@Faded_80,
@RJG, and crew.
I'm not likely going to be able to make it up to the PNW in April. I thought I'd post some things I've learned over the last few years for those who are just starting out in Night Photography.
I've found the following sites helpful for locating and planning night shoots:
Light pollution Map:
Android apps:
PlanIt for Photographers
Sky Safari Plus or Sky map
Deluxe Moon
FotoTool
For my nightscape photography I look for an interesting foreground subject, then put the milky way core, Moon, or a known constellation (Orion, Big Dipper, ...) behind it. Now that we have a location let’s talk Gear:
- DSLR or Mirrorless camera capable of full Manual mode
- Batteries fully charges with spares (I can usually shoot my Nikons with 2 batts, but friends with Sony burn through batteries very quickly, like 5 fully charged batts. per night)
- Wide Lens, Larger the aperture the better IE: I often use a Rokinon / Samyang 24mm f:1.4. The reason you want your shortest focal length and largest apature lens is to satisfy the “500 rule”, on a full frame camera divide your focal length into 500, to get the longest shutter speed that will keep the stars as pinpoints rather than arcs. My 14mm, gives me 35 seconds, for my 24mm 20 seconds. For various crop sensor cameras multiply the lens focal length by the crop factor then divide into 500.
From here you adjust the lens aperture and camera sensor ISO. A 2.8 or larger max aperture is a big advantage here; since each stop you open up in aperture, you can cut the ISO in half. Open up your lens as wide as possible, and take some test shots to help with ISO. I seem to always end up with ISO between 1600 and 6400, you’ll have to go higher with an f/4 lens.
- Sturdy tripod, set it up as low and your composition will allow, and hang your camera bag from the apex to dampen vibrations if there is any wind.
- Remote camera trigger (wireless, cable release, or 2 second timer mode on Camera)
- Headlamp or torch for walking back to car
- Comfy clothes fit for conditions and a camping chair if desired.
The milky way season in the northern latitudes runs from Apr - October. With the MW core rising in the E/SE and sets in the S early in the season. If you want stars to show up well you’ll want to plan the trip for a time when the moon is either New (rising and setting with the sun) or just a sliver. This way you can compose your shot and get the MW without it being washed out by the light from the moon.
Night of the shoot:
- Arrive around sunset
- Setup tripod, camera and attach remote release or set up 2 second delay shooting mode in your camera menus.
- Frame your subject, Use Sky Safari Plus or Sky Map to determine where the MW will be from your location and how it will align with the foreground through the night.
- Set your camera into Manual mode and open your lens aperture as wide as you can.
- Focus on the foreground subject, take a few pictures during the blue hour just after sun sets. (Don’t move your camera or tripod you can use these shots to add back in some foreground detail in Gimp/Photoshop/etc later)
- Refocus on a distant object (a bright star, visible planet in the frame.) Use Live view and max magnification to get the star as small a dot as possible. Here is a link from Mike Berenson’s blog, one of the instructors that I've learned night photography from: The article covers details on the topic of focusing at night
http://www.nightphotographyworkshop.com/articles-tutorials/how-to-focus-in-the-dark
I use option 2.
- Set ISO as high as it can go,
- Leave the lens wide open,
- Enable live view and zoom in on any bright pinpoint of light in the composition.
- Roll your focus ring around until that spot is as small as you can get it.
- Wait for Full dark Generally 90-120 mins after sunset. Look up nautical twilight for your area in a local weather app or almanac.
- Take a high ISO test shot to determine proper exposure settings for your location / composition. Again I’m going to link to Mike’s blog as I learned this from him and he does a better job of explaining than I do. http://www.nightphotographyworkshop.com/articles-tutorials/mikes-super-long-exposure-cheat-sheet
The idea is to get a good exposure quickly then reduce noise by calculating the same exposure value at a lower, less noisy, ISO setting for the rest of the shots. If my High ISO gave me good exposure and my histogram hump was in the middle or to the right of the range at ISO 128k, 8 seconds & f2.8 on my 24mm lens I’ll set my shots for the MW at either 6400, 16 seconds & f2.8 or for slightly less noise and more star trails 3200, 20 seconds & f2.2 (rechecking focus after first shot since I changed the f-stop).
- Shoot 16+ frames at this setting. Some cameras offer long exposure and high ISO noise reduction, turn on high ISO and turn OFF Long exposure these shots if available on your camera.
- Now for a long exposure foreground shot. Lower ISO to 200, and shoot either f2.8 for 8 min and 32 seconds or f2.2 for 5 min and 22 seconds of exposure, shoot 3 of these exposures.
With shots like this you’ll have a number of options for post processing.
- You can combine the bulk of the shots into star trails by aligning the foreground in PS and combining in brighten mode.
- You can mask the foreground, align the star fields and combine for noise reduction, then use the 3 low ISO foreground shots to replace the foreground for clean noise free composite shot.
Let me know if anyone has any questions and I'll try to answer them.
Boort
