Long exposure photography of the sky. How to photograph stars and meteors

In modern Russian-language magazines and books on photography you can find thousands of articles about landscape, portrait, animalistic, reportage, genre and other types of photography.

It seems like everything has already been written. It's hard to even think of what could be added to all this. But if we take a closer look, we will see that all these countless volumes of advice and instructions mostly relate to shooting only during the daytime and, in rare cases, in the evening.

Almost not a word is said about night photography, but the dark time of the day takes up at least a third of the entire length of the day. Some may argue that at night nothing is visible, there is no light and the art of light painting loses its power and relevance.

With this article I will try to refute this stereotype and show that night photography can be no less interesting and productive than other genres of photography.

The first and main problem that a photographer faces when shooting at night is the insufficient amount of light. And if in painting the artist draws with paints, then in photography the basis for everything is light.

And, unlike regular photography, at night the photographer has to collect light bit by bit, cherishing every photon as if it were a treasure. There is something mysterious, even mystical in some way, in all of this.

It is important that in such conditions you very quickly learn to appreciate and feel light, after which working in daylight no longer seems so difficult and at times not even so interesting and exciting.

Choosing photographic equipment

Before moving directly to questions related to photography, let's decide what equipment we should take with us on a night photo hunt.

Camera

Since at night you have to work almost at the limit of the capabilities of modern digital cameras, it is advisable to use the most modern technology, which will allow you to obtain photographs of the highest possible quality.

When choosing a camera, you should give preference to full-format top models from leading manufacturers of the photo market (Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Nikon D3x/s, Nikon D700, etc.), which provide a relatively low-noise picture at high sensitivity values ​​(ISO ) and/or long exposures (shutter speeds).

Of course, this doesn't mean that other cameras are unsuitable for night photography. Not at all. It’s just that more advanced and modern models provide more opportunities for flexible and high-quality shooting, and they are also well protected from a variety of adverse weather conditions that are often associated with night photography.

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Nikon D3x, Nikon D700

Lenses

All of the above about choosing a camera can also be applied to lenses. It is advisable to use top-end lens models that can provide maximum resolution at open apertures.

The faster the optics you choose, the easier it will be for the camera to focus and the easier it will be for you to compose the desired shot, since the brightness of the image you see in the viewfinder of your camera directly depends on the aperture of the lens used. But a fast lens is also not a panacea.

Many budget models with relatively fast lenses have a lot of blur at the edges of the frame. This is another reason why you should give preference to more expensive models that allow you to get a sharp picture even at almost fully open apertures.

In addition, it is important to note that most often and best scenes with a starry sky, circular star tracks and the Milky Way are obtained when using wide-angle lenses.

An excellent means of self-expression in astrophotography is also ultra-wide-angle optics with a field of view close to 180 degrees. These are the so-called fish-eye lenses, which in astronomy are usually called all-sky lenses (all-sky lenses).

With such a field of view, you can easily capture almost the entire starry sky in the frame. Just remember that such lenses have strong distortion (geometric distortion), so always keep an eye on the horizon line and vertical lines at the edges of the frame.

As for my personal experience, I extremely rarely use zoom lenses and lenses with a focal length of more than 50 mm, since with increasing focal length the density, and therefore the number visible stars decreases in the frame, and star trails with long exposures become increasingly closer to boring straight lines.

Specifically, for the Canon system I would recommend the following lens models: Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 L USM, Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM, Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 L, Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM. Although, you need to understand that you can use absolutely any optics. The main thing is to have good imagination, stubbornness and a true desire to achieve the expected result.

Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 L USM, Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM

Tripod

A tripod, it’s a tripod in Africa too, so there are no special requirements for it. It just needs to be stable and able to support the weight of your camera equipment.

It is highly recommended to use tripods made of composite materials, which, among other things, very well dampen vibrations that come from the ground and are relatively light in weight, which is very critical during long trips, especially in mountainous regions.

It would also be useful to have a hook on the central rod, on which you can hook up a photo backpack or some other load for greater stability of the tripod.

Remember that vibrations that can ruin your shot can be caused by passing cars, people walking, or wind. Therefore, try to choose a location for shooting in a quiet, windless place, away from roads and trails. Well, if you want to warm up or jump/squat to warm up, it’s better to move to the side, away from the tripod.

It’s good if there is a level on your tripod head with which you can level your camera horizontally, since at night it is often not possible to determine the position of the horizon “by eye” the first time. If your tripod head does not have a level, then you can buy a level that is placed in the flash shoe. You will need such a device in the future, especially when shooting panoramas 😉

PHOTO TRAVEL team after night shooting (Nepal, Himalayas, Everest region)

Flash

Some photographers use off-camera flash/flash units to highlight the foreground. Sometimes this gives very interesting results. So you can experiment if you wish.

I don’t practice this, because I really appreciate natural night lighting, which seems to me more alive, plastic and somewhat mystical.

Power supply elements

Photographing night scenes always involves long exposures, multiple takes, and an insane number of shots when shooting in time lapse mode.

Often one night photo session, smoothly turning into dawn photography, can reach 7-9 hours. Moreover, in the vast majority of cases, in conditions that are not at all favorable for the camera (cold, snow, wind, etc.).

Therefore, I strongly advise you to stock up on a fair amount of fully charged batteries before going out on a night photo hunt. Sometimes it happens that during an extremely long exposure or time lapse shooting, at the most inopportune moment, the battery is discharged, and even an ultra-quick replacement will not save your shot.

To avoid such cases, you can resort to using a battery grip, which will at least double the operating time of your camera on one set of batteries.

Spare batteries should always be kept in a warm, dry place, somewhere in the bosom, closer to the body. For example, on mountain treks I always sleep in a sleeping bag along with all the batteries from 2 cameras, not to mention the fact that I always carry them in the breast pocket of my down vest. As they say, I keep everything that is most precious to my heart.

