Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Help! I tried my first attempt at night photography... I live in the mountains where we do not have much light noise from town.
I used a Canon 5D MIV with the first photo lens of 24-105 STM lens. Second photo Canon 17-40. Yes, I screwed up and in the lack of light did not manage to have the lens set at 24 or 17mm...
1st photo 35mm f4 30 seconds ISO 1600. I also tried to help it out in LR 6 and have attached what I did there.
2nd photo again, did not notice I was off from the 17mm... 25mm F4 30 second ISO 1600
To the naked eye there were certainly not that many stars in the sky. What is all that in the sky? I put the focus on infinity with the 17-40. The 24-105 does not have the window for focus so I just focused as far out as I could on manual. I locked the mirror up, and used a remote control. How do you focus? What did I do right & what was wrong? I don't like these photos, but don't know what to do to get it right.
I added one last photo where I tried to do some light painting and the tree looks bad out of focus etc.
Any tips would be appreciated!

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Rongnongno Loc: FL

You should join the Astronomical Photography Forum.

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

You have a great camera and nice dark skies. I agree with Ron, you will get much better advice from the AstroPhotography section and will mostly weed out advice from folks like me who really do not have any experience.

But having said I have no experience will not stop me from suggesting you check out the program Stellarium that will run on Mac, Windows or Linux. It is a great program that simulates a planetarium and is very useful for finding things in the sky and you can change your virtual location and date and time which is nice if you want to plan a particular night shot. Have fun!

repleo Loc: Boston

I agree you would be better off posting in the Astro section. I have taken some courses and workshops and what I would offer is:
1. Limit your exposure time to the '500 rule' to avoid star trails. Divide 500 by the apparent focal length equals longest exposure in seconds.
2. The infinity marker is not very accurate on some lenses and it is easy to end up focusing beyond infinity. While you still have some light, focus on the furthest thing away that you can focus on and mark the setting or focus lock it. On my Sony, I am able to get focus peaking on some stars for focusing. Have no idea if that would work on yours.
3. Obviously, turn off IS while on the tripod. Remove the strap or anything that can blow around in a breeze.
4. You need lenses with good 'coma'. Even otherwise great lenses may not have good 'coma'. I have no idea what it means, but supposedly my Rokinon 12mm F2.0 has great coma.
5. Can you go higher with the ISO without creating too much noise? Do you have a Long Exposure / High ISO Noise Reduction (black frame subtraction) setting? Experiment with it off and on hi and lo setting

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Please explain 'coma'

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

Again, the reason for re-posting in the Astro forum.
Again, not an expert here, but it refers to comatic aberration. This is the attribute of a lens where it stretches the light at the edges of the sensor and makes stars look like comas with their tails pointed away from the center.

repleo Loc: Boston

This will explain it better than I can. As I said, I don't really know what it is, just that it is important when shooting stars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coma_(optics)

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

https://www.lonelyspeck.com/a-practical-guide-to-lens-aberrations-and-the-lonely-speck-aberration-test/

halfway down the page.

Novicus Loc: north and east

Seems color noise caused by the camera.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Take this for whatever it means(probably not very much). Any photo needs a subject to concentrate on. Just random stars is not an interesting photo. The milky way shot has a main subject, so it's the best one. If you can focus on a particular constellation, or a planet, it would make a more interesting photo. Again- purely my opinion.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Rongo is right. You should ask the experts. I shoot stars in Big Bend, Texas. My set up is usually the widest and fastest lens I have – either a Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 or a Tamron 15-30 f/2.8. I usually pre-focus to infinity (manual). I use my camera's timer set to 5 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 1600-3200 and a shutter speed of 15 to 22 seconds.If I go longer I tend to get the star trails. I do try to get something in the foreground - in focus and I sometimes light paint. When I process in Lightroom, I slide my kelvin to cooler temps - sometimes as low as 3200. I increase my exposure quite a lot and reduce my shadows. Sharpen to about 100 and reduce noise. Lens calibration of course. I'm not an expert but this seems to work for me.

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

Really thoughtful and helpful reply. I visited Big Bend last year and was blown away by the park. Didn't do any night photography but I may it give a try on my next trip. Do you camp there when you go?

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

Thanks, I really appreciate the info!

Photolady2014 Loc: Southwest Colorado

I know you are right, hence the tree that looked so bad. i was not expecting it to be print worthy, just wanted it to look right...

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

I could be mistaken, but isn't the effect "comma" as in the grammatical symbol of a period with a slight tail?