There are many different ways to shoot the stars and the night sky, but the key is to keep things simple when you are just starting out. So, for that reason, this post isn't going to teach you how to create amazing multi-row stitched panoramas of the Milky Way or how to photograph star trails, for that you'll need to read some of my other posts.
Let's instead start with five easy-to-understand tips for beginners on how to get outdoors and start capturing the amazing heavens that are above our heads.
1. Tripod - as you'll need to be able to take long exposures - with shutter speeds of up to 30 seconds to capture stationary stars.
2. A camera and lens with a wide aperture and focal length - ideally an aperture capable of between f/1.4-f/4 and a focal length as wide as 14-24mm on a full-frame camera (10-18mm on a crop sensor camera). The wider the focal length you use the more Milky Way you can fit into your frame, but the smaller the Milky Way will appear in the frame. My personal favourite lens to use is the Sony 24mm f1.4 GM as I prefer the Milky Way looking larger in my images.
3. Torch or head torch - it's dark out there!
4. The PhotoPills App - this will help you figure out where the Milky Way will be in the sky at your location and the time you want to shoot. PhotoPills is worth every cent of the approx $20 one-off fee and without it you'll just be guessing wildly.
Before I go out on an astrophotography shoot, I always check the moon phases, as a new moon (or close to it) is best to create the dark skies required to make the stars show up well in an image. The PhotoPills app is also invaluable for figuring out the direction and height of the Milky Way in the sky at any given time as well as the sun and moon rise/set.
Though the new moon gives you the best dark skies, it's OK to have a little moon if its backlit and low in the shot to help light your foreground, and I will sometimes shoot on nights where there is up to a 30% moon visible, any more than this and you'll start to find the Milky Way gets washed out. I wouldn't attempt to shoot a composition that had both the stars and the moon in the frame as the moon will be very overpowering.
You can see in the images below the effect the moon has: on the left the moon was at about 30% power and I took this shot as the moon was very low in the sky behind me and was about to set within an hour or so of this shot. In the image on the right, the moon was more like 50% and while It gave good foreground lighting it did mean the Milky Way was more washed out.
Different times of the year mean you'll have to shoot at different times of the evening (or early morning) while the Milky Way is low enough in the sky. My favourite months to shoot the Milky Way are May/June (for a rising Milky Way image) and September/October (for setting Milky Way). That's because the hours are more sociable for shooting during these months!
In the second half of the Milky Way season, it becomes easier to shoot a Milky Way panorama as well once the angle is low enough. The technical aspects of shooting a multi-row panorama are not covered in this post, but you can see what it is possible.
Shooting at night is hard - you have to find a way to let enough light in so you can 'see' your image but you have to remember it is VERY DARK! You need to make the exposure triangle work for you but the limiting factor is your shutter speed as you can't shoot TOO long or your stars will start to trail due to the Earth's rotation.
There is no one size fits all when it comes to the right settings, it's specific to YOUR camera and lens combo. I recommend using the PhotoPills Spot Stars Function to put in your camera, lens and desired aperture info to give you the correct shutter speed.
For my Sony a7R V with my 24mm at f1.8, the PhotoPills information tells me i can shoot for 7 seconds, I usually find there is a bit of leeway on this number, for the most part I'll shoot at 6-8 seconds.
This will be different for your camera and lens, for example with f2.8 lenses you might find you can shoot up to 15 or 20 seconds.
If you are shooting at a widest aperture of f/2.8 or f/4, I recommend that you stay with this. But if you have a prime lens with a very wide angle like f/1.4 you may find you can shoot at f/1.8 which is what I tend to do.
If you are shooting in a very dark sky location, you may need to shoot at ISO 6400 or ISO 10,000 to make the camera sensor sensitive enough to collect the light required. The downside of shooting at a very high ISO is that you will then get a 'noisy' or grainy image, unfortunately it's the tradeoff that has to be made. Noise is also more apparent with larger full-frame and high MP sensors.
If you are shooting in a location where there is ambient light (like at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tekapo) you may be able to shoot at a much lower ISO (here at ISO 2500).
Once you feel confident in capturing single Milky Way images, you can move onto more advanced techniques.
This might mean taking multiple shots and stacking these in software like Starry Landscape Stacker or Sequator to reduce the high ISO noise. You can also take a separate foreground image at a much lower ISO to further improve the noise in the final result and blend these together in Photoshop.
It's REALLY important to practice and perfect your basic settings before you start attempting more complicated techniques - I didn't start doing this until I'd been shooting the Milky Way for about 4 years.
While white balance can be changed in post production, I far prefer shooting with a more neutral looking night sky, so I will normally select a Kelvin White Balance of 4,200 to begin and then adjust depending on the colours I see when I'm out in the field.
The white balance of the sky can vary significantly from location to location and night to night with various airglow tones changing the inherent colour of the sky, sometimes it looks far more pinky/purple and other times more blue/green. I usually try to keep my white balance in my RAW images somewhere between 3,600 and 4,200.
To create a great Milky Way shot you still need to include a good foreground composition, whether that is a mountain range, lake reflections, a jetty, rock formations, a building, or a beach etc.
It is equally imporant to get an interesting composition as it is to have the entire Milky Way in the frame. I also enjoy shooting the tail end of the Milky Way with interesting compositions in a more south facing direction.
It's always a buzz to see shooting stars on screen - the two nights I spent in Mount Cook National Park were just amazing for shooting stars - I was capturing one in almost every shot and saw at least a couple with my own eyes streaking across the sky. But you can be lucky any time of year - the shot on the right was taken in late November after the Milky Way has set for the year but the Magellanic cloud were still visible - you can see two shooting stars in this shot!
It's easy to mistake shooting stars for satellites and you'll generally see the most satellites early on in the evening and they'll be visible in more than one subsequent shot whereas a shooting star will only appear once.
At certain times of the year you can also see several of the planets lined up in the night sky. I was lucky enough to see Saturn, Jupiter AND Mars all in the sky on this evening - it was a real treat. The image on the left is earlier in the evening but by 10pm three plants were visible - Jupiter top left, Saturn in the middle and Mars bottom right.
.jpeg)
Don't be put off by a few clouds - obviously you can't capture the Milky Way through thick cloud but you'll be surprised just how cool your shots can look with some scattered cloud and the Milky Way peeking through.
Sometimes you'll be in the mood for capturing stars and it'll be a full moon or near to it. Don't despair, there are still some really cool night shots to be had under a moonlit sky like this shots below taken at Lake Matheson in the early morning with the light of the moon lighting up the mountains before dawn.
There's nothing quite like seeing a shot of the Milky Way come alive in your viewfinder to give you a real buzz and to make you eager for more! I'll never forget the first time I captured the Milky Way at Lake Tarawera 8 years ago, and though I knew very little about what I was doing I still came away with shots I thought were great at the time. It's all about learning and enjoying the process of getting more skilful with your shots.
If you feel like you have mastered the basics and you are ready to take your astrophotography to the next level, it's time to think about learning the more advanced techniques of stacking (or using a tracker) and shooting a separate foreground exposure, not to mention learning how to shoot a multi-row panorama and star trails.
Sign up to my newsletter to get all the good stuff!