Self-portrait against the backdrop of Machapuchre (6997 m), full moon (Nepal, Himalayas, Annapurna Base Camp)

Programmable cable release (PST)

If not mandatory, then highly recommended when shooting at night is the presence of such a specific photographic accessory as a programmable cable release. It is very difficult to overestimate its importance in this genre of photography. So, let's figure out how it can be useful to us...

• Allows you to take photographs without direct contact with the camera, which reduces the likelihood of movement in the frame (but this can also be avoided by using an in-camera function of the camera such as a shutter timer or a simple cable/remote control);
• Allows you to shoot in bulb mode. You simply hold down the button on the cable at the beginning of the exposure and release it when you want to finish exposing the frame. This way you can set an almost infinite shutter speed, which is limited only by the charge of your battery. Minus this method The only thing is that you will have to constantly monitor the exposure time so as not to miss the moment when you need to close the shutter curtain. Of course, you can simply press the shutter button of your camera with your finger, but then you will probably be guaranteed to move in the frame;
• Allows you to set a programmable shutter speed, in which you set the desired exposure period of the frame in advance (up to 100 hours in 1 second increments);
• Allows you to take time-lapse photography with a specified number of pictures in a series, at any interval from 1 sec and with any exposure pair you have programmed (both in fully manual and semi-automatic mode). This is probably the most important function of this device, which allows you to take pictures of starry stars tracks with absolutely any exposure duration, without losing anything in quality. In addition, using this PST function, you will be able to shoot a series of time lapse images, from which you can then edit a video with the rapid movement of the starry sky, the Milky Way, the blooming of flowers, the growth of mushrooms, the movement of clouds, people, the construction of some objects, or anything at all;

• Allows you to set the shutter timer from 1 sec to 100 hours (in-camera capabilities are limited to 10-12 sec). How it can be useful and how it can be used this function when shooting at night? It's very simple. For example, you want to take a photo of the milky way over the surrounding landscape, but you are very tired and do not want to get up in the middle of the night to shoot this scene.

  Then you put the camera on a tripod, adjust to the landscape you want, focus, set the necessary parameters for the exposure pair (again in manual or semi-automatic mode) and set the timer for the time at which, according to your preliminary calculations, the Milky Way will pass in the place you want , start the timer and go to bed. And in the morning you wake up, voila, and discover that the camera has already left a trace of a beautiful night shot on your card.

You cannot replace the last 3 functions of the PST with anything, except perhaps a hired slave who will sit all night long with a stopwatch in his hands and work out hundreds of exposures with an interval of 1 second)) and will get up at midnight to take the picture you have in mind :)

Programmable cable releases Canon TC-80N3 and Nikon MC-36

Useful little things

• Flashlight— helps to get to the intended shooting location in the dark; sometimes they can be used to highlight a close-up object to help the camera focus on it;
• Compass- helps literally in a matter of seconds determine the cardinal directions, find the poles of the world and, coming out of this, even before dark, plan the future composition of the frame;
• Mobile phone/PDA/iPad/laptop- useful as an entertainment device that will help while away long nights with a camera programmed to shoot for many hours (player, all kinds of games, e-books, films, etc.). In addition, you may need a calculator function to calculate the duration of exposures, number of frames, etc.;
• Backlit clock— help not to get lost in time and calculate the shooting period;
• Food- be sure to bring some food with you, some nuts, dried fruits, seeds, perhaps chocolate bars, cookies. This will at least slightly diversify your nights, help keep your body in an active state of wakefulness and keep you warm on cold nights, otherwise without food it becomes somehow even colder;
• Drinks- Bring water/juice with you. It would also be a good idea to take a thermos with hot tea/coffee. Hot drinks are especially helpful when shooting in winter and in the mountains, where it’s simply unthinkable to sit up all night without them;
• Warm clothes- even in the lower reaches, in the warm season the nights are always cooler than the day, so take some spare jacket or windbreaker with you. If you are going to shoot in the high mountains and/or in the cold season, then you need to take your choice of clothing more seriously. In such cases, you don’t need to take it off, but put it on! More warm clothes. Don't forget about warm woolen socks and two pairs of gloves - one thin, in which you can work with the camera, others thick, worn over thin ones. Fingers freeze instantly;

Me with Slava Dusaleev the morning after a night shoot.

• Optical cleaning kit. It is clear that before shooting, all optics must be thoroughly cleaned and “rubbed” to a crystal shine. But in addition, at night, abundant moisture (condensation, dew) may settle on the camera due to temperature changes. In this case, the front lens of the lens first becomes covered with barely noticeable droplets, and then completely loses its transparency. It is good, if you manage to notice this phenomenon in time, to wipe the camera and lens. As a rule, shutter speeds are so long that you cannot be sure that there will be no condensation on the front lens until the end of the exposure, when it becomes possible to examine it in the light of a flashlight. In this case, you can regularly check for moisture on the camera and, if necessary, carefully wipe the surface of the lens (or filter);
• Protective (insulated) all-weather camera case— used to protect the camera from all sorts of vagaries of nature, such as rain, snow, frost, condensation;
• Gradient filters- sometimes (especially on moonless nights) they help to even out the difference in brightness between the bright starry sky and the dark surrounding landscape;
• Atlas of the starry sky- a wonderful companion and guide in our visible Universe. With his help, I discovered a new incredibly interesting and fascinating world of astronomy;
• Schedule times and places of moon and sun rises/sets for the entire period of your trip

Shooting conditions

When shooting stars the most important criterion is the transparency of the sky, which depends on several factors:

• Altitude- the higher you climb into the mountains, the thinner and more transparent the layer of atmosphere above you will be and the clearer the starry sky will be;
• Filming location relative to the earth's equator - the closer to the equator, the more transparent the sky;
• Presence of haze in the air— it is best to shoot immediately after heavy rainfall, when all the dust and haze that was previously in the air settles for a while;
• Presence of air pollution sources- choose places away from populated areas, roads and any other places where light sources may appear. Otherwise, instead of the stars, you will photograph the air illuminated by the city. Moreover, you should not assume that if there are no light sources in the frame, then you are saved. The air pollution from the same city is visible tens of kilometers away, from places where, it would seem, there is no longer any hint of cars or street lights;
• Presence of clouds- even thin clouds, barely visible to the eye, in the picture turn into large opaque monsters, covering the stars. Therefore, try to choose clear nights for filming;
• Another factor The presence/absence and intensity of the light of the Moon, depending on its position in the 29.5 day cycle of waxing and waning, greatly influences the visibility of stars. The Moon is a powerful source of light that illuminates the air (even when it is not in the frame!). Therefore, if you want to capture all the beauty of the starry sky, it is advisable to shoot on a new moon or when the Moon is not in the sky at all. But don’t be afraid and avoid the Moon; it itself is also a very picturesque subject for photography, but this will be written about a little later.

