Night sky photography

2. WEATHER FORECAST

Of course you cannot really rely on the forecasts, but you will get a quite good look if there will be clouds in the sky. I also recommend to use at least couple of different weather forecast sites to have a wider look at the possibilities in a clear skies.

Sometimes there might be some clouds you were not thinking to photograph, but in that case, you could just try out something different if you can’t avoid them. Use clouds as a different approach.

3. TIMING

Plan the trip for the darkest moments of the night. This is how you will get most out of the stars. The darker it is the more the stars will show in your capture when you have the correct camera settings. Planning a trip when the moon wont be the brightest also is very important if you want to capture stars. Moon can easily get in the way of milky way.

 

4. EQUIPMENT & SETTINGS

So this is not a list that you should go and buy, just my tools of use.

Tripod, or something to keep your camera steady for long exposures. I have used quite a few tripods and I really like what I currently have a Sirui Ball Head K-40X.

Use wide angle lens if you want the stars to appear as dots not trails. My go to lenses for my Nikon D700 are and Nikon 16 – 35 mm f/4.0 VR. By using a remote controller it allows you to use longer exposures than 30 seconds.

As for settings: Always take photos in RAW file format.

Focus to infinity either manually or simply using one bright spot to focus on. Use the widest aperture your lens has as far as the result is not too blurry. Boost up ISO, I would recommend start from ISO 1600 and go up as much as your camera can handle with a decent end result. I tend to take 30 second exposures to have the stars still when you use something like I have above with a full frame camera. For a crop sensor camera I used 11 mm lens with aperture 2.8 and 30 seconds exposure.