Last week, I took a photo of the Milky Way above an old schoolhouse building in Idaho. I posted the photo on our Facebook page, and it received 1,548 likes, 177 comments, and was shared 84 times. I was pretty happy (okay, fine… I was ecstatic) that so many of you said such nice things about my picture.
MANY of you asked how the photo was taken, and wanted a tutorial on photographing the Milky Way. Your wish is my command.
If you are subscribed to this website via email and don't get the videos associated with my posts, be sure to check out the on-location video of me photographing the Milky Way here.
Camera Settings for Night Photography of the Milky Way
Shutter speed – 30 seconds: For this photo, I shot most of the night using a 30 second shutter speed (meaning that a professional tripod is necessary to keep the camera rock solid). I find that if you use a shutter speed that is too long, the stars in the sky start to look oblong because of Earth's rotation. 30 seconds of shutter speed only makes the stars look BARELY oblong, and you really only notice it if you zoom way in on the computer.
However, don't take 30 seconds as the perfect answer for taking pictures of the stars that aren't star trails. The longer the lens you use, the shorter the shutter speed will need to be. If you shoot on a crop sensor camera with an 18mm lens, you probably won't be able to use a shutter speed longer than 15 or 20 seconds, because the stars will appear larger in the frame, so the streaking is far more noticeable.
Aperture – f/2.8: Normally, you would want to use a high aperture for landscape photography to achieve maximum depth-of-field. Photographers often get tricked into thinking they need a very high aperture since the stars are far away, but remember that depth-of-field is about how much of the picture is sharp, not where the sharpness appears.
So the correct aperture for this photo is–the lowest f-stop you have available to you on your lens. By focusing on the stars, you're focused to infinity (the furthest out the lens can focus), so you can use a low f-stop to capture the dim star light.
In this photo, I had a lens (the Nikon 14-24mm lens) that could go down to f/2.8, so that's the aperture value I used to take this picture. The trouble with using such a low aperture value is that I chose to take this picture with a large foreground element, the old schoolhouse, so when I used f/2.8, the house was blurry since I was focused on the stars. Knowing that it would be impossible to shoot a photo in such low light with an f-stop like f/16 that would have afforded me more light, I chose to shoot one picture of the stars at f/2.8 and one picture focused on the house at f/2.8. Then I simply combined the two in Photoshop. If you're a “get it right in the camera” zealot, this may not sound like an attractive way to take this photo, but I promise you that it is also the ONLY way to take this photo. Yep, the only way. You need a high f-stop for the depth-of-field, but a low f-stop for light gathering… so you have to use post-processing.
If you take a photo out in the woods or the desert or another open location with nothing in the foreground to worry about, then you could easily just shoot at f/2.8 and forego the Photoshop bit. But if you're shooting a photo just like mine, there is no other way with current technology.
ISO – 3200: Normally, photographers like to keep the ISO as low as possible to prevent the photos from becoming grainy. However, many types of night photography require high ISO values. Such is the case here, where I shot with an ISO of 3200. If you have a camera made in the last couple years, it will likely allow you to choose an ISO as high as 3200 or even higher (I shot some photos this same night at ISO 6,400).
Since I shot at ISO3200, there is definitely some noise in the picture I took. Frankly, that is unavoidable with current technology, but there are quite a few things you can do to at least mitigate the noise in the photo caused by the high ISO and long shutter speed. One of those methods is long exposure noise reduction.
Long exposure noise reduction is available on all DSLRs (that I know of, anyway) that were made in the last few years. On a Nikon, you'll find “Long Exposure NR” in the shooting menu of the camera. On Canon cameras, go to your menu, then go to custom functions, and browse through them until you find long exposure noise reduction (it's a different custom function on each Canon model). This feature uses a technology called dark frame subtraction that I explain in the video associated with this post.
How to Focus for Night Photography
All autofocus systems require some amount of contrast in order to find proper focus. When shooting at night, there is rarely enough light outside for your camera to autofocus properly. The best way to solve this problem is to look around you for a street light or other light that is the same distance away from you as where you want the focus to be. Then, autofocus on that light, and slide the focus mode switch on your lens to “manual” this will keep the focus where you last set it as long as you don't accidentally twist the manual focus ring at the front of your lens.
If you're taking a picture of the stars and don't have to worry about focusing on anything in the foreground, then you may want to rack your focus all the way out as far as it will go, and then come back just a slight bit. This will focus your lens to infinity (as far as it focuses), which is always the proper focus for shooting the stars. If the moon is bright enough, you could also focus on the moon and then you're set.
