Spent 6 hours trying to stack Milky Way shots before I realized my tripod was loose

I was getting terrible star trails in every single frame but kept blaming the software or my shutter speed. Finally noticed the leg lock on my cheap tripod had been slipping all night. Has anyone else spent way too long troubleshooting a gear problem that turned out to be something dumb?

3 comments

3 Comments

iris_barnes874d ago

Realized my own dumb mistake a few years back when I spent three hours trying to get a sharp shot of the Milky Way and kept getting blurry stars. Turned out I had left my image stabilization on from daytime shooting, which actually makes things worse on a tripod because it tries to correct for movement that isnt there. Felt pretty silly when I finally checked the camera settings and saw that little IS symbol blinking at me. Now I have a checklist I run through before every night shoot, and lo and behold, my success rate has gone way up. Little things like that can really trip you up when you are tired and working in the dark.

owens.laura4d ago

Two hours into a sunrise shoot last spring and I realized my ND filter was still on from the night before... whole sky came out looking like a gray blanket. Felt real smart standing there in the cold with my coffee, thinking I was getting golden hour magic. Now I physically tap every setting on my camera before I start, like I'm a pilot doing pre-flight checks.

margaretc424d ago

omg the pre flight check thing is so real. i once drove two hours to a waterfall spot and set up my tripod for long exposures, only to realize i had left my white balance on tungsten from the night before. everything came out super blue and i was too cold to redo it. @iris_barnes87 that IS thing is a classic, i bet we all have a similar story. now i literally talk out loud like "okay iso is x, aperture is y, filter is off" before i click shutter.