Jason Little is a photographer (shooting macros, portraits, candids, and the occasional landscape), part time writer, and full time lover of music. You can see Jason’s photography on his photography blog or on Flickr.
But we no longer have to leave all the fun to full-time astronomers; given the wide accessibility to and technological sophistication of digital cameras, anyone can photograph the universe. And one of the easiest astrophotography subjects to capture is also one of the most impressive: the Milky Way Galaxy. Let’s look at exactly how to photograph the milky way for stunning results.
Obviously we can’t photograph the whole galaxy since we live inside of it; that famous white streak that dominates so much of the night sky is actually the light of billions of stars whose light, from our point of view on earth, seems to blend together, sporadically obscured by dust and gas clouds. In reality, all we are seeing is a small, edge-on view of the galaxy’s plane. Small, but impressive.
Here’s how you can capture a bit of the Milky Way for yourself.
- Find a dark sky. Just waiting until nighttime won’t do. A dark sky free of light pollution is the first and most important requirement to even seeing the Milky Way, let alone photographing it. Be prepared to travel a considerable distance, otherwise you run the risk of city lights making their mark in your shots. The moon can have a similar impact on your Milky Way photos; shooting during a full moon will wash out your images. Try to shoot during a new moon.
- Know when and where to look. The part of the Milky Way that is most easily visible to the naked eye isn’t visible all year round, especially for those in the Northern Hemisphere where February through September are the optimal times. You will find your celestial subject in the southern half of the sky, rising from the west. Residents in the Southern Hemisphere may have a slight advantage in this regard, as the central parts of the Milky Way can be seen overhead.
- Use a digital camera with good high ISO capabilities. You’ll be shooting at night with very little available light; you want your camera’s sensor to be able to handle the shooting conditions without introducing an excessive amount of noise. A full-frame camera is preferable but certainly not a necessity.
- Use a fast wide angle lens. You should work with a lens with a maximum aperture of at least f/2.8; the faster the better. It’s not that you’re totally out of luck if your fastest lens is f/3.5 or so, but you’ll have more of a challenge on your hands since the lens won’t be able to gather as much light. The same principle applies to focal length; go as wide as you can. You may be seeing only a fraction of the Milky Way, but it’s still monstrous in size. The wider your lens, the more of it you can capture.
- Use a tripod. This really isn’t optional. Bells and whistles are nice, but sturdiness is your number one concern.
- Use live view. To avoid the headache of trying to focus in the dark, use your camera’s live view feature to manually focus on a bright star. Alternatively, you could use the distance markings on your lens (if it has them) to set hyperfocal distance.
- Start with ISO 3200. Referring back to the first point, a high ISO is essential to collecting enough light to render a bright image of the Milky Way. Under typical conditions, ISO 3200 is a good starting place. Based on how well this plays with other camera settings, you can go higher or lower from there.
- Set a long shutter speed. This is how you will capture more light and create a sufficiently bright exposure. There just one problem, though. The planet doesn’t care if you’re new at astrophotography; it’s going to keep on rotating, which means if you leave the shutter open for too long, you’ll end up with star trails. There’s nothing wrong with star trails when that’s what you’re aiming for, but they aren’t really desirable for photographing the Milky Way. To get pinpoint stars, use the “500 rule,” which calls for you to divide 500 by the focal length of the lens you’re using. So, if you have a 24mm lens on a full-frame camera, you will set your shutter speed to 20 sec. (500/24 = 20.83). If you’re working with a crop sensor camera be sure to account for the crop factor (typically 1.5 for Nikon and Sony, 1.6 for Canon). As an example, using the same 24mm lens on a Nikon crop, you’d end up with an effective focal length of 36mm (24×1.5 = 36). Applying the 500 rule will yield a shutter speed of 13 sec. (500/36 = 13.89). There are those who debate about whether to use the 500 rule or the similar 600 rule; without delving further into the mathematics of it all, it really is more a matter of visual perception. In short, stick with the 500 rule, especially if you intend to make poster size prints. If, after you’ve gotten more comfortable and done some experimenting, you find the “600 rule” works better for you (should be find for web images) then definitely go with that.
