How to photograph the starry sky. Photographing Stars with Dave Morrow How to Photograph a Star
Everyone loves to raise their head to the sky and look at the stars. It calms, pacifies, gives a charge of positive and often just pleases. The starry sky is sung by hundreds of poets, romance is almost impossible without the flickering of thousands of lights, and school astronomy lessons left few people indifferent.
Photographers are no exception. To shoot buildings or models at night and not include stars in the composition means to exclude a valuable natural resource from work. And the night sky itself can be a great shot if you organize the whole shooting process correctly.
In order to shoot the stars correctly, it is not necessary to have a cool lens and years of experience behind you, it is enough to be familiar with the settings of your camera and carefully study the features of shooting at night. In fact, there are only a few important points:
- The right place for shooting and the right angle;
- Clear weather and clear skies;
- Necessary tools and equipment for filming;
- Correctly set camera settings;
- Competent processing of images in the editor after shooting.
If all the points are performed correctly and wisely, then the frames will turn out to be of high quality and beautiful.
Choosing a location for filming
Preparation for filming begins with the search for a beautiful place with a gorgeous view. It is best to get out of the city into nature and look for a hill. It is necessary to leave for preliminary, or sighting, shooting during the day, so that on the finished pictures you will not find unpleasant surprises in the form of garbage and other traces of human activity. Mapping out the angle in advance, taking test shots and determining the necessary equipment - such actions will save a lot of your time and nerve cells. Looking for a beautiful landscape in the dark is not the most pleasant pastime.
The frame with the starry sky should be filled with other static elements: houses, trees, a river, beautiful lines of hills. Some photographers set the mood with a campfire, tent, and other camping paraphernalia. A good contrast is made by architectural structures, abandoned buildings, towers and houses standing alone against the background of the starry sky. Over time, you will be able to find your style and create your own compositions against the background of the stars, and you can start by copying the already created pictures.
Weather
To shoot the starry sky, you will need the help of the weather, the sky should be as cloudless as possible, and the world around you should be as calm and serene as possible. With a slow shutter speed, moving trees will force you to take a large number of frames to assemble the finished picture. Running clouds in the star track shooting mode (the movement of stars across the sky) will create unnecessary noise and it will be problematic to remove them.
In addition, the night should be absolutely moonless, the moon will give glare and additional light, which at higher ISO values will give overexposed areas. So, we coordinate plans with the weather, choose the best place and start preparing a hiking set.
Necessary equipment for filming stars
Once you've decided on a location to film and have begun to wait for the right position of the moon and good weather, you can look for the equipment you need for the event. Photographing stars is a night shoot, so the basic tools and gear will be the same: a tripod, cable release or remote control, wide-angle lens (you can also take a Fish-eye), hot tea and comfortable clothes. Let's go in order:
In addition to filming equipment, take comfortable shoes and clothes with you, in cold weather - warm tea and food. Working on the street with minimal traffic for 2-3 hours, and sometimes up to midnight, will require strength and patience. For long shooting you will need removable batteries and memory cards, they are consumed quickly enough.
Camera settings and options
On the spot, after installing the camera on a tripod and choosing the optimal angle, you need to set up the camera. You must select the correct values for the following parameters:
- The degree of opening of the diaphragm;
- Light absorption, or ISO;
- Excerpt;
- Focal length;
- Focusing;
We shoot at night, and in other situations, in the manual mode of camera settings. This will make it possible to bypass the standard camera programs and get unusual artistic pictures. Consider the process of settings in stages.
- First of all, select the manual adjustment mode (M) or the shutter speed adjustment mode (T). In the latter case, the camera will select the minimum aperture value, and the image quality will be adjusted by manual focusing and changing the “Shutter” parameter;
- We choose the minimum possible aperture value, that is, we open it as much as possible. There is little light and information on the matrix at night, which means that with a wide open aperture, the stars will be bright, and you will not have to greatly increase the ISO;
- Light absorption, or ISO, is set from 400 to 1600, if set less, then nothing will be visible, if more, then excessive graininess will appear, which is also undesirable. We choose the optimal value for each situation empirically, moving from the average value, for example, from 800;
- Focus should be in manual mode, point it to infinity. There is an option - for luminous objects, if they are available and are far enough from the camera. Here, too, can only be determined empirically, each composition requires an individual approach;
- Exposure is the main tool for creating artistic effects in starry sky shots. A fast shutter speed will allow you to get a sharper image, without tracers of stars. At the same time, a slow shutter speed will allow you to get brighter and more contrasting pictures and more details. You need to find a "golden mean", or the optimal value, usually from 15 to 30 seconds.