Focusing

In order to “win” more light when shooting at night, relatively open apertures are most often used, at which the depth of field (depth of field) decreases significantly.

Therefore, it is best to choose scenes in which all plans are at a sufficiently distant distance from the camera and correspond to infinity on the focus scale of your lens.

Nepal, Annapurna National Park, view of the Kali Gandaki river valley with the South Nilgiri (6839 m) in the background, 2011 | 20 sec, f/1.6, ISO 2000, AF 50 mm, rising moon (Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM)

A bright object that can be seen in the distance can help you autofocus “on the stars.”

It could be the Moon, the light in the window of some distant house, a bright star, illuminated snowy peaks moonlight, street lamp, etc.. As a last resort, you can ask a friend to run a few tens of meters with the phone turned on and focus on it.

If you need to focus on the close-up, then a flash or flashlight can help you out. But, unfortunately, not all lenses are perfectly adjusted and can produce a perfectly sharp image at open apertures in atom focus mode. Therefore, I strongly advise you to immediately get used to manual focusing.

It is advisable to have a focus scale on the lens and focus on it manually. But since at night it is very difficult to hit the target “by eye”, it is better to take several test shots until you achieve the ideal result. Also, manual focusing on the screen in LiveView mode turned out to be very effective and accurate, where the desired area of ​​the image can be magnified 10 times! So I recommend it 😉

Composition

It’s worth getting into the habit of finding suitable subjects and shooting points for night photography in advance, during the day. This will be much more difficult to do at night. Next, you wait for a night with a clear moonless sky, and go to the previously found place.

The stars should not be the main subject, they should just harmoniously complement the composition.

To make the photo less abstract in nature, you can include some easily recognizable silhouette- a single tree, building, nearby mountain peaks, etc.

India, Goa | 30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640, FR 15 mm (Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye)

The Milky Way is the largest and most colorful object in the night sky.

It perfectly conveys all the Greatness and Infinity of our Universe. In order to further emphasize this, you can, for comparison, include in the composition a person or something related to him and his activities (a house, a tent, a fire with people sitting around, etc. Show all your imagination here). Dark, moonless nights are best for photographing the Milky Way.

"One fifth of humanity no longer sees the Milky Way" — phrase from National Geographic

Nepal, Annapurna National Park, Mardi River Gorge, 2011 | 30 sec, f/1.6, ISO 2500, FR 24 mm, moonless night (Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 II L USM)

At night there is also its own “Sun” - this is the Moon. It may sound strange, but lunar sunrises and sunsets can be no less spectacular and colorful than those of its daytime counterpart.

Nepal, Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, sunrise full moon over the Himalayas | 30 sec, f/4, ISO 400, FR 24 mm, full moon (Canon EOS 5D + Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM)

If we talk about moonlight, then all the same laws and rules apply here as during daylight hours.

Post-sunrise and pre-sunset moonlight are ideal for photography. The light at this time is very soft, voluminous, and colors the surrounding landscapes in warm (sometimes even reddish) tones.

Nepal, Annapurna National Park, Dhaulagiri (8167 m) in the golden light of the rising full moon, 2010 | 30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, FR 145 mm, full moon (Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM)

The time when the Moon (especially the full one) is high above the horizon at its so-called zenith is of little use for photography, since the light under such conditions is very hard, flat, without color (like from fluorescent lamps, brr) + flare The air at this time is at its maximum due to which the stars are practically invisible.

It is also worth noting that scenes with the reflection of the starry sky (star tracks) on the surface of some body of water turn out to be very interesting. In such cases, it is often better to choose a very low shooting point and photograph almost from water level. Thus, even a small puddle or a small pond can be “transformed” into a boundless ocean.

Nepal, Annapurna Base Camp (4150 m) and Machapuchre (6997 m), 2011 | 44 min (86 frames x 30 sec), f/4, ISO 1250, AF 15 mm, full moon (Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye)

Also very interesting are night shots with raging rivers/waterfalls, which, with a long shutter speed, turn into milky streams and in this form go very well with the starry sky.

Nepal, Langtang National Park, Gosaikunda Lake (4380 m), 2011 | 27 min (32 frames x 30 sec), f/2.8, ISO 2000, FR 15 mm, moonless night (Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye)

In some cases, the images reveal strange traces and stripes, the trajectory of which differs from the trajectory of the stars. Some photographers tend to give such phenomena a mystical character. However, such phenomena are explained by aircraft, satellites and/or bright meteors entering the frame, which burn up in the earth's atmosphere. Meteor trails like these can beautifully decorate your shot.

If you want to capture such a phenomenon, then first of all find out when meteor showers occur. Having determined the maximum period, choose a place where there is no illumination from street lamps, windows and other light sources (preferably away from populated areas).

The Perseids shower, which peaks on August 11-12, is an ideal place to start. Firstly, it is rich in bright meteors - fireballs, and secondly, in August there are dark and warm nights that are convenient for work. Pay attention to what phase and where the Moon is located. It is important that its light does not interfere with photography.

In addition to all of the above, you can build your photo based on the constellations as the center of your composition. A star atlas will help you find and identify constellations 😉

Nepal, Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park, Orion constellation above Namche Bazaar (3500 m) | 30 sec, f/4, ISO 400, FR 24 mm, full moon (Canon EOS 5D + Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM

Before you start composing your shot through your camera's viewfinder, give your eyes a few minutes of rest in complete darkness to allow them to adjust to the ambient light.

