How to Photograph the Night Sky | Photography Mentoring | Business Mentor | Tips for Photographers | Travel Photography
How to Photograph the Night Sky
I used to be so intimidated by astro photography from seeing all the unbelievable images of the Milky Way by other travel photographers, but when we spent a weekend in Maine in September, where there was little light pollution, I knew I had to give it a try. We happened to be up late one night doing a bonfire, and when I looked up at the sky, my jaw literally dropped! I couldn’t believe how clear the sky and stars were, I could actually see the Milky Way with my naked eye, and it lined up perfectly with the little island right in front of our Airbnb. After playing around with a few shots and being floored by what I was able to capture, I realized how easy astro photography can be in the right conditions. By using the following tips, anyone can capture gorgeous images of the night sky:
Make sure there is as little light pollution as possible.
This is crucial to capturing clear images of the night sky. If you’re already in an area with minimal light pollution from towns and cities, just make sure there are no other sources of light nearby, such as house lights, car lights, etc.
Use a wide angle lens.
Depending on your surroundings, you might find it more useful to use a long lens in order to crop out any undesirable objects in the background, but for my own images, I preferred my 15-30mm lens at 15mm in order to capture as much of the Milky Way as I could.
Use a high ISO, wide aperture, and a long shutter speed.
For my own images, my ISO was 1600, my aperture was wide open at f2.8, and I used 30 second exposures. These settings allowed me to properly expose my images, and avoid having to bump up the exposure in post, which would have resulted in excess grain.
Focus on “infinity.”
This might sound strange, but I got much better results with the stars by focusing on “infinity” rather than an object in the scene. To do this, put your lens and camera on manual focus, and then turn your lens focus ring onto the infinity symbol. If an object in the scene is going to be a larger focus in the image instead of the stars, you should focus on the object instead of infinity.
Use self timer mode or a remote.
With a long exposure, avoiding any camera movement is crucial to a sharp image. When you press the shutter, your finger usually moves the camera just enough to cause blurry long exposures, so triggering the shutter with a remote or self timer mode will help you get sharp images.
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Becca Mathews
Traveling Portrait Photographer, Private Photo Editor, and Business Mentor