Moreover, the longer the focal length, the more interference will be at slow shutter speeds. You can calculate the shutter speed using the formula: 600 is divided by the focal length, if the lens has a crop factor, it must also be divided by it. Sometimes slowing the shutter speed down to dashes instead of stars is an artistic effect, resulting in circular stripes around the polar star in the picture.
It is difficult for novice photographers to keep all the parameters and their combinations in mind, so choose interesting combinations empirically. You will most likely have to spend a little more time outside, trying different settings. But in post-processing there will be enough material to get interesting shots.
If, in addition to the stars, there should be other elements in the photograph with sufficient sharpness and correct color reproduction, then it makes sense to take several shots with focus on certain parts of the frame. For illumination, you can use lanterns, spotlights, passing cars, light from buildings, so you can dilute the starry sky with other interesting details.
Star Trek - an artistic technique when photographing stars
Photographers who use unusual techniques in creating their work will certainly be interested in the star track effect for shooting the starry sky. This beautiful way to shoot stars is quite simple and does not require special skills and tools. There are two fundamentally different techniques: shoot one frame at a slow shutter speed or take many frames and combine them using a specialized program.
Long exposure (more than 5-7 minutes) leads to overheating of the matrix and the appearance of noise and graininess, but such shots require minimal effort in the post-processing process. The second method will require more work from you - you will need to shoot for a long time in frames with a shutter speed of 15-20 seconds, and then peck them. This method has its advantages - you can make the lines as long as possible, which cannot be done with a long exposure. The matrix does not heat up, and the free Startrails program will collect the entire picture into a heap.
The tricky part of the Star Trek technique is finding the center point of rotation. Some stars move faster, others much slower, the polar star moves so slowly during the night that it can be considered stationary for about 40 minutes.
Organization of the filming process
In practice, everything turns out much easier than it looks in theory - most of the tricks are performed intuitively, changing the settings and position of the camera. But there are some practical tips that can make shooting the sky easier for you.
Summarizing the above
Shooting the starry sky is quite simple, knowing the features of night photography. To do this, it is not necessary to have an expensive camera and powerful optics; an ordinary “SLR” with a Kit lens will do the job quite well. If you choose optics, it is better to give preference to widescreen. Shoot at slow shutter speeds, medium ISOs and wide open apertures. For settings, it is better to choose manual mode and focus clarity with the lens. Shoot in RAW format, so there will be more material for post-processing frames.
A novice photographer needs a lot of practice and at the first shooting you should not count on a high-quality result. On average, you need to go out several times at night to feel the peculiarities of filming at such a time and find the optimal combination of camera settings. Train and improve your skills, photographic vision, intuition and artistic taste
An article about how to photograph the Milky Way and the starry sky in general. In this type of shooting there are some features, knowing which, you can get an excellent result.
First we need to take care of the camera. Almost any modern SLR camera with a whale lens is suitable for photographing stars. We will not judge digital compacts with non-replaceable optics, this is a separate issue.
Advanced devices will have one significant advantage - a high allowable light sensitivity (ISO). For example, the photo below was taken at ISO6400, which is unacceptable for cheap cameras.
Lens for night shooting
As for the lens, for shooting meteors and stars, aperture is extremely desirable, which, as you know, does not happen much. f/2.8 is good enough. f / 3.5 - it's already a bit dark, but you can still live. The width of the angle is also of great importance: the stars are constantly moving, and this must be reckoned with. If you have a lens with a focal length (FR) of 18-24mm on a full-frame camera (or 12-16mm on a crop), then the shutter speed that you can set does not exceed 20 seconds.
Take a test shot, look at 100% zoom, and you'll see star tracks (the stars take on the appearance of lines instead of dots). If you do not need a high resolution of the final image, then you can increase the exposure length to 30 seconds, and subsequently reduce the size and publish it on the Internet - no one will guess that the exposure was long. for example, 30-second exposure shots can be shot with a 10mm fisheye attached to a full-frame camera to avoid trailing. Or rather, they are, but visible only at 100% magnification.