- Set a wide open aperture. Remember, it’s all about collecting as much light as possible; depth of field isn’t the primary concern here. In case of any significant softness you’ll want to stop your lens down. This is why it’s so important to use a fast lens in the first place; if you know your lens is unacceptably soft at f/1.4, stopping down to f/2 will sharpen things up without having a severe impact on the lens’ light gathering ability.
- Compose your shot. There’s no right way or wrong way to compose your shot, but you can create a sense of depth by framing this as a standard landscape shot with the Milky Way serving as the background. Just because it’s dark out doesn’t mean you should forget about the foreground, though; you can add interest to your scene by including hills or mountains, trees, rock formations, or even a person. Experiment all you want.
- Get a satisfactory exposure. It’s very likely that your first shot won’t be an exposure you’re satisfied with (if you’re not happy with the focus or composition, adjust those things before moving on to worrying about exposure). If the exposure isn’t “right,” you’ll have to identify the problem and work from there. If there’s too much noise, simply decrease the ISO. If the shot is overexposed, check your surroundings for light pollution; decrease shutter speed; stop down the lens; or decrease ISO. If it’s underexposed, make sure you’re using the widest aperture on your lens; increase shutter speed (but beware of star trails forming); increase ISO.
- Process it. There will be a lot of variation at this final stage and, again, there is no one right way to handle the post processing of your shots. The two most important things you can do to make post processing a little easier is to shoot raw and get the best exposure you can in-camera. You may need to apply some sharpness and noise reduction. According to some sources, the color temperature of the Milky Way is around 4840°K; if you find it too much on the yellow/orange side, adjust white balance until you have a neutral scene. You will definitely need to increase contrast; it’s okay to be a bit heavy handed here, so long as you’re not losing shadow detail. If the photo editing software you are using allows curves adjustments, make use of it, as you can be more precise with your work. Assuming you got a good in-camera exposure you shouldn’t have to play with the exposure slider too much.
10 Extraordinary Photographs of the Starry Night Sky
Ben Canales offers up not only stellar night photography, but also a humble and inspirational spirit that encourages other photographers to try it out. Here are 10 examples of his phenomenal work, his thoughts about light pollution and its impact on our understanding of the environment, and a great video where he teaches us the techniques he uses to get these shots.
I mean really... how often do we get to see something like this in person, let alone in a photograph? Nope, this image hasn't been photoshopped to high heaven to get that milkyway mirroring the mountain. Sure, there's some post-processing involved, but much of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time, and knowing what to do with your camera, as Ben Canales most certainly does.
The power of the stars to inspire awe is something too many of us have not experienced thanks to light pollution and atmospheric pollution. Ben took the time to talk with me about his own "awakening" experience that in no small part has influenced his choice of subject in photography.
About 90 percent of my night shots come from the wonderful landscapes and dark skies of Oregon, but my love of the stars started young in my home state of New Jersey.
It's sad and funny at the same time, but growing up in conglomerate suburb of Philadelphia, New York City, and Atlantic City casinos- the city lights all but obliterated most view of the stars. A deep, starry night was seeing only the Big Dipper, Orion, and a few other stars in total. I knew about the Milky Way, but it was something studied in science class, not seen in the sky.
It wasn't until I was backpacking in Australia in my early 20's that I saw the Milky Way with my own eyes. The experience was so shocking, that I still remember it vividly.
In the middle of the night, I stepped out of my tent to find a bathroom amongst the trees, and while taking care of business I was just looking up at the stars. It was almost a perfectly clear, cloudless sky except for one cloud. As I stood there, the cloud stayed in place amongst the stars. This was odd because a stiff breeze was blowing that should have been carrying the cloud along. It was such an odd sight, a cloud staying still in heavy wind, and a cloud unlike any I'd ever seen, I stood staring for 5-10 minutes watching it, waiting for it to blow away. Then suddenly it smacked me like a ton of bricks, "That's the Milky Way!!!!!!" I was in awe. I stayed up for the next two hours just staring at the sky.
Ben's experience is probably not that rare for those who grow up in urban areas and head out camping for the first time. I remember camping as a little girl, looking up into the sky and having an "ah ha!" moment realizing for the first time why cowboys say they sleep under a "blanket of stars." They were so thick, they almost felt like they had weight, pushing gently down from above me.