If even after such a “ritual” you cannot see anything in the viewfinder, then try pointing the camera “by eye”. Then take a test shot at extreme settings (aperture open, ISO at maximum) and based on it, adjust the camera position. Repeat the last step until you achieve what you think is the ideal composition.

That's it, now you are ready to start shooting the stars! 😉

In this lesson I will talk about how I photograph the starry sky myself and give you some important, in my opinion, tips. We are all fascinated by the beauty of the night sky, especially when the Milky Way is clearly visible, and we all want to capture this beauty in a photo. How to do this?

You can easily master the technique I use when photographing the starry sky. If you are interested in the post-processing process, I advise you to familiarize yourself with the lessons of Michael Shainbloom and.

Photographing the Milky Way

I'll start the lesson by answering the most frequently asked question: How did you find the Milky Way in the sky? The answer will probably disappoint many, but if at night you cannot see the Milky Way above your head with the naked eye, then taking photographs is almost pointless.

What you will need:

• A very dark night. I always check the moon phase before scheduling a shoot. If the light from the Moon is too bright, then you will not be able to capture the Milky Way in all its glory.
• Dark place for shooting. To find such a place, I use a special light pollution map from Google and NASA Blue Marble Navigator's Dark Skies Map.
• Tall and stable tripod. I use a 72” tripod from Really Right Stuff, which is perfect for our task.

Things that will certainly improve the quality of your starry sky photos:

• A very fast, in other words fast, wide-angle lens (allows you to set a small f value). This lens allows you to absorb as much light as possible in a minimum period of time.
• I shoot with Nikkor14-24mm f/2.8G or Nikkor 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye. At f/2.8 both of these lenses are very fast. Other lenses may also work fine.

Now I will list a few programs and phone applications that I find very useful and that I often use when planning to photograph the stars.

1. PhotoPills (only supported on iPhone). I have been using this application for about two months, it has become indispensable for me. The application has many functions, which you can familiarize yourself with by following the link.
2. Star Walk Astronomy Guide (for Android and iPhone) is a real guide to the starry sky, this application has no equal. Just raise your phone to the sky, and the screen will display the planets, constellations and other space objects that are currently above your head. With its help, you can also find the best place to observe the Milky Way.
3. The Photographers Ephemeris (for Android and Iphone). I use this app almost every time I want to shoot during sunset or sunrise. To photograph the night sky, it is useful to have information about the phase of the moon, the time of its rise and set and brightness; this application will provide you with this information.
4. Stellarium- great program, thanks to which you can learn a lot of new things about space, stars, planets. You can download it to your computer or install the application on Android.
5. Google Sky Map - A free application developed by Google in which you will find the location of all space objects.

Rule 500 for shooting starry skies

What shutter speed should I set for photographing the night sky?

Some people use the 600 rule, but in my opinion, the 500 rule results in sharper images and is a starting point for taking quality photographs of stars. To find the maximum shutter speed at which the stars will remain sharp and not create tail blur, divide 500 by the focal length of the lens you plan to shoot with.

If you set the shutter speed longer than the maximum, you will likely experience unwanted blur. Don't forget that the value you get after calculating is just a starting point, don't be afraid to experiment.

If the stars in the photo leave a blurry trail behind them, then reduce the exposure time by a few seconds. If the stars seem not bright enough, on the contrary, increase them.

It's all about practice and understanding how your camera works within this rule.

Below I have presented a table with already calculated excerpts, which will make the preparation process a little easier for you.

Those who shoot with full-frame cameras, take note. In this table I have included the most common die sizes and the maximum exposure times for them.

Focal Length- Focal length; Sensor Size, Full Frame(35 mm) - Matrix size, Full frame (35 mm); Crop Sensor 11.5X, 1.6X(mm) - Crop matrix 11.5X, 1.6X (mm); Max Exp. Length(seconds) - Maximum shutter speed (seconds)

I will list the techniques and settings that I use myself. But this does not mean that if you shoot with another camera or another lens, you will get a worse image.

• Camera model:
  Nikon D800
• Lenses:
  Nikkor14-24mm f/2.8G
  Nikkor 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye
• Tripods:
  BH-55 LR Ballhead
  TVC-34L Versa Series 3 Tripod
  BD800-L: L-Plate for Nikon D800/800E

1. If, after taking a test shot, you find that the stars are not bright enough, then, using the 500 rule described above, set the maximum shutter speed. If, after increasing the shutter speed to maximum, the stars are still not bright enough, raise the ISO. But you shouldn’t spoil the image quality and resort to ISO if the situation can still be corrected by increasing the shutter speed. You can also try using Rule 500, Rule 600 instead of what I described.
2. If your camera has a built-in level, turn it on and use it.
3. When photographing, remember to put your camera away from time to time and look for something truly impressive outside of the viewfinder.
4. Remember the Golden Ratio and use it when composing your shot.

Camera settings

Mode: Manual

Format: RAW

Metering mode: I personally use Matrix Metering on my 800. The brand's cameras also have this mode, but it's called Evaluative Metering. As an experiment, I tried all exposure metering modes while shooting the starry sky, and Matrix turned out to be unrivaled.

White balance: I set the white balance manually to get the most natural look of the sky. Good results, of course, are achieved by trial and error.

Focal length: From 14-31mm, I like to shoot at 14mm or with a fisheye lens that has a focal length of 16mm.

Focusing: Typically, I focus on infinity. To begin, take a few test shots and, based on what you get, adjust the focus. If you need to capture an object in the foreground, then I advise you to take two pictures: one with this object in focus, and the second to capture the stars separately. Then these photos can be combined and get a sharp photo.

Diaphragm: f/2.8 or whatever the smallest aperture available on your camera. I prefer to shoot in the f/2.8 - f/4 range.

Excerpt:

ISO: I get good results at ISO 2000-5000. Depending on your camera, increasing the ISO can affect the quality of the photo (the appearance of noise). Experiment, using ISO1000 as a starting point. But remember that you should resort to adjusting ISO only after setting the shutter speed, according to the 500 rule.