For convenience, a table has been compiled. If you don't know what camera you have, see the third column
Focal length - Shutter speed for FF - Shutter speed for crop
- 10mm - 40s - 30s
- 14mm - 35s - 25s
- 18mm - 25s - 15s
- 24mm - 20s - 12s
- 35mm - 12s - 8s
- 50mm - 8s - 6s
But you don't have to blindly follow the rules described above! If you want to capture the movement of the stars, then the shutter speed, on the contrary, should be increased up to 60 minutes. Accordingly, the ISO will have to be reduced, and the aperture should be covered so as not to overexpose the frames.
Elbrus at night, exposure 10 minutes. The sun has just set
Now let's talk about light sensitivity (ISO) for photographing the night sky
The higher it is, the better. But don't be foolish! Explore the possibilities of the camera! Nikon d7000 can safely set ISO3200, or carefully 6400. My Nikon d600 can safely set 6400. Almost all shots of the Bermamyt starfall were shot at ISO6400. But each camera has its upper limit, when the amount of noise starts to grow faster than new details of the starry sky are added. For example, on the d90, never set the sensitivity above 1600, and then you would have to thoroughly reduce noise. A low ISO can be compensated for with a wider angle and slower shutter speeds, so go for it!
Aperture when shooting stars
When shooting a starry sky, and especially meteors, we need to get the maximum amount of light in the shortest periods of time, so the aperture will have to be opened. All lenses have their own maximum aperture, usually f / 1.4, 1.8, 2.8, 3.5, 4 - if you do not know what this is, then take a closer look at your lens. It's written there
The lower the number, the more light hits the matrix. BUT! For all lenses, at the maximum aperture, the image quality is worse than when it is closed. For example, shooting the sky at f / 1.4, you can be very disappointed: instead of stars, you get sad blobs. Once you've taken one frame, zoom it in 100% and examine it carefully. If the stars are not sharp and look like blobs, then first check the focusing accuracy, and only then cover the aperture, for example, to 2.8. Pictures will become darker, but picture quality will improve. If you have a cheap whale lens, then don't worry, set the maximum allowable 3.5 and shoot! You won't make it any worse.
Focusing when shooting the sky
There are problems with this, and big ones. The fact is that for most lenses, the position of the “infinity” icon on the focus ring does not correspond to real infinity. This is very easy to verify: on a sunny day, go outside, find the most distant object or horizon, focus and look at the focus ring. You will be surprised that the infinity icon does not exactly match the mark. Remember this position, but rather stick a strip of plaster on the lens, on which make a mark with a marker. In the dark, you don't have to take thirty-five thousand frames, frantically turning the focus ring from side to side, trying to catch the sharpness and missing the falling meteors. And do not hope that in complete darkness the camera will be able to focus on the machine. Only pens!
You will also need a tripod and a remote control (or at least a delay release). But I hope you figured it out anyway. However, you can shoot stars without a remote control and not use the shutter delay: you will need a very rigid tripod, firm hands, and when shooting a black sky, small vibrations of the camera during the first second do not affect anything at all.
Well, we have studied the technical part of the issue, now let's get down to practice.
Where to shoot stars and the Milky Way?
First of all, when you are going to photograph the stars, remember: there is nothing to catch in the city. The city creates a lot of light, which highlights the moisture and dust suspended in the atmosphere. In itself, this phenomenon does not prevent us from seeing the brightest stars, but it is impossible to see the Milky Way from the city (unless there was an energy catastrophe with a total shutdown of everything and everything). Therefore, first of all, take care of the shooting location. From the settlements you need to leave as far as possible, further, and even further. Even from Bermamyt you can clearly see the light pollution from CMS cities:
As you can see, the lower part of the sky above the horizon turned out to be illuminated by the lights of cities (and in the cities there was a haze in general, and the stars were almost invisible, ha ha). Although in Bermamyt such a phenomenon is no longer able to interfere, but only decorates the frame. In the city, with the same shooting parameters, we would get a bright yellow sky without a single star.
When is the best time to photograph the starry sky?
When there is no moon in the starry sky!
Yes, the moon can really spoil your nightlife, especially the full moon at Zenith. Therefore, when planning to go on a star hunt, check out the lunar calendar. For example, during a trip to Bermamyt, the month was very young and hung low above the horizon, and then completely disappeared, leaving only an interesting orange stripe on the horizon and a beautiful reflection on the slopes of Elbrus. And this is good.
