Shooting the Milky Way

 


Tuesday evening I had the pleasure of teaching a class "Shooting the Milky Way" for members of the Emerald Coast Camera Club.

Last year I became interested in photographing the Milky Way after seeing many great images from around our area. With the hot summer days here in NW Florida, it's a perfect way to beat the heat and get out with my camera. I did some research on the subject and tried my hand at it, finding out that it really isn't all the difficult. The hard part, is in the post processing and finding that right technique to make the Milky Way shine. After lots of trial and error, I finally came across one that works for me.

So this year, with all my new found knowledge, I struck out several times and ended up with (what I think ) are some pretty good shots. Now for me, that also means finding an interesting foreground that complements the Milky Way in the picture. Here along the coast, that means, the local pier, beach pavilions, interesting shaped dunes, etc.

After compiling a pretty nice portfolio, of Milky Way shots, I found it's really not as hard as you may think. Of course, I was intimidated at first and noticed many people wished they could learn how to do it also. This gave me the idea about spreading my knowledge to others in the way of a class.




I put out a feeler to our camera club members to gauge interest in holding a class on Milky Way photography and got a lot of positive feedback.

This leads me to the class itself, there was a nice turn out, with around 12 fellow club members. Being a weeknight I understand several folks couldn't make it, but another one will be held on a weekend to support those folks.

In the class, I went over everything I could think of to help out photographers new to astro photography. We covered everything from How to find it, applications to help see when the best nights and times to shoot it, equipment needed, settings and finally some post processing tips. I also put together a handout outlining the class for notes and to follow along with.

As a bonus for my readers, here is the outline with a lot of good information you  mite find useful should you decide to give Astro Photography a whirl.


 Where is it?

 

Southern Sky, May-Oct

 

 

How to find it.

 

 Large elongated cloud like structure in the southern sky. Around the brightest star (Jupiter)

 

Helpful Phone Apps I use: Sky Safari, Channel 3's weather app, Clear Outside and LunaSolCal. Photo Pils is a great app, for photographers, but it is a pay app.

 

 

Gear,

 

Camera you can use in manual mode and focus manually.

 

Wide Lens

 

Sturdy Tripod

 

Flashlight/headlamp (red lens for the beach)

 

L Bracket (makes camera orientation easier)

 

 

Technique

 

Dark areas with minimal light pollution work best.

 

Set aperture to the smallest f-stop

 

Use a higher ISO 1000 and up, use what works best for your camera.

 

White balance 3500-4000 works good, experiment and set for the look you like.

 

Shutter to 15-30 seconds (500 Rule - divided your lens focal length into 500, this will give you a shutter speed to start with minimal star trails.  Example: 500 divided by 24mm = 20 seconds.

 

Manual Focus using live view on the brightest star, zoom in, focus back and forth until star is a pinpoint. You can also use b bright light in the distance.

 

Composition

 

Just as important at night as daytime.

 

Find a interesting or compelling foreground to complement the milky way.

 

Take your shot and tweek as necessary.

 

 

Basic Processing

 

Many different ways and many different programs. Check Youtube for a video and processing tips you like.

 

For Me: Adobe Camera Raw, I set the white balance first to my liking

 

I drop the highlights all the way then boost the whites to my liking and adjust other setting accordingly.

 

In Photoshop Elements, dodge and burn the milky way to bring out more contrast and brightness.

 

I use layer masking to adjust the foreground color/brightness, usually by desaturating the foreground to a more natural look.

The class was a success and I look forward to the next one. I'll leave you with a couple more shots, Enjoy and until next time................







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