Want to try astrophotography? Read on!
Astrophotography might seem like something off limits to you, unless you have spent thousands of pounds on equipment (don’t get me wrong, it is certainly easier and often more successful if you have!) but it’s actually easier than most people think. As long as you have a camera (mirrorless, DSLR, even phones these days!) and a tripod you can take photos of the Milky Way. If you are not interested in post-processing, then this probably isn’t for you - that’s the one thing you will absolutely need (photoshop or similar), especially if you only have basic equipment.
Planning
Use a light pollution map (I use www.lightpollutionmap.info) to find dark skies for your shoot and don’t forget to look in the direction of the Milky Way core as well – shooting facing away from any towns or cities is essential – this is more relevant for sections of the SWCP on the northern coastlines of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
There are a number of apps you can use to check when and where the core of the Milky Way rises – at this time of year it is usually around 3-5am towards the south. Make sure you aim for a few days either side of a new moon as well. PhotoPills is what I use to plan all my shots and is very effective.
Make sure you get to your site in daylight to find your foreground composition – this is almost impossible in the pitch black and will save you lots of time on your shoot.
Equipment
A camera – any camera (even a good phone camera) is capable of capturing shots of the Milky Way these days.
A sturdy tripod and shutter release cable are essential to take your photos with longer shutter speeds.
Get a head torch with a red light – this doesn’t affect your night vision as much as normal light
Fast prime lenses are the best for astrophotography, look for an aperture of f2.8 or wider (f1.8 is even better)
Optionally, a star tracker – there are a number of fairly affordable and portable star trackers on the market now (MoveShootMove or Omegon Mini Track). These track the movement of the stars and allow you to use more favourable camera settings and longer shutter speeds. This can be an alternative to buying a new camera or lens and can work out much cheaper and yields amazing results.
Camera Settings, Processing and Composition
If using a DSLR or similar – use a wide aperture (f2.8 for example), a high ISO (3200-6400) and a long shutter speed (10-20 seconds depending on focal length – see below).
Use the rule of 400 to work out your maximum shutter speed – on a full frame camera this is about 400/focal length (so a 20mm lens should have a maximum of 20 seconds shutter speed - 400 divided by 20).
Focusing at night is easiest if you use live view, find a very bright star and then manually focus on that – turn off automatic focusing.
Photographing foregrounds is often the trickiest part of astrophotography – especially as you’ll normally be working with a new moon. Using artificial lighting is one option (a torch or similar during a long shutter speed to light up the foreground) or even taking your foreground shots during blue hour and then blending the two together in your processing.
When it comes to composing your photo, do not forget to try changing the height of the tripod – you will be surprised how much of a difference this can make.
Stacking is a really good way of processing your photos if you only have a basic set of equipment – you can take 10-20 photos of the Milky Way and then process these to remove the noise that you get when using a high ISO - this is basically taking an average of each pixel and clears up images really nicely.