Experiment with the big three: aperture, shutter speed, until you get the result you want. The smallest change in each of the components significantly affects the result.

Lesson on shooting star tracks

When taking photographs of star tracks, you don't have to focus on the accuracy of the calculations, which is necessary for photographing the Milky Way. But, nevertheless, a few useful tips and understanding the Rule of 500, which we mentioned above.

Please note that some of the tips I'll cover below have already been covered in the previous tutorial, as they apply to both types of photography.

What you will need:

• You can take pictures at any night, as long as the sky is clear. I like shooting star tracks better when the Moon illuminates the sky well, in which case I don’t have to raise the ISO above 1000, and accordingly, I avoid the appearance of noise in the photographs.
• Stable and tall tripod. I shoot with a 72” Really Right Stuff tripod, it works great as it is tall enough to allow me to look at the camera screen while shooting.
• Camera with the ability to work in manual mode.
• Timer/intervalometer. A key factor for shooting at shutter speeds longer than 30 seconds.
• PhotoPills is not a downloadable app, but it can help you calculate the exposure time needed to capture star trails. Also in this application you can find information about the phases of the moon.
• Photos of star tracks are also, naturally, better taken with fast lenses. For this type of night photography, I recommend setting your aperture to around f/4, although I typically shoot between f/1.4 and f/2.8.
• Fully charged battery. You'll be shooting continuously for several hours, so make sure the battery is fully charged. I take a couple of spare batteries with me just in case.

Rule 500 for shooting star tracks

Be sure to familiarize yourself with Rule 500, which I described above, without understanding and mastering this simple rule, it will be much more difficult for you to do good photo star tracks.

Equipment: What I use

I won't describe all the equipment I use, as I did part of that in the previous lesson, you can come back to it and look again.

I would like to note that it is not at all necessary to take photographs with a wide-angle lens. I shot the tracks using all the lenses I had and I must say that all these photos looked great, although they differed due to the crop factor.

Camera settings

When it comes to shooting star trails, I prefer multiple exposures to all other methods. During each exposure, a small fragment of the tail following the star is captured. The camera settings remain unchanged, and the only thing that changes is the position of the stars in the sky. Next, I combine all the photos I took in Photoshop to create one long trail behind each of the stars. I like this method because it keeps the ISO and exposure time (about 15-45 seconds) low.

Note: You can easily shoot star tracks using a single slow shutter speed. But, in my opinion, this method seriously degrades the quality of the photograph, although good conditions quite acceptable results are obtained. After learning the technique described below, you will be able to calculate your exposure time yourself.

Focal length: Any focal length is suitable for photographing star tracks. But keep in mind that the higher the zoom, the longer the tails following the stars will be in a shorter period of time. If you don't want to spend half the night shooting, then zoom lenses are what you need. If you want to capture the entire trajectory of a star in wide-angle format, the process will take several hours. To see for yourself, for the sake of experiment, try taking several test shots with different lenses or different focal lengths over a given period of time and look at the length of the tracks.

Focusing: Typically, I focus on infinity. If you need to capture an object in the foreground, then I advise you to take two pictures: one with this object in focus, and the second to capture the stars separately. These photos can then be combined in Photoshop to create a sharp photo.

Diaphragm: For star trail photography, I usually set my aperture to f/2.8 (or in the f/2.8 - f/4 range).

Excerpt: My standard is 30 seconds. Sometimes I take photographs at 50 seconds in order to capture more distant and therefore less bright stars. The longer the shutter speed, the more light the camera absorbs, the better we can see objects located far from our planet.

Advice: I usually add a few seconds to the shutter speed calculated according to the Rule of 500.

ISO: Since I shoot mainly in conditions moonlight, then I don’t have to set high ISO values. Start shooting at ISO 300, increasing the value if necessary. Don't forget that you don't need long tracks, since the photos will still be combined later, as we said earlier, in Photoshop.

Advice: Increase your ISO as a last resort; you can always increase the shutter time if your photos aren't bright enough.

Shooting time/Number of exposures

The PhotoPills app helps you calculate how much time you need to shoot star trails of different lengths. Remember that the more space the sky takes up in the overall composition of the photo, the more time will be spent on the process of creating the photo. But if you have a couple of hours of time, then take coffee with you, something to snack on and set out with peace of mind required quantity frames, delay and wait.

Setting the timer

Once you know how long it will take you to capture star tracks of the desired length, you will need to set a timer. I recommend shooting at 1 second intervals or less if possible on your camera. This frequency is necessary to avoid empty areas between star tracks during processing in Photoshop.

Post-processing

Now I will briefly outline the post-processing process in Photoshop.

1. Upload all your captured photos to a RAW converter such as Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW.
2. From the entire series, edit one photo at your own discretion, using the White Balance, Light, Shadow, etc. settings. Make the picture the way you would like it to look at the end of processing. Next, synchronize the processing of this photo with all the captured ones. This is easy to do by using the Sync option in Lightroom.
3. Export all photos in the format you need. I recommend the JPEG format, since there will be about 100 images, and to work, for example, with the TIFF format, you need a very fast computer with huge RAM.
4. Open all the images in Photoshop in one file as layers. I do this through Adobe Bridge using the "Load Files into Photoshop as Layers" function.
5. Select all layers except the bottom one and change the blending mode to Lighten.
6. Ready. A photograph should appear in front of you with connected star tracks, forming beautiful traces of the trajectory of the stars.

A few final words

Perhaps the most difficult thing in creating a photograph of star tracks is to correctly determine the length of the shooting. If you don't take enough photos, the star tails may not be long enough in the final photo. Therefore, it is better to take more pictures and not worry about anything. It is also equally important to find a balance between and exposure time.

Translation: Anastasia Rodriguez

Over the past year, periodically you could see photographs of stars in my articles. Some asked me questions, like what aperture, what shutter speed, etc. Therefore, I have already published the photos themselves in a separate post with their parameters, but I want to post them here detailed description how to photograph the starry sky. I have long wanted to write an article like this, but I had very little experience. After reading this manual, you will at least be able to take the same photos as mine.