View from the top of the plateau after sunset
In addition to the moon, you will have to take care of good weather. How you will do this, no one knows. Someone helps to make a sacrifice to the gods, someone to pray, some luck helps if you stroke a cat, and some eccentrics even use weather forecasts. But the fact remains: we need clear skies!
Where in the sky are you looking for shooting stars?
They say that the most successful part of the sky for shooting falling meteors is 45 degrees from the zenith. This is somewhere in the middle between the horizon and the line going exactly up (forgive my denseness, astronomers). However, interesting results can be achieved if you shoot vertically upwards with a wide-angle lens. And if you are shooting the Perseids, then it would be logical to turn the lens towards the constellation Perseus, here is an example:
The above shot was taken on Nikon d7000, ISO6400, shutter speed 15 seconds. BUT! Make no mistake, not all meteors hit the frame at once. More on this below. That's exactly where you should not look for falling meteors - on the horizon. Firstly, the optical properties of the atmosphere will not allow you to see almost anything, and secondly, the horizon is usually bright.
How to find the constellation Perseus? Here's a picture from the internet:
How to find the constellation Perseus
How to capture a meteor in a frame?
Point the camera at one point, make it continuously shoot, and wait, and wait, and wait. Sooner or later, meteors will start to fall into your lens, and you will have to choose the very 30 pieces with tracks of falling space debris from thousands of frames, and bring them together. And it's not a joke! In the example above, the author took about 1200 frames, selected 38 of them with meteors, and then combined the pictures together. This is possible if you are shooting in the direction of the North Star. Then, when the frames are rotated around an imaginary center - the North Star - they will be exactly aligned with each other. We cut something superfluous, and such a rosette of a meteor shower will remain.
In any case, patience, work and a dead shutter will grind everything!))
Successful shots!
Text and photo Pavel Bogdanov
Take your ff shot taken with a specific lens. From it, it is quite easy to take a picture from a crop in Photoshop by simply cutting out the central part with a coefficient. 1.5, which will correspond to the image on the cropped matrix. Compare both shots at 100% scale. The length of the tracks will be exactly the same. Because it's the same star, the same pixel size and the same focal length. But EFR will be different.
So no one argues. But I'm not talking about looking at 100% crops, but I'm talking about the actual use of real lenses by people. Take two pictures taken with the same lens, but with 2 different sensors (FF and 1.5 crop), print 20x30 and look at them. A shot that was taken on a cropped carcass will have a 1.5 times smaller viewing angle and 1.5 times more noticeable star tracks. Other things being equal, of course. That is why, when taking a picture on a cropped camera with the same focal length, it is necessary shorten shutter speed by 1.5 times. And that's what I'm talking about in my post. Once again, I'm talking about that, other things being equal, and with an increase in the crop factor, shutter speed should be increased.
In addition, you do not take into account the factor that, as you rightly noted, along with the crop factor, the resolution of the matrix does not decrease. For example, all modern cropped Nikons are produced with 24MP matrices (d5300-5300, d7100, and so on). And what of this?
We have:
2 cameras, crop 1.5 and 1
1 lens, 15mm
Let's take two shots:
iso 800, 30 seconds.
We open 100% increase in both frames, each one is 24mp.
What will we see?
And we will see that the tracks are more noticeable on the crop.
I'm not a sheep to cut something out of my 24MP frames and turn them into 10.5MP, almost no one does this in reality. Everyone squeezes out of their matrices what they are capable of. And your hypothetical example about the cut out fragment is all right, only it has nothing to do with reality. So you will get to the point where you don’t need to buy at all, say, 135mm, but you can shoot everything at 10mm, then crop it, and there will be no difference. Because once at 10 mm the tracks are almost invisible at 30 seconds, then at 135 they will not be visible. And I don't care that if you cut a piece corresponding to 135mm from a 10mm frame, you get as much as some 0.3 mp. Print them on the wall 100x60 and enjoy.
- The basis for the fact that you get longer tracks on crop with the same parameters as on ff is step 2. Manufacturers, as a rule, try to keep the same resolution in cropped cameras as on ff.
Yes, what are you saying? Is it true? Did you just prove yourself wrong? Or it seemed to me, and you just advise people who use cropped cameras to reduce the size of the finished image to avoid blurring? Or maybe print them in a smaller size?
Wouldn't it be better to follow my advice, shorten the shutter speed and get shorter tracks?
And in order to fit the same number of pixels into a smaller matrix, their size has to be reduced. A smaller pixel is more blur.
