home Audience 3 How to photograph the night sky. How to photograph the night starry sky

How to photograph the night sky. How to photograph the night starry sky

Take your FF photo taken with a specific lens. You can easily make a cropped photo from it in Photoshop by simply cutting out the central part with a coefficient. 1.5, which will meet the requirements for a photo taken with a cropped matrix. Compare both images at 100% scale. The length of the tracks will be exactly the same. Because it’s the same star, the same pixel size and the same focal length. But the EGF will be different.
- So no one argues. But I'm not talking about looking at 100% crops, I'm talking about the actual use of real lenses by people. Take two photographs taken with the same lens, but on 2 different matrices (FF and crop 1.5), print them out 20x30 and look at them. A photo taken with a cropped body will have a 1.5 times smaller viewing angle and 1.5 times more noticeable star tracks. All other things being equal, of course. That is why, when taking a photo with a cropped camera with the same focal length, it is necessary shorten shutter speed by 1.5 times. And I talk about this in my note. Once again, I'm talking about that, all other things being equal, and with an increase in the crop factor, the shutter speed should be increased.

In addition, you do not take into account the fact that along with the crop factor, as you correctly noted, the resolution of the matrix does not decrease. For example, all modern cropped Nikons are available with 24MP matrices (d5300-5300, d7100, and so on). So what of this?

We have:
2 cameras, crop 1.5 and 1
1 lens, 15mm
Let's take two shots:
ISO 800, 30 seconds.
We open 100% magnification of both frames, each of which is 24mp.
What will we see?
What we will see is that the tracks are more noticeable on the crop.

I’m not crazy about cutting something out of my 24MP frames and turning them into 10.5MP, almost no one does this in reality. Everyone is squeezing out of their matrices what they are capable of. And your hypothetical example about the cut out fragment is all true, but it has nothing to do with reality. So you will reach the point where you don’t need to buy, say, 135mm at all, but you can shoot everything at 10mm, then crop it, and there will be no difference. Because since at 10 mm the tracks are almost invisible at 30 seconds, then at 135 they will not be visible. And it doesn’t matter that if you cut out a piece corresponding to 135mm from a 10mm frame, you’ll end up with just 0.3 megapixels. Print them on the wall 100x60 and rejoice.

— The reason why you get longer tracks on crop with the same parameters as on FF is based on point 2. Manufacturers usually try to maintain the same resolution in cropped cameras as on FF.

What are you saying? Is it true? Did you just prove yourself wrong? Or is it just me, and you simply advise people who use cropped cameras to reduce the size of the finished photo to avoid blur? Or maybe it's worth printing them in a smaller size?
Wouldn't it be better to follow my advice, shorten the shutter speed and get shorter tracks?

And in order to fit the same number of pixels into a smaller matrix, their size has to be reduced. And a smaller pixel means more blur.
So who's arguing? I tell him about Foma, he tells me about Yerema! More blur - well, we shorten the shutter speed and shoot, what's the problem?

Probably the problem is that I, as a person who takes a picture and is not involved in measuring pixels, always focus on appearance ready frame, and not on techno-fetishists who need some mythical numbers. Friend, my advice is addressed to photographers. For those who receive a finished, solid, 3x2 picture, which will be printed on paper, and will not be examined in special laboratories under a magnifying glass. And in my case, these tips are much more relevant than the theory of a small pixel, which is relevant only when looking at a picture at 100% magnification.

Alexander Pavlov, June 2013

Most photographers believe that after the sun has set below the horizon, there is nothing special to shoot. The only source of light at night is the moon. The light from the stars is not enough to somehow illuminate the surrounding landscape. Night photography is one of the most challenging types of landscape photography. Due to the need to shoot with long shutter speeds, it turns out that this is also the most unproductive form of photography, but all this is more than compensated for by the unusual results obtained. What you can shoot at night is simply impossible to see with your own eyes. For this reason, good night landscapes attract the attention of viewers.

Below we will look at the 8 necessary conditions for getting a good shot; of course, there are more, but we will focus on the most basic ones.