I warn you right away that I am not a pro in this matter, and you will not discover anything radically new for yourself, especially if you yourself are engaged in similar filming. Nevertheless, it will be useful for beginners to know some nuances that I did not know at the time.

I have written a number of articles related to photography and aimed at amateurs like me. Here is a list of them, you can take a look.

What you need to photograph the starry sky

• First of all, a tripod. Shutter speeds are long and you can’t get anywhere without a tripod. It is important that it supports the weight of the camera along with the lens and does not wobble, but at the same time it is not too heavy, otherwise you will not want to take it on a trip, well, unless you are driving a car, of course.
• A camera with manual settings and preferably shooting in Raw, because this format provides great opportunities for photo processing. It would also be nice if the ISO could be set to 800-1600 without much damage to the picture.
• Wide-angle lens for shooting static stars and large coverage of the starry sky.
• A remote control for setting long exposures, or in common parlance a cable.
• Spare battery, as it runs out quite quickly.

My starry sky photography kit

In general, I already wrote about my wife and I’s set of photographic equipment in an article. But there was the whole list, namely the pictures of the night sky that I am currently taking:

• Canon 7d camera
• Wide-angle and fast lens Tokina 11-16 F2.8
• Programmable remote control
• Tripod Slik Sprint Pro II 3W CG

I think you can photograph the starry sky with a point-and-shoot camera, if it allows you to do certain things, such as: set the shutter speed to 30 seconds or connect a remote control to it, screw on a tripod, set the ISO higher without making brutal noise, open the aperture wider. Otherwise, your options will be severely limited, and it’s unlikely that anything will work out.

My typical mistakes

I recently started trying to photograph the starry sky. But my first photographs did not turn out well at all, since I was sure that just a long exposure of 30 seconds would be enough. As a rule, all DSLRs allow you to shoot with a shutter speed of 30 seconds without a remote control.

So, for such shutter speeds you cannot clamp the aperture, although you want to make everything sharp. In this case, there is not enough light from the stars for them to appear normally in the sky. On the contrary, you need to open it to the maximum! In my lens it is F2.8, some people buy even faster lenses. But not only the aperture needs to be opened, it is also advisable to set the ISO to at least 800-1600.

Options for shooting the starry sky

1. Shooting static stars. Exposure 10-40 sec. They look like dots, that is, the way we see them with the ordinary eye.

2. Filming the rotation of the starry sky (stars in the form of stripes) or otherwise, tracks. Exposure length ranges from several minutes to several hours. Completely unrealistic photos, but they look funny.

3. Shooting tracks, but in a different way. A large number of photographs are taken of the same area of ​​the sky using the technology of shooting static stars with an interval of 1 second, and then glued together in a special program into one photograph. Visually it is similar to option 2, but more colorful and with less noise. When shooting tracks using option 3, we get both a stitched final photo and the ability to stitch together a timelapse video.

4. Timelapse. More photographs of static stars are taken and then compiled into a video. The results are very beautiful videos of how the stars move across the sky.

How to photograph the starry sky - static stars

Static stars. ISO1600, 11mm, f2.8, 30sec

Excerpt

Well, let's move on to photographs and actual shooting. As you already understood, due to the fact that stars move, they remain in the form of fixed points only up to a certain shutter speed. And if it has a greater meaning, then they turn into stripes. And in order to calculate that very critical shutter speed value, there is the “600” rule.

We need to divide 600 by the focal length of your lens and we will get the maximum shutter speed at which the stars will still be points. This formula is valid for full-frame cameras, crop factor 1:

15 mm - 40 sec
24 mm - 25 sec
35 mm - 17 sec
50 mm - 12 sec
85 mm - 7 sec
135 mm - 4 sec
200 mm - 3 sec
300 mm - 2 sec
600 mm - 1 sec

Most often, everyone, including me, uses non-full-frame cameras. This means that an amendment is needed - we also divide 600 by your crop factor. For Canon cameras this is 1.6:

10 mm - 38 sec
11 mm - 34 sec
12 mm - 32 sec
15 mm - 25 sec
16 mm - 24 sec
17 mm -22 sec
24 mm - 15 sec
35 mm - 10 sec
50 mm - 8 sec

Obviously, a full-frame sensor and wide-angle lenses have a larger shutter speed margin. That is, when shooting with a 50 mm lens on a cropped matrix, you only have 8 seconds, and this is very, very little, the stars will not be visible. In addition, such a lens may not have enough viewing angle.

According to my observations, the shutter speed can still be increased by one and a half times. Yes, when zooming on a computer, the stars will already be dashes, but in small photographs (for a blog, for 10x15 prints) this may not be particularly visible.

Diaphragm

It is best to open the aperture as wide as possible. If the lens allows you to open it to 1.6-1.8, then it will be possible not to increase the shutter speed above critical and not to set the ISO above 800. Sharpness drops, but what can you do?

Manual focus

At night, you can forget about automatic focusing, so you will have to use only manual focus. Usually it is advised to put it in the extreme position at infinity, because we are shooting stars. But I was faced with the fact that my lenses almost never adjust the focus to infinity in auto mode. I checked it by focusing on the moon and distant lights (these, by the way, are options for autofocusing at night). There was just a little bit left to the extreme position, which is what I used later.

Focal length

I repeat once again, the longer the focal length, the shorter the shutter speed should be, because the stars are getting closer, which means that in order to prevent tracks, you need to reduce the shooting time. In addition, you may not have enough viewing angle; you won’t just shoot one sky without anything. And the density of stars decreases as you approach.

How to photograph the starry sky - sky rotation, tracks

Rotation of the sky. ISO400, 11mm, f5, 1793sec

So far I have shot only a little bit of tracks and only using the second option (without using additional programs).