So who's arguing? I told him about Foma, he told me about Yeryoma! More lubrication - well, we shorten the shutter speed and shoot, what's the problem?
Probably, the problem is that I, as a person who makes a picture, and not measuring pixels, always focuses on the appearance finished frame, and not for techno-fetishists who need some mythical numbers. Friend, my advice is for photographers. Those who receive a picture, ready-made, solid, 3x2 format, which will be printed on paper, and will not be looked at in special laboratories under a magnifying glass. And in my case, these tips are much more appropriate than the theory of a small pixel, which is relevant only when looking at a picture at 100% magnification.
The main advantage of night photography is that such shooting forgives many mistakes. For such shooting, special weather conditions are not needed to get a beautiful shot. All kinds of night lights and city lights give us everything we can work with and get excellent shots. But if you try to photograph the night starry sky, then it will be a completely different story.
The reality is that shooting the night sky takes some skill. If you're going to do this kind of shooting, be prepared for your options to be very limited. And you have to be prepared for some overlaps and possible mistakes.
Taking beautiful photos of the night sky means being mobile. You will have to travel to remote places, travel long distances, to get a truly worthwhile shot. Because of this, you will lose valuable sleep time. Therefore, let's try to avoid some mistakes when shooting the night starry sky. Therefore, I have prepared and analyzed for you 6 main problems that you may encounter when shooting stars.
Killer #1: Luna
One of the biggest enemies when shooting stars, and in particular the Milky Way, is the moon. This may surprise you, but it's true. Why is it so? Because the light coming from even a quarter of the moon is more than 100 times stronger than starlight. So the light of the moon just washes away the scene.
Having the moon in the sky also has its benefits. For example, the moon can light up the foreground of your chosen scene and help make for a beautiful night scene. But when it comes to shooting stars (the milky way), the moon is a killer.
Moreover, the moon is in the night sky for most of the month. To be honest, I would not plan to shoot the night sky before and after 5 days from the new moon. Filming on a full moon is out of the question. The bad time to shoot the Milky Way is about 70% of the calculation per year. Thus, this is a pretty strong limitation for shooting.
So, how do you avoid problems with the moon? There are two ways to avoid it in the night sky, and for both of them you need a website called TimeAndDate.com. This website will tell you all about the phase of the moon. This way you can schedule your night sky shots on or near the new moon.
If you are not familiar with the phases of the moon and do not know what a new moon is, then I will answer, a new moon is when there is no moon in the sky at night. From the new moon, the moon will move into a crescent, a quarter, and then a few weeks later into a full moon (and then the process will begin in reverse). The nights before and after the new moon are critical for shooting stars because not only does it limit the illumination coming from the moon, but during the new phase, the moon won't even be in the night sky.
The moon travels through the sky during the day during the new moon phase and travels through the sky at night during the full moon phase. The closer the time of the new moon, the less time the moon will be in the sky at night.
This leads to the second way, we can avoid the moon until it rises in the night sky. Again, you can calculate the time until moonrise via TimeAndDate.com. However, you need to make sure that this matches the other conditions that you need to capture the stars successfully (i.e. time of total darkness, weather conditions, movement of the stars, etc.). We will talk about them below.
Killer #2: Light Pollution
You already know that you need to find the time of maximum darkness in order to achieve good results in photographing the stars. But you might be surprised at how dark it actually can be. You can't just drive out of town half an hour before shooting and expect it to be dark enough to actually photograph the beautiful night sky or the Milky Way. The city will not have a perfectly dark sky due to light pollution. Light pollution is light from urban lighting that illuminates the sky as well.
For the best shooting location, consult the Dark Site Finder. This is the best resource I've seen that shows places with minimal light pollution. It's basically Google maps with overlays of different colors that tell you how bad the light pollution will be in a particular place. The darker the color, the better (i.e. the less light pollution).
How dark does it have to be to get great starry skies? Really dark. Take a look at this photo:
This photo was taken in the blue area on the Dark Site Finder, which is the fifth darkest area out of 15. The light pollution you see in the bottom left of the picture was not from a metropolitan area, but from a small town shaded in green on the map. The town was at a distance of 15-20 kilometers.
I didn't see this light pollution with the naked eye, the sky seemed completely dark. But it's obvious in the picture. So make sure the sky is dark enough before shooting.