Yet we're amazingly good at forgetting the profound beauty of nature a short time after we come up with technologies that erase it, slowly or with one fell swoop. Luckily, the stars are something that will come back under the right circumstances.
Since that experience, I realized my light polluted night sky back home in New Jersey did not have to be the standard. Beautiful views of stars still existed in far away places. My hunt for dark starry nights continued over the next couple years with captures of views in New York state's Adirondack Mountains, then many nights while working overseas on a small, Italian island of Sardegnia, and again a heart stirring view of the Milky Way while on a ship out to sea doing loops around the island of Guam.
I carried all theses experiences as special, rare memories from far away trips...until I moved to Oregon.
In Oregon, I've found the stars are still intact and the night sky is still beautifully viewable only an hour or more drive away from our largest city of Portland.
Here, I am like a kid in a candy store. It doesn't take international trips to Italian islands, Australian tablelands, or cruises in the South Pacific to see the stars. Thanks to wide open spaces, many of my favorite outdoor hikes, swims, and climbs get visited nightly by the most beautiful view of the stars as I had seen before in other countries.
Canales has only been photographing stars for a short time. He has clearly poured passion into bringing the stars to life infront of our eyes. Sometimes it takes more than one shot -- for example, this image is a combination of about 50 exposures, stacked together in Photoshop.
However, for most images, a single long-exposure shot is all it takes.
The shot above seems like every adventurer's dream -- to be sacked out at the top of the world. Ironically, Canales states, "Shooting this scene took on less of an epic, mountain top adventure feeling; but instead it had a seemed more like a treasured visit to the Wise Man on the mountain. After many Summer months chasing the Milky Way in completely dark, Moonless night skies- this evening was truly a needed treat"
Getting the milky way AND a milky waterfall in the same shot is quite a feat. Canales says that the only post work "was a slight tilt adjustment and WB tweak!" -- that is truly impressive.
Having come from the dense suburbs of the Northeast US, growing up under a light polluted sky and now living so close to dark sky views here in Oregon, I feel grateful to know that the views of the stars are still possible. And, I am honored to be able to take pictures of these experiences and share them with others that don't have the opportunity to leave the thick light polluted nights of the cities.
I believe it is in all our interest to protect these unpolluted empty places and, at the same time, make effort to peel back the light pollution we have already created in existing communities.
Unlike many other forms of pollution, such as atmospheric, ocean, etc- light pollution can be reversed effectively and immediately by placing simple light guards on existing lights and putting new ordinances in our building laws for future lights yet to be installed. The International Dark Sky Association has gone to great lengths to design new light shields, provide education for the public about light pollution and reclaim our view of the night sky.
Indeed, the organization has even given weight to areas without light pollution -- for example, declaring the island of Sark the world's first "dark sky community" after efforts to reduce light pollution as much as possible.
Light pollution is a tricky thing to stand up against. We can't really defend that we are getting sick from it, as if it is causing cancer. We can't point to it and say fish and game are diminishing because of it. We can't go to Congress and argue the national deficit is being affected by light pollution.
So, it's a difficult thing to nail down why it is a worthy cause to trumpet against.
But, as a kid from Jersey that now knows what the REAL view of the stars can be, I will say we are losing access to a great source of inspiration for us as a race. We are willingly giving up access to what has historically been a reason to dream and hope for something better, simply from lack of understanding that our night lighting can be designed better.
When a current top-40 song sings, "Can we pretend that airplanes/ In the night sky are like shooting stars?/ I could really use a wish right now/ Wish right now, wish right now" In my opinion, this is a tragedy.
We've done more than lose sight of the stars, we are losing ourselves.
But, fortunately, the damage isn't permanent, and it can all be reversed and changed. Hopefully some of the images I capture under the beautiful dark skies of Oregon will be reason to think about bringing back these possibilities to the rest of our communities by simply changing a light.
In July, Ben found out he won first place in the travel photo competition for National Geographic, which included a 2-week trek for two to the British and Irish Isle aboard the National Geographic Explorer. If that isn't a prize to covet, I'm not sure what is!
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