Excerpt

From 10 minutes to several hours. The longer it is, the longer the lines drawn by the stars. You need a remote control to set such values ​​and a good tripod so that it does not get blown around by the wind for such a long time. Just keep in mind that at such shutter speeds it is very difficult to calculate the correct exposure.

Diaphragm

It is difficult to write specific values, since I do not know how to calculate the exposure, most likely only by experience. And there is always a risk that after half an hour of waiting, you will get a blown-out shot. I set it by eye, for example, like this - 11 mm lens, shutter speed 30 minutes, aperture 7.1, ISO 400.

Focal length

IN in this case it can no longer be said that it is better when it is minimal, because precious seconds of exposure are no longer so important, there is enough light in any case, the count is not in seconds, but in tens of minutes. Therefore, if the composition of the frame works well with a regular rather than a wide-angle lens (the angle is enough), then this is even better, since you will have to wait much less for the frame to be captured. But you need to understand that the stars will be closer and their tracks will become less round. You are unlikely to need a lens larger than 50 mm.

Determining the center of rotation of stars

Since the stars in the sky rotate, their tracks are circles, which naturally have a center. And, if you build the composition of the frame in a certain way, then where this very center is, it will be useful to know. Therefore, in the northern hemisphere we point the lens at the North Star, and in the southern hemisphere at Sigma Octanta. Rotating, in half an hour the star forms an arc of 7.5 degrees, and this arc is longer, the further the star is from the North Star or from Sigma Octanta.

At the center of rotation is the North Star. ISO400, 11mm, f7.1, 1793sec

Now about how to look for the stars we need. The easiest way to find the North Star is through the Big Dipper. We find a constellation on the horizon, mentally connect the two stars of the bucket, forming one of its walls, located opposite the handle of the bucket, and we get a line. Mentally set aside 5 distances along this line from the bucket (from its top and beyond) and rest against the North Star.

It seems to me that Sigma Octanta is almost impossible to find in the southern hemisphere. It is easier to be guided by the Southern Cross constellation. We first find it in the sky, and then extend the long crossbar of the cross downwards by 4.5 times the distance of this same crossbar. Sigma Octanta will be around this location.

How to photograph the starry sky - tracks in the program

All settings are set exactly the same as in the first point when shooting static stars. I won't repeat it. But in fact, you can use longer shutter speeds when you can see a slight shift in the stars. All this will be glued together in the program anyway. But in this case, as individual photos they will not be very beautiful, and you won’t be able to make a timelapse later.

Software for gluing tracks

There are probably different programs, but I know only one - Startrails Version 1.1, it is very simple and not difficult to understand. We upload files and make tracks. If they turn out to be too long, then you can remove some of the photos from processing.

How to shoot timelapse

I did Timelapse with stars only once, as it was quite a long activity. And then, having taken 99 frames, I left the tent and realized that the sky was overcast, and there was nothing more shining for me, it was a shame. Up to this point I had only shot timelapse during the day, like the sun is setting or people are moving, and this was video filming on a point-and-shoot camera (it does this well for me), then sped up in Premier. And to photograph the sky you need a camera; a video camera at night will not be able to shoot with such a long shutter speed.

The video used 99 frames (ISO1600, 11mm, f2.8, 27 sec) with an interval of 1 second. The total shooting time is 46 minutes. This was enough for 4-7 seconds of video. If you do it slower, you will already notice how the image is interrupted.

Here is a small calculation of how many photos you will need to have for a 1-minute video with the rotation of the starry sky. The video contains 25 frames in 1 second, and if it is a minute, then it will already be 25*60=1500 frames. We take each photo, say, with a shutter speed of 30 seconds and an interval between frames of 1 second, which means to shoot 1500 frames we will have to spend 31 * 1500 = 46500 seconds, or 775 minutes, or ~ 13 hours.

Some nuances when shooting the starry sky

1. If the moon is shining brightly in the sky, the stars will be faded in the background blue sky. Therefore, you need to shoot before the moon rises, or at a time and place where the moon is not visible, as well as during the new moon. For example, in August in Crimea, during a 5-day hike, I never saw her once, and the sky was black and black. But in fact, lunar landscapes can be quite beautiful; the night star illuminates everything around very well.

2. Lights big city in the same way, they illuminate the sky well, but inside the city it is generally not realistic to photograph the starry sky; you need to move tens of kilometers away. And only if the city is visible somewhere in the distance, it can create an interesting backlight.

— It must be taken into account that at night there is a possibility of the front lens fogging up. Therefore, if it is humid, then ultra-long exposures and shooting tracks are not always possible.

3. With long exposures of ten minutes or more, the matrix heats up and terrible noise appears in the photo. I can’t say about all DSLRs, but in my Canon 7d it’s very noticeable - there are a lot of multi-colored dots in the photo. But the noise reduction function for long exposures saves the day; they are somehow subtracted from the image. There is only one moment: the noise reduction works as long as the shutter speed lasted, which means the duration of shooting one frame doubles, for example, instead of 30 minutes, it takes a whole hour. The option of shooting tracks by gluing together photographs in specialized software does not have this drawback; the matrix does not have time to heat up.

4. Just photographing the starry sky once is enough. Next, you will want to take more interesting photographs, and for them you need objects in the foreground. Therefore, the problem arises of choosing a place for shooting; an ordinary field or forest looks so-so, you need to experiment and use your imagination. Personally, I like the mountains most in this regard, but since I don’t go there often, I don’t have many shots of the starry sky.

The starry sky has always attracted people with its beauty and mystery. Imagine how fun it is to photograph it! What is needed for this? Camera with wide-angle lens, tripod and flashlight.

Clear and moonless nights are ideal for shooting stars. It’s better to get out into nature, moving away from the city, because within its boundaries the stars are almost invisible.

Since the stars move across the sky, over a very long distance they will blur and turn into arcs - “star tracks”. To make the tracks long and beautiful, you need to take a very long shutter speed (tens of minutes), for this you will need a special cable release.

Canon 5d mark 2, Canon EF 28 1.8 USM
20 sec, F2.0, ISO 2500, stitching three horizontal frames.