Killer #3: Star Movement
If you're not familiar with astrophotography and capturing the stars, you might think that you just need to open the shutter for a minute or two to get enough light into the camera. And you will achieve the correct exposure. But that won't help because the stars are moving. And they move much faster than you think. (Ok, I know this is because the earth is spinning)
If you are shooting the night sky with a long exposure, the stars will move while the shutter is open. The stars will turn out in the photo as small tracks. Often the stars are specially shot with a huge shutter speed in order to get large tracks for the entire frame, but this is a completely different story. What we are talking about here is getting clear stars in the night sky.
How long does the shutter have to be open to get clear stars? On all subjects except ultra-wide angle, you should not use a shutter speed longer than 15 seconds. Even on ultra-wide angles, you shouldn't use shutter speeds longer than 30 seconds. You can also use a special rule, this is the 500 rule, to determine the maximum possible shutter speed at which the stars will be clear. This rule states that the maximum shutter speed is calculated as follows: 500 must be divided by the focal length used, you get the maximum shutter speed (for example, with a 24mm lens - 500 / 24 or 20.8 seconds). Sometimes, instead of 500, the number 600 is used. But clearer stars will be obtained when using the number 500.
Because of this, for night sky photography, you should use your widest, fastest lens. In addition, you will have to increase the ISO sensitivity quite extreme.
Killer #4: Lack of foreground
A starry sky or milky way will provide a good backdrop for your shot. It looks like a good sunset. It's great and beautiful, but the starry sky alone won't be enough for a great shot. You also need a foreground element.
If you're just heading out to shoot the night sky without really knowing where you're going, you're probably in trouble. You will have an uninteresting foreground and therefore an uninteresting photo. The middle of the night is not the time to explore looking for angle and foreground. Remember that where you are going to shoot will be very dark. It will be total darkness, no moon, in a place where there is no light. Therefore, you will have difficulty choosing the foreground.
To fix this problem, you need to study the shooting area in advance. Sometimes this is physically possible if the place is not far away, but often it is not. The internet can often help. Use the Street View feature on Google Maps to prepare for shooting.
Killer #5: Unforeseen Conditions Blocking Stars
You probably already know that you can't go out on a cloudy night and expect to capture the stars successfully. You need clear skies. How to check it? There are many applications for viewing the weather, use the one you are used to.
But that is not all. I had many unsuccessful attempts to shoot the stars when there was not a cloud in the sky. They were destroyed by things like dust clouds, smoke and fog. These things can ruin everything.
For example, in the desert and a weak wind raises dust and fine sand into the atmosphere, which significantly blocks the stars. If you are in a coastal environment, sea fog can do the same. Wildfires hundreds of miles away can also affect your photography.
Therefore, be sure to carefully familiarize yourself with the conditions of your shooting area. Believe me, it's not fun to drive for many hours and then not even uncover the camera.
Killer #6: Boring Sky
Finally, you waited for a clear moonless night. If you go out on a shoot without knowing what kind of stars will be in the sky, you risk getting a dull little starry sky. If you have a strong enough foreground element, then it may not really matter. But if the night sky is your main subject, you need it to look really good.
For most people, this means including the Milky Way in your frame. This means the capture of a group of stars that passes through the sky. Your best bet is to capture the cluster of stars at the center of the Milky Way. But the Milky Way is not visible all year round. It is not visible at any time of the night during November-February. Starting in March, it will become visible just before sunrise. In June and until August it will be visible most of the night. Starting in September, it will be visible only after sunset. And no matter what hemisphere you live in.
To schedule the inclusion of the most interesting stars and constellations (and, again, usually the "Milky Way"), simply select one of the apps available for your phone. I use Sky Guide and I really like it, but there are others like Star Walk 2 and PhotoPills
Output
A photograph of the starry sky involves a trip to the right place-location. Take steps to prepare and you will reap huge dividends. Shooting planning will allow you to spend less time and effort.
But do not wait and do not look for perfection, it does not happen. Plan and use the best conditions you can get, then just shoot. This alone can lead to stunning photos. Well, if you have gaps in long exposure photography, then you urgently need to take a step-by-step video course that will teach you from scratch how to take amazing long exposure photos even with an inexpensive camera. Click on the image below to view the course.