If I need to focus on something closer to the camera, like how I focused on the schoolhouse for one of the photos, then shining a bright flashlight or laser pointer on the building will help your camera to find focus. One other technique is to simply show up to the location where you'll be shooting before it's actually night time. Then you can adjust your composition before it gets dark, and lock down your focus while there is still enough available light.
How to See the Milky Way
Most people never see the Milky Way with their naked eye. Usually, the artificial lights from houses and streetlights are too bright for our eyes to see the faint glow of the ring around the Milky Way at night. However, by using the amazing light gathering ability of newer DSLRs, the Milky Way can usually be captured in a picture.
I intentionally waited to take this picture until a night that did not have a bright moon. This lessens the amount of light in the sky to make the Milky Way less visible. Also, I drove 1.5 hours away from the nearest major city to get rid of all of the city lights. In this rural location, I could see the Milky Way with my naked eye, which was intensified when I took a picture and gathered the light with a 30 second exposure.
Frankly, I'm not much of an astronomer to tell you if the Milky Way is visible, or even to point you to a resource where you might find out when and where the Milky Way will be visible. But in Idaho, I find that it's visible most all of the year for most of the night. I just go out and shoot a couple times to know where it will rise and set, and approximately what time of night. For this shoot, I knew the Milky Way became visible as soon as it was FULLY black outside, and was directly overhead around 2PM. Perhaps someone in the comments can point us to a good resource to check the sunrise time/location for different parts of the world.
Conclusion
Photos like this don't happen by accident. It takes a lot of practice and planning to take a photo of the Milky Way, but the payoff is huge! Although it was quite cold outside taking this picture since I didn't bring a proper jacket, the time I got to spend out in the middle of nowhere looking at the brilliant stars for a few hours last week was incredibly soothing.
http://www.timeanddate.com/. Or LunaSolCal for the iPhone; it’s free.
The Milky Way is VISIBLE at 2pm in broad daylight? Did you mean 2AM at night?
When you go, you better be prepared for some of the most stunning night sky views you’ve ever seen.
Your mind will go wowy wow a thousand times over.
BTW, tell everyone of your experience. I’ve never been there but the park is on my bucket list.
use google sky map application to look for milky ways!! 🙂
I just use the Google Sky Map for Android.
hi, what do you do to be able to search it on GSM ? I’ve downloaded it but can’t see the milky way?
Thanks so much for the tutorial. 2 questions:
1. Did you “paint with light” in order to light the building? If so, what type of light did you use? My experience has been that different flashlights will have different bulbs that might mess up the white balance. i.e. – end up with a blue building but the stars look great. Would love to know what you recommend.
2. When getting the building in focus for the one shot that you will later replace the out of focus building in PS with, do you still do a 30 second exposure? Thanks so much for your time!
I enjoyed your article, good information. For sunrise and sunsets, moonrise and moonsets use app.photoephemeris.com It is an excellent application web-based and available for your smartphone as well.
Thanks a lot for this excellent information 🙂 Am going to apply it on an outing later this month during new moon (South Africa)
use Sky Safari on a smart phone to check when to shoot the milkyway
Love the info and photos. Use PhotoPills app for iPhone/pad/pod has a night VR mode to show elevation/height/center/direction and what it will look like at your selected location during any date and time very nice. An A7s (full frame) camera least expensive camera for night work and at $400 the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 (available for Canon and Nikon) best deal this combo at highest ISO is like night vision and cameras output least noisy at >3200. Checkout LonelySpeck.com for review. Remember on APS-C sensor to multiply lens mm by the crop factor to get correct shooting mm. Like Canon has a EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 (for APS-C) that is really 16-35mm for a great price and it is very hard to find a real 16mm for APS-C so is real gold mine for the money (half the price of a full frame EF 16-35mm). One last thought try ISO HDR to get expose to the right captures, 3 shots +/- 2 ev in manual mode with ISO in auto. Happy hunting from Feb (look southeast fm 3am to 5am) to Oct (look southwest fm 9 to 11pm) and in July almost due south at midnight highest height. oh and you watch the weather for clear skies for 6 days during new moon. one other thing in camera noise reduction is for Jpeg output not RAW but when shooting RAW only the view on LCD is a Jpeg image so even turned off it still processes a jpeg image with noise reduction but faster. Also there are battery powered heat raps to keep the due off lens that will last all night.
