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A couple of links i want to throw out for those who are interested in locating and shooting the Milky Way. Check out Clear Dark Sky for star-gazing forecasts [
by sakopov 10y ago
A couple of links i want to throw out for those who are interested in locating and shooting the Milky Way.
Check out Clear Dark Sky for star-gazing forecasts [1] and download Sky Walk on your phone for locating the Milky Way (along with just about anything else you're looking for) [2].
For those of you guys near Denver area check out Last Chance, Colorado for some VERY dark night skies.
Here is how i shoot with DSLR...
1. Get a sturdy tripod.
2. Get a remote-release (preferably with timer) to avoid any vibrations during exposure. They're typically around $20.
3. Shoot on the lowest f-stop you lens supports. I shoot with f/2.8.
4. Zoom all the way out.
5. Set the focus on manual & focus your lens on infinity. You'll typically see the infinity symbol on the lens. If you don't have one, just rotate the focus ring all the way until it doesn't move and then typically just a notch back (2-3 millimeters). I find that that usually works. Some folks do this before they get out at night to shoot.
You just have to be extra careful and not touch the lens or make a mark on the lens so that you can always set it back.
6. Set your ISO to anywhere from 400-800.
7. Cover the eye-piece.
8. Start shooting! Your exposure time is probably going to be somewhere between 10-20 seconds to get a crystal clear shot. So this is where you experiment with ISOs and exposure times. This will all depend on how dark your dark spot is :)
Shooting the night sky is fairly trivial. Finding a good spot is incredibly difficult.
I don't do a lot of Milky Way stuff since it's such a pain to find a good spot, but i do all night time stuff pretty much the same way [3]
[1] http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/ http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/
[2] http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk-2-guide-sky-night-day.html http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk-2-guide-sky-night-day.ht...
[3] https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeyakopov/27003195396/in/dateposted/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeyakopov/27003195396/in/da...
- Jerry2 10y agoAwesome advice! Quick question... what's that series of dots in [3]... just above and to the left of the tree?
- sakopov 10y agoIf you're talking about the long streak of dots it's most likely a plane and the side-effect of a photo-edit gone bad :)
- gf263 10y agoShooting around F/8 will lead far greater sharpness than f/2.8 if you're focusing on infinity
- BeetleB 10y agoF/8 will allow so little light in you really won't get much of the Milky Way. The usual suggestion is the lowest F-stop, and the widest lens. On my 21mm, at F/2.8 shooting at ISO 1600 for 30 seconds, I get a poor Milky Way. Were I to do it at F/8.0, I'd get virtually no milky way.
- BeetleB 10y agoOn most lenses I've used, the infinity mark is incorrect. Find the true infinity. The method is to focus on a distant light source. Switch to Live View, magnify and focus until the light source is "smallest" (if it is far enough, it will be a point). (By magnify I mean digitally on the display - not by zooming in your lens). Now you're at infinity. As for ISO, it'll depend on how good your sensor is. But most people need well beyond 800.
- maxxxxx 10y agoYour ISO seems a little low. I usually shoot at ISO 3200, F2.8 and 20-30 seconds
- sakopov 10y agoAll depends on the site you find. I usually don't have anything super dark within reasonable range and shoot at 800 most of the time. 3200 is probably pretty grainy, isn't it? I think the highest I've ever gone with my wide-angle lens was 1300 to capture this time-lapse [1] in Colorado with a pretty bleak Milky Way. [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeyakopov/11723352663/in/dateposted/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeyakopov/11723352663/in/da...
- maxxxxx 10y ago3200 is grainy, true. But usually it's not too bad. I just don't think with 800 you'll get that many stars and the richness of the Milky Way. If I didn't live in LA I would try ISO 800 tonight and compare with 3200 but I'll have to wait until I get to a dark place again.