Updated 07.11.2019 Views 58924 Comments 82
In the last year, from time to time you could see photos of stars in my articles. Some asked me questions, they say, what aperture, what shutter speed, and so on. Therefore, I have already published the photos themselves in a separate post with their parameters, and here I want to post a detailed description of how to photograph the starry sky. I have long wanted to write a similar article, but there was very little experience. After reading this manual, you will at least be able to take the same photos as mine.
I immediately warn you that I am not a pro in this matter, and you will not discover something radically new for yourself, especially if you yourself are engaged in similar shootings. However, it will be useful for beginners to learn some of the nuances that I did not know at one time.
All parts of my FAQ for beginner photographers
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 shoot the starry sky
- First of all, a tripod. Excerpts are long and without a tripod anywhere. It is important that it can withstand the weight of the camera along with the lens and does not stagger, but it is not too heavy, otherwise you will not want to take it on a trip, well, if you are not by car of course.
- A camera with manual settings and preferably shooting in Raw, because this format gives 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 fast lens for capturing static stars and wide coverage of the starry sky.
- Remote control for setting long exposures, in the common people - a cable.
- Spare battery, as it is consumed quickly enough.
My starry sky kit
In general, I already wrote about my set of photographic equipment with my wife in the article. But there was the whole list, namely the pictures of the night sky at the moment I'm doing:
- Canon 7d camera
- Tokina 11-16 F2.8 wide-angle and fast lens
- Programmable Remote
- Tripod Slik Sprint Pro II 3W CG
I think you can take pictures of the starry sky with a soap dish, if it allows you to do some things, such as: set a shutter speed of 30 seconds or connect a remote control to it, screw on a tripod, set a higher ISO without brutal noises, open wider aperture. Otherwise, you will be severely limited in opportunities, and it is unlikely that anything will work out.
My typical mistakes
I recently started trying to shoot the starry sky. But my first photos did not turn out at all, since I was sure that just a long exposure of 30 seconds would be enough. As a rule, all DSLRs make it possible to shoot without a remote control with a shutter speed of 30 seconds.
So, for such shutter speeds, you can’t clamp the aperture, although you want to make everything sharp. In this case, the light from the stars is not enough at all so that they can normally appear in the sky. On the contrary, you need to open it to the maximum! In my lens it is F2.8, some people buy lenses even faster. But not only the aperture needs to be opened, it is also desirable 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 normal eye.
2. Shooting the rotation of the starry sky (stars in the form of stripes) or otherwise, tracks. Long exposure from several minutes to several hours. Absolutely unrealistic photos, but they look funny.
3. Shooting tracks, but in a different way. A large number of photographs of the same area of the sky are taken using the technology of shooting static stars with an interval of 1 second, and then they are 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 according to option 3, we get both a glued final photo and the ability to rivet a timelapse video.
4. Timelapse. More photos of static stars are taken and then mixed into video. It turns out 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 the photos and shooting directly. As you already understood, due to the fact that the stars are moving, they remain in the form of fixed points only up to a certain shutter speed. And if it is of greater importance, then they turn into stripes. And in order to calculate that very critical shutter speed, there is a “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 dots. 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, does not use full-frame cameras. So, we need an amendment - we also divide 600 by your crop factor. For Canon cameras it 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 longer exposure margin. That is, when shooting with a 50 mm lens on a cropped matrix, you have only 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 a factor of one and a half. Yes, when zooming on a computer, the stars will already be dashes, but in small photographs (for a blog, for a 10x15 printout), this may not be very visible.
Diaphragm
The aperture is best opened as wide as possible. If the lens allows you to open at 1.6-1.8, then it will be possible not to increase the shutter speed above the critical one and not set the ISO above 800. The sharpness drops, but what can you do.
Manual focus
At night, you can forget about auto focus, so you only have to use manual focus. Usually it is advised to set it to the extreme position at infinity, because we shoot the stars. But I am faced with the fact that my lenses almost never twist the focus to infinity in automatic mode. I checked it by focusing on the moon, on distant lights (by the way, these are options for autofocusing at night). It remained quite a bit to the extreme position, and I used it in the future.
Focal length
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 will not just shoot one sky without everything. And the density of stars decreases as you get closer.
How to photograph the starry sky - the rotation of the sky, tracks
The rotation of the sky. ISO400, 11mm, f5, 1793sec I shot tracks so far quite a bit and only according to 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. It takes a remote to set these values and a good tripod to keep it from being blown around by the wind for so long. 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 an overexposed frame. I put it on the eye, for example, like this - an 11 mm lens, a shutter speed of 30 minutes, an aperture of 7.1, ISO 400.