Would love to see a follow-up to this on the post processing of the two images. Everything from white balance to the layering of the two photos really determines whether or not the photo will pop, which yours definitely does. Thanks so much for the walk through!
I will try directions tonight. It’s my second try. First time out, I tried different advice and it was a complete fail. I have limited equipment. Canon 50D and lens are 50M 1.8, 28-250 3.5 or 70-300 4-5.6. Is there one of these which is better suited to night than the others and why? I tried the 50M and came home with blank shots. Complete novice, but willing to work, explore and grow.
Appreciate any advice.
Your best bet with what you have is the 50mm 1.4. Probably not really wide enough but you should get some of it. The 1.4 is what will make it work for you. You’ll be able to reduce your shutter speed without increasing the ISO too much. The 1.4 will help you avoid noise by having a lower ISO, and you will also avoid some of the oblong stars because your shutter speed will be faster. You’re going to have a balancing act between those variables. In the end it will be what you can tolerate between noise and oblong stars.
I’ve got a 50D too Chilly! Going out tonight and hopefully get a good shot of the MW! I’ve got the old fashioned EF 18-200mm that came in the 50D kit.
any lens or any camera can achieved this picture, but like mention it takes practice and patience. the key is to use the shortest lens you got !! even a 28-250 3.5 will do ! it’s all in what you witch to see in the picture and of course at 250mm you wont get much in the picture !!
one trick with zoom lens or any automated lens is to set it up ( focus & f stop) and when all is ready turn all your equipment to manual and then press the button to release your lens and turn your lens just a bit to avoid electronic contact! that way you know your camera wont change anything during the period it’s taking a picture.
try as much as possible and even just after the sun as set stars start appearing that is a good time to start shooting cause you can see where your focusing and it’s easer to see what as gone wrong exposure to long or bad setting !! if you can afford a time lapse remote for your cameras ( http://www.amazon.ca/Canon-TC-80N3-Remote-Controller-Cameras/dp/B00009XVA3 ) try shooting time lapse you will learn a lot about how long to shoot a picture and how to set them up, I do agree that to get a good time-lapse ( clear image) is hard but you can easily make smaller time-lapse with QuickTime pro and learn a lot about exposure and duration of a picture!
You say that this photo can’t be done without layering because you have to use a lower f-stop. why not use a higher f-stop and use a torch to light paint the shed?
higher f stop cuts light into the exposure witch will require a longer exposure with will create star trail !!!
You’d be struggling to gather the light from the stars at f16 I think. I’ve not tried it myself but with such a small aperture i doubt the stars are gonna stand out and ultimately this kind of shots all about those stars. Really nice tutorial by the way 🙂
How can I make this work without a tripod? I lost mine, bummer. 🙁
lay your camera on a book and put a rock and a bungee cord around or on something to make shure noting will move, as long as that is under your camera is 100% solid and won’t move it should me fine,
Is it possible to photograph it with a 35mm 1.8G or 17-70mm 2.8-4 on a DX camera (D3300) or will I need to buy a WAL?
It certainly is. I’ve taken many MW shots with my 35mm f1.8 lens.
Here’s one I took with this lens:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevor_dobson_inefekt69/22053400372/in/dateposted/
Ok, it’s more than one photo, in fact it’s a mosaic of 42 but it’s still possible to capture the core in great detail with a 35mm f1.8 lens.
This article rocks!Faved! 😉
Can a nikon cool pixels L330 work for this?
buy a remote ( if ones compatible ) and set your cam to bulb or rock solid tripod and hold the shutter button on bulb
*nikon coolpix L330
Is it possible to capture the Milky Way with a bridge camera? I have a Nikon L830 can that work or do I need to have DSLR?
Yes it’s possible but… way harder!
I was able to do it with a Lumix FZ38, by stacking a lot of frames (100/150). Shooted using the “500 rule” to avoid star trail and the lowest possible ISO. You MUST have a decent tripod and a remote shutter (if not, don’t bother), a lot o patience for stacking the frames the best way possible and keepthe follow in your head: There will be lots of noise in your final renders (small sensor) and because ther’s not much manual control in bridge cameras, it will be realy hard to focus.
But do it! Go out and look up 🙂
Stellarium is a free software that shows you everything in the sky and at what time. It’s invaluable. also there is a free app called SkyPortal that I use on my phone in the field.
It was free Travis. I ended up getting the SkyView app which is free as of 18 July ’15.