Today we will talk night photography of skies and stars. Specifically, I bring you a warm tutorial which if you apply it to the letter you will get impressive photographs of skies full of stars, photos of those that you always saw in magazines and encyclopedias but that you thought that a “non-professional” person could never get. Today I will show you how wrong you were. Let’s go to them then. But first, if you want to delve into landscape photography, you can’t miss the mega guide that we have prepared for you with tips, tricks and much more to achieve the most impressive landscapes.
Before leaving. What equipment do you need to photograph stars?
For a photographic experience of a beautiful sky full of stars, you need to have the following material:
14 steps to take pictures of the stars
Now, let’s see step by step how to get successful and impressive photos of stars.
- Turn off autofocus of your lens, we will use manual focus.
- Once manual focus mode is selected, choose a infinity focus.
- Choose one high ISO sensitivity. This will depend on the camera you have, some from a certain ISO level begin to show a little noise, the ideal in this case would be to set the ISO’s as high as possible (reasonably). I recommend that you experiment until you find the one that gives you the best results, but to start you could try with ISO’s between 2,000 and 4,000.
- Set your camera’s mode dial to manual mode, “M”which will allow you to control both the aperture of the diaphragm and the shutter speed.
- Adjust a opening as wide as possible (small f/ value). If you can place it between f/2 and f/3.5 or, at least, some very close value.
- Now adjust the shutter speed to a value usually between 10 and 30 seconds. You will have to experiment a bit to find the speed that works best for you. (Below you read a warning related to shutter speed).
- Select the mode on the camera remote Switch if you have one If you don’t have one, you can use the delayed fire mode (2 seconds). I tell you this to avoid any possible vibration when you shoot the photo.
- Select the RAW format or at least RAW + JPG. The RAW format offers you infinite possibilities when it comes to post-processing the image.
- If your camera or lens has a image stabilizer, turn it off.
- Place your camera on top of a good and sturdy tripod.
- Takes care the composition, apply the rule of thirds if applicable, try vertical frames, study carefully what you want to appear in the photo apart from the sky and the stars, unless you want to frame only the sky. Although I recommend you include part of the landscape.
- Watch out for the clouds. If you see that they are going to spoil your photo, try to find another part of the sky that is free of clouds.
- lend attention to light pollution. Get away from the light of the cities. The more darkness surrounds you and the camera, the easier it is for your camera to capture the light from the stars. By the same rule, stay away from full moon days.
- The first shot. The first shot has to be a test shot, and the second and third. Take a few test shots. In them try to use maximum aperture, maximum ISO, and maximum shutter speed (30 seconds). Obviously the photo will be very bright and overexposed, but it doesn’t matter, they are just tests. This will allow you to see the landscape clearly and be able to decide the type of framing that you are finally going to opt for, as well as allowing you to find the most appropriate ISO value without noise.
Warning: The movement of the earth, even being slow, ends up being reflected in this type of photos if we allow the exposure time to be excessively long. As a result, we would obtain curved lines in the sky, a kind of trail that the stars leave behind. Everything happens slowly and the human eye does not perceive it, but the camera does record it.
To make sure this doesn’t happen to you (unless you specifically look for it), use the following rule:
600/focal length = Maximum exposure time
Example: If you want to use a 25mm focal length, you will have to divide 600 by 25, which gives us 24. Therefore, you will have to use a shutter speed equal to or less than 24 seconds. This is for a full frame camera.
If yours is a camera with a smaller sensor (APS-C) then the rule changes slightly:
600/(focal length x 1.5) = Maximum exposure time
Example: If you use a 25mm focal length, you will first have to multiply it by 1.5 (that is 25 x 1.5 = 37.5) and then divide 600 by that result (dividing 600/37.5) which gives the final result 16. Therefore, a shutter speed equal to or less than 16 seconds should be used.
It’s very easy, but if you see that it’s a very messy calculation, forget it and simply experiment with shutter speeds until you find the most suitable one.
Bonus Track for your star photos
A great photograph can be found anywhere in the sky, however if you come across a section of the Milky Way you will get a splendid photo (not to mention if you make a panorama with it). It is not that difficult: before going on an excursion, do some research, search and try to locate the Milky Way at the point from which you are going to be taking the photos. There are several programs that can help you locate it, the best known is Stellarium (it can be downloaded from stellarium.org). There are also applications, such as Photopills, that tell you where you can find the Milky Way simply by picking up your phone and moving it towards the sky (using augmented reality).
Photos of stars to inspire you
And since there is nothing better than a good dose of inspiration, I leave you with this gallery of photos of stars so that, in addition to knowledge, you do not lack the desire.
There you have it all friend. The 14 basic steps that will help you discover that photographing a splendid nightscape of stars is not as difficult as you think.
You dare…? We will be delighted if you share your photos in comments.