, you may still need to tweak those settings to get the best results.
If you're using an M4/3 system, a great lens is the very affordable Samyang 12mm. For DSLR, the Samyang/Rokinon 14mm is best.
YouTube has several star trail tutorials that are very helpful. Good luck!
Peter, thanks very much for this tutorial. I have one question that's not already covered above: what AF setting would be best? I tried using live comp for the first time the other day and I used manual focus on some branches to do a star trails shot. But, what about other situations when there's nothing obvious to focus on or focusing is difficult because it's just too dark? Do you use auto focus and hope that the camera focuses on each instance of new light (like lightening or fireworks)? Thanks!
Hi William. The auto focus settings work poorly because of the darkness. Switch over to manual focus and set it to the infinity marking on the lens. Just make sure that your nearest subject (like the branches you spoke of) is not too close or they will be blurry. Hope that helps. Cheers!
Take a look at PhotoPills - -way-guide
on how to shoot the Milky Way. He discusses how to focus at hyperfocal distance. He has some great stuff o night photography and his APP is just out of this world great.
I have an OMD E-M1 but didn't know this feature even existed! I found your night sky and church shot so inspirational I'm definitely going to give this photographic modality a try. Thanks for a great article and idea!
Thanks for the post. I have tried with mixed success to use livecomp since it is one of the reasons I bought the E-M5II. I still find that I have too much light on well lit subjects and too little light on dark subjects. Taking tests shots is a great suggestion. I have constantly been in a quandary as to how long to time the shots. Your post is the most helpful one I have seen, and I appreciate also the website mentioned in another blog where I can find ares with less ambient light.
Great encouragement to get out and try these techniques! Thanks for taking the time to write it all out, with lots of images to show also. Have you ever tried any astrophotography through a telescope? My next project will be to attach my Canon to my Celestron!
Yes it says to turn off the image stabilization to do Star trails.. but i forgot the other night while i had about 1 hour of almost clear sky's.. it also says to set you camera on Tungsten as well and set for about 20 or 25 seconds.. i had mine at 8 seconds .. picture was very dark so i don't know what i did wrong .. I did get the star trails but because i had not turned off the stabilization there were gaps in some of the stars
Hi Jim.. No it's not a kit lens.. Pro lens 12/40mm 2.8.. I did one mucking around last night in the back yard and as you know there is a lot of light around.. the first one i did was 2.8 20 sec 1600 ISO it was that light i only did it for a couple of shots the compensation shot +5.. the second one i changed the compensation into the middle and that was shot on 5.6 20sec 1600 ISO again only a couple of shots.. the third one i did by moving the compensation to -1 still very bright but did it for 45 mins on F8 20 sec 1600 ISO.. i will go out into the country as soon as the weather is good as we are having lots of rain and clouds.. I too a chance out the back yard to see what would happen.. I also want to do the milky way can you please advise what setting it would be... thank you also for your help.. Joy
How to you get an ISO setting of 3200 in LIVECOMP? The highest I can get is 1600. What am I doing wrong. When I am in BULB I can change the ISO to what ever I want i.e. 16000 when I switch to LIVECOMP the ISO automatically goes back to 1600.
Don't be concerned with Exp Comp for astrophotography, because you're not really compensating for anything. Keep it simple; F-stop, ISO, and shutter time. And you should never be above F3.2 when shooting the night sky. Actually it's usually best just to set it at 2.8 and leave it. The idea is to gather as much light as possible.
For the Milky Way, good settings to start at are f2.8, 3200, and 25 seconds. Then tweek only ISO and S time as needed. You should never go beyond 30 seconds because that is generally when stars will start to "trail" and look OOF.
The lens you are using is excellent but probably not the best choice for star application. I use the Samyang 12mm on my EM1 and get much better results. It's also very affordable.
Overall, if you decide to really get into astrophotography, a FF camera will blow away a mirrorless. I personally use a Canon 6d with a Samyang 14 & 24mm. I reserve the EM1 for Live Comp only.
Thank you Jim.. i will see how i go when i get to Colorado in a couple of weeks time will check out the lens that you said.. I also have 2 Canon 7D's so will give it a try as well .. I have a 10/20mm and a 10mm fish eye for the 7D's so will try both those out as well
i will be in Colorado springs all around there for 28 days doing the Durango/silverton Fall Special train trip.. then heading to Charma NM..
Mexican Hat and Monument Vally.. Moab.. and Aspen .. should be a good trip leave on the 8th of September and home on the 16th October will let you know all about it when i get home and will let you know how my star trails go and the milky way .. cheers Joy
Whoa! That's going to be an amazing trip. I live in Ft. Collins, so get to spend a lot of time in RMNP. Nice dark skies.
If you can afford to pick-up a Samyang 14mm for your 7D, you should do so.
Have a wonderful trip, Joylene!
Morning Jim.. went out into the country last night Hamely Bridge SA AU.. the star shots i got were good i would not say great.. as there were a lot of cars going over the new bridge and we were under the old bridge in the gully.. the stars turned beautifully in the first one but the car lights from above affected it .. i let it run for 1 hour plus perfect circle.. so then i moved it up further into higher ground where the car was parked and point the camera that way away from the head lights.. 1 hour plus on the next photo was a good one but the stars did not turn just came on an angle straight down. there was a lot of frost on the ground which fogged up the lens and the camera and tripod was dripping from the frost.. any reason why the stars did not turn or is that normal to go straight down.. I tried to change the OMD 1 to 3200 ISO but could not get it past !600... will have to check the manual again how to move it . I hope you don't mind the emails cheers Joy
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