Nightscape – How I shoot the stars and Milky Way …

update an old share from previous old blog site How I shoot stars.

it is not difficult to shoot stars as long as we have the luck and right setting, and let me share some of my experience… but it is fun and tiring for sure ……

as Earth is rotating itself, so all the stars are moving (except for the Poles star, North star, or call Polaris)… so while we shoot the sky for more than certain time the stars will become either lines or circle (depend which direction, how long you shoot usually >30s small line will be appear). to avoid this, extra telescope equipment (e.g.Losmandy G11 with Celestron C8), we can either shoot a star trail or max ~30-50s else the star will be look like a small lines instead of blinking stars….

e.g. of 727s single exposure

and sample of 30s

– I do not own one those equipment so I do not know in depth .. but basic is those equipment will auto trace the stars so we can have longer exposure (which really need it while in real dark environment and do not want to shoot super high ISO

so … I shoot as below
1. star trail

a. in real dark environment, make a rough estimation of exposure with setting below
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. for the exposure depend on the light pollution … may need few try to get right exposure
vii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground

– refer picture above expose 700s in single shutter

b. not so dark environment
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. shoot 10-30s depend how bad is the light pollution
vii. set shooting mode to continuous shooting, and use remote to continue shooting for >20mintues (you should see some line or curve depend which direction you face)
viii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground
viiii. use a software call startrail.exe (google it) or StarStax (MAC) and it can auto stack the all shots into single frame which combine the star as line/curve

or check out here
x. shoot north and south 😀 , if possible… if you prefer circle/curve compare to lines
xi. I use a software load into my android call skymap .. real coold application, you should have it , if you love night photography

so here is few sample for option b

~40minutes exposure

exposure of ~30minutes of F2.8 @ISO800

 

to capture Milky Way, it is almost same like a star but it is more sensitive to light pollution and rotation.. (mean star trail , and we try to avoid that for Milky way as it crease blur cloud object instead the beautiful milky way)

we may need to take note of rule 600 where

600 rule simply basic rule to avoid “star trail” effect while we have too long exposure on our effective focal length.. e.g.

16mm on FULL frame, we should have max exposure of 600/16=37.5s

16mm on canon APS-c , we should have max exposure of 600/16*1.6=23.4

so if we have anything more than the exposure time the the rotation of earth will create “star trail” effect create blur effect on to our frame.

 

with minimum light pollution .. the color of the milky will look so beautiful

.. Milky from Bake’lalan …

from Bali …

… Milky way from Bali …

 

e.g. of light pollution

… city light pollution …

 

and Milky way near city (Kuala Lumpur) .. not viewable by nake eye .. but make use of big aperture len .. it can be capture

… city Milky way …

 

 

 

### update June 2012

some other topic may related

Nightscape – Other light sources ?

How I shoot Milky Way with smaller aperture lenses

more NIGHTSCAPE picture .. click HERE

Nightscape – weather getting better

I found this place ~2 years ago while I look for macro spots but accidentally found this is a nice place for birding (birds seem not too worry/shy to human) ….

While I revisit this place last few weeks ago, found this is a good spot for nightscape, sunrise, and sunset too …. so decide to travel ~160km from KL toward north … while we reach we are shock with the stars and the stars reflection on the lakes ….

within 48 hours I make 2nd visit and continue to shoot the star trail .. which I stop sharing months back due to the bad schedule and weather ……….

45 pictures stack
each 40s , ISO800, F2.8 (Fisheye)

5dm2

I am sure this place going to be another famous spots for night scape, sunrise and sunset soon … but before I share out the location let’s me check is this private area or public 😀

more Perak pictures will share below folder

Landscape : Will you go out for Photography while Monsoon Season ?

every year Nov -Jan , Peninsular Malaysia will have Monsoon season or we call raining season … some places of east coast of Malaysia always face flood issue after days raining … and most of the fisherman stop go out to sea due to the bad weather ….

Most of the photographer will get rest this period as normally the sky look cloudy … wave is too strong …. but I have the plan to shoot the wave, slow shutter … and if luck on my side then I can get strong wave hit the rock .. so  I went there 2 times 2010 for my wish …. even though we not seeing any sun at all for ~6 days trip but I still enjoy the strong wave … and beautiful places found (thanks Yusri, Azizi & CK Zinal for bringing us there…)

a quick capture how strong is the wave

even we missed out the beautiful egg yolk

but we still trying our best to get some slow shutter shots

cloudy day is good too

How Shunfa shooting a slow shutter in this type of environment … and video below show how he shoot slow shutter without filter holder 😀

there are few issue shooting in this type of environment

1. get ready be wet, get extra shirt, pants ….
2. protect your gear
3. solid tripod
4. look for stable ground (rocks) for tripod
5. temperature different cause Water vapor inside len

safety first ……..

More Beautiful pictures from Malaysia East Coast – Terengganu