Focal length
In this case, it is no longer possible to say that it is better when it is minimal, because the precious seconds of exposure are no longer so important, there will be enough light anyway, the count goes not for seconds, but for tens of minutes. Therefore, if the composition of the frame is good on a regular lens, and not on a wide-angle lens (there is enough angle), then this is even better, since you will have to wait much less until the frame is shot. But you need to understand that the stars will be closer and their tracks will become less round. You won't need a lens larger than 50mm.
Determination of the center of rotation of stars
Since the stars in the sky rotate, their tracks are circles, which, of course, have a center. And, if you build the composition of the frame in a certain way, then it will be useful to know where this very center is. Therefore, in the northern hemisphere we direct the lens to the North Star, and in the southern hemisphere to Sigma Octant. Rotating, in half an hour the star forms an arc of 7.5 degrees, and this arc is the longer, the farther 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 Ursa Major. We find the constellation on the horizon, mentally connect two bucket stars that form one of its walls, located opposite the bucket handle, and get a line. Mentally set aside 5 distances along this line from the bucket (from its top and further) and rest against the North Star.
Sigma Octantu in the southern hemisphere, it seems to me, is almost impossible to find. It is easier to be guided by the constellation of the Southern Cross. We first find it in the sky, and then we extend the long crossbar of the cross down by 4.5 distances of this same crossbar. Approximately in this place there will be Sigma Octant.
How to photograph the starry sky - tracks in the program
All settings are set exactly the same as in the first paragraph when shooting static stars. I will not repeat. But in fact, you can use slower shutter speeds when you can see a slight shift in the stars. All the same, in the program all this will be glued together. But in this case, as separate photos, they will not be very beautiful, and then you can’t do timelapse.
Software for gluing tracks
Surely there are different programs, but I only know one - Startrails Version 1.1, it is very simple and it is not difficult to understand it. We upload files and make tracks. If they turned out to be too long, then you can remove some of the photos from processing.
How to shoot timelapse
I did Timelapse with the stars only once, as this is a rather long task. And then, having made 99 frames, I left the tent and realized that the sky was overcast, and nothing else shines for me, it's a shame. Up to this point, I've only shot timelapse during the day, like the sun is setting or people are moving, and it was a video filming on a soap dish (it does it well for me), then sped up in Premier. And to shoot the sky, you need a camera, a video camera will not be able to shoot at such a slow shutter speed at night.
The video was used 99 frames (ISO1600, 11mm, f2.8, 27 sec) with a gap of 1 second. The total shooting time is 46 minutes. This was enough for 4-7 seconds of video. If you make it slower, then it will already be noticeable 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 be 25 * 60 = 1500 frames. We shoot each photo, for example, with a shutter speed of 30 seconds and an interval between frames of 1 second, which means that to shoot 1500 frames we will have to spend 31 * 1500 = 46500 seconds, or 775 minutes, or ~ 13 hours.
Some nuances when shooting a starry sky
1. If the moon shines brightly in the sky, then the stars will be faded against the blue sky. Therefore, you need to shoot before moonrise, or at a time and place where the moon is not visible, as well as on a new moon. For example, in August in the Crimea for 5 days of the campaign, I never saw her, and the sky was black and black. But in fact, lunar landscapes can be quite beautiful, the night luminary illuminates everything around very well.
2. The lights of a big city illuminate the sky just as well, and inside the city it’s not realistic to shoot the starry sky at all, you need to move tens of kilometers away. And only if the city is visible somewhere in the distance, then an interesting backlight can turn out.
- It should be borne in mind that at night there is a possibility of fogging of the front lens. 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 noises appear in the photo. I won’t say about all DSLRs, but in my Canon 7d it is very noticeable - a lot of multi-colored dots in the photo. But the function of noise reduction at slow shutter speeds saves, they are somehow subtracted from the image. There is only such a moment, the noise reduction works as long as the exposure lasted, which means that the duration of shooting one frame is doubled, for example, instead of 30 minutes, a whole hour. The option of shooting tracks by gluing photos in specialized software does not have this drawback, the matrix does not have time to heat up.
4. It is enough to shoot just the starry sky once. Next, you want to take more interesting photos, 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 turn on your imagination. Personally, I like the mountains most of all in this regard, but since I don’t go there often, I don’t have so many shots of the starry sky.
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