If you want to take pictures with a real, sharp starry sky, you will have to limit the shutter speed. To determine it, there is the “rule of 600”: dividing the number 600 by gives an indicator of the maximum permissible shutter speed.

For example, a lens has a focal length of 30 mm. Then 600/30=20 seconds. This means that at a shutter speed of 20 seconds at a focal length of 30mm, the stars will remain quite sharp. Shutter speeds are limited, and this is when there is insufficient light. In such conditions, it is necessary to use the highest aperture optics, shoot at the widest apertures and increase it to 1600-3200.

When shooting the starry sky, you must use it with full control over the process. The camera's automation and exposure meter will not work accurately; you should not rely on their data. Determine the correctness of the selected exposure experimentally - test shots.

Shoot in the format, it gives best quality images, which is especially important in the context of such difficult lighting conditions and shooting at high ISO values. Choosing this format will allow you to establish with maximum accuracy after shooting.

How to focus in a dark night? It won’t work in such darkness; you’ll have to switch to manual focusing. The sky and stars are infinitely far from us, so the focus is on “infinity.”

Wide-angle lenses allow you to get huge images even when open, and their “infinity” starts from a few meters. This allows you to sharpen not only the sky, but also the foreground, if it is included in the frame. In this case, it is necessary to compose the frames so that even the foreground is far enough away from us so that it remains sharp.

If there is a foreground in the photo, you can highlight it with a flashlight. Give free rein to your imagination, think about what kind of lighting, at what angle and what intensity is best for your plot. With a narrow beam of a flashlight, during the exposure time you can have time to “outline” and gradually illuminate everything that is needed. Imagine that your plot is a children's coloring book, which you color with a flashlight marker. If you light objects a little from the side, you can better show their volume. You should not use car headlights or other powerful light sources to illuminate the foreground - they will most likely just illuminate everything. You can also try using it to highlight the foreground, setting the pulse power to the minimum.

Photographing the night sky may seem like an impossible task and a real challenge for beginners, but I assure you that it is much easier than you might imagine. Modern camera settings feature incredible ISO speeds, allowing photographers to dramatically increase their sensors' sensitivity to light, and harness starlight like never before.

In that vein, I want to talk about the equipment you'll need; how to install the camera correctly; I’ll also talk a little about composition and light painting. If you're ready to level up your star shooting, let's get started!

What equipment will you need?

At the most basic level, all you will need is: a camera (DSLR, mirrorless, point-and-shoot) capable of taking photographs in manual mode, a wide-angle lens, and a tripod.

However, most amateur cameras are unable to shoot well at long shutter speeds and do not have good dynamic range. To get stunning photos of the Milky Way, try investing in the class of equipment described below:

Selecting a camera

The best cameras on the market for photographing the night sky are those with full-frame sensors. This is because they are able to work at high ISOs and at the same time obtain results that are acceptable in terms of noise, which is impossible to achieve when shooting with some primitive camera. The higher your ISO, the brighter the night sky will look, and you just want a camera that shoots cleanly, without any noise.

Good cameras would be:

Nikon: D810A, D750;

These recommendations are top brands and they are indeed not cheap, but they are not at all necessary to get great photos. For example, the photo below was taken with a Sony DSC-RX100, which can be purchased for less than $500. To choose a camera, you need to decide what budget you are targeting and go from there.

Lens selection

Just like in landscape photography, you'll want to have a wide-angle lens that can capture as much of the sky as possible. The faster the lens, that is, the smaller its f/ number (f/2.8 or smaller is great), the more light you can let in over a given period of time to get a good photo. Personally, I prefer the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 (for cameras with APS-C sensors); For its price, its sharpness satisfies me.

Selecting Camera Settings

You'll start to notice that your settings for long exposures at night tend to stay the same. This is because the first rule of photographing the night sky is to find a dark place that cancels out muddy colors and allows the camera to pull out maximum quantity light from the sky; to do this, our camera's specs are simply maximized to produce the best possible image. Rule #1: Shoot in manual mode!

Aperture selection

Becomes much less visible at night, and in order to take in as much light as possible, make sure your aperture is wide open.

Excerpt

This characteristic is very important because most lenses begin to notice star trails after an exposure of 25 seconds. I used to shoot with a shutter speed of 30 seconds, but the movement of the stars was noticeable, so the faster the shutter speed, the sharper the stars will appear.

ISO

The choice of ISO value depends on what kind of camera you have, or what kind of camera you want to buy. For example, the Sony a7S shoots with clean exposure up to ISO 12000, while my Canon 6D can shoot up to ISO 6400 with minimal noise, which can then be leveled out in Lightroom.

Focus

One of the biggest challenges people face is focusing images when shooting at night. Many lenses have an “infinity focus” (manual focus), which is a point at an infinite distance at which the lens will focus. This is ideal for night photography as it is very difficult to see what you are focusing on in the dark.

Composition and light painting

Once you understand the process of creating an exhibit, the fun part is creating dynamic compositions and using light painting techniques to bring foreground objects to life.

Similar to landscape photography, you want viewers to feel separate from the painting. When shooting stars, it would be ideal to capture the landscape around you, which makes the night sky look even more incredible.

To do this, find good place, so that you can focus on the object in the foreground. Next, using a flashlight or even a smartphone screen, you can “draw” the object that you planned to highlight in your photo. This only takes a few seconds, as the reflected light is exposed very quickly in the case of night photography.

Tip: If you use , place it in complete darkness, or shoot with a short exposure to ensure it comes out clearly. You can always superimpose 2 exposures on top of each other and thus mix different ranges of light.

What to do after taking photos

Of course, process them! Photos of the night sky change dramatically with even small variations in white balance or contrast.

I edit almost every night sky photo twice (once for the sky, once for the foreground) and then blend them. (Some photographers use the remote control to make the exposure much longer than the camera is capable of, and use this for the foreground to add shadows there.)

Ultimately, enjoy yourself and develop a style unique to your preferences. Coming home with photographs of stars, you experience an incredible feeling!