1. Shooting location

First of all, you need to look for a place to shoot, and it’s better to do this during daylight hours, for example in the evening before sunset. Without a foreground, the photo will be boring. The ideal option is a dry tree, boulders, ruins of something, or something clearly recognizable by its silhouette. The silhouettes of the mountains look great (saw them in the pictures). The location for the first planned photograph of the tracks was found on satellite maps, 7-8 kilometers from the city - a lone birch tree planted in a field (17mm, ISO400, F/8, exposure 6 minutes, 19 frames)

It is advisable that there is no strong light in the shooting direction.

Photographers often pay a lot of attention to the camera, lenses and other accessories, which is certainly correct, but they use whatever tripod they need, postponing the purchase of a good tripod until later. Indeed, at first glance, a tripod does not have a decisive effect on the resulting picture - the light passes through the lens, is caught by the matrix, processed by the camera processor, and so on, and it does not matter whether the camera is placed on a nearby stump, or tied to a tree, or mounted on expensive tripod.

However, a convenient tripod with a good quality head will help you shoot more comfortably, secure the camera more firmly, frame the frame better, make you pay attention to the horizon and other little things that make up a beautiful picture, and make shooting enjoyable. A carbon tripod, such as Manfrotto, also weighs a little, instantly unfolds and can be adjusted in different ways. If you don't already have a good, reliable tripod, I recommend thinking about getting one right now!

3. Programmable remote control

The remote control is useful not only at night, but especially when shooting at night without a remote control. The remote control will allow you to set the shutter speed from several minutes, set the number of frames and the interval between frames. Any Chinese one from ebay.com for $15 will do. You can buy a native remote control for your camera, but prices for branded accessories are usually much higher, for example the TC-80N3 remote control for Canon EOS 5D Mark II costs 6,090 rubles, which is more than 12.5 times more expensive than the Chinese one :-)

4. Powerful flashlight

A powerful flashlight is useful for illuminating the focus point and possibly the foreground. It is also advisable to take a low-power flashlight (preferably a headlamp) to illuminate the camera - your hands are free and your eyes are not blinded.

5. Clear skies

The ideal option is to have 30-50% of the moon behind you, which will set half an hour to an hour after the start of shooting. This light will be enough to illuminate the foreground, the fuller the moon - the PP will definitely be overexposed, and the second point: the brighter the moon, the less visible the stars.

6. Type of tracks

We decide what type of tracks we need. If we want to get circles, then we need to look for the North Star and include it in the frame, since the stars will “spin” around the point next to it. Here is an example without the moon, the illumination of a dry branch was made by the dimensions of the car 20 meters from the shooting point (Fisheye 15mm, ISO200, F/4.5, shutter speed 8 minutes, 6 frames) below I will give an example of calculations for this photo:

The polar star is in the north, at an angle to the horizon, approximately equal to the latitude at which we are located. We are looking for Ursa Major and in the indicated direction we measure 5 distances between alpha and beta:

If we want to get tracks in the form of almost straight lines, then we need to shoot so that the center of the frame is directed towards the west or east. The picture was taken facing east, the moon that day was 3/4 and the foreground had to be darkened almost a stop, and it was possible to walk along the shore without a flashlight (Fisheye 15mm, ISO100, F=4, shutter speed 4 minutes, 32 frames)

7. Focusing in the dark

A powerful flashlight is simply indispensable here. We shine a powerful flashlight into the foreground (or ask a colleague to move 20-30 meters away and let it shine in your direction, who goes out alone for 3-4 hours at night???) and try to focus. If you manage to focus, then turn off autofocus and don’t touch the focus ring anymore. If you couldn’t focus (I came across this option more often), turn on LiveView, enlarge the image 5-10 times and focus manually.

8. Exposure calculation

Set the maximum possible ISO value (1600 or 3200) and open the aperture to maximum.

We take a test shot with a shutter speed of 15-20 seconds (you can use “aperture priority” mode or “manual mode”) and evaluate what happened. It's better to look at the histogram. If we see that the frame is underexposed, we set the shutter speed to 30 seconds (if that doesn’t help, then we raise the ISO). If the frame turns out to be overexposed, then close the aperture by one stop (for example, from 4 to 5.6). After several shots, we will get a correctly exposed frame (you can overexpose it by half a stop)

For example, a good exposure was obtained with the following parameters: ISO1600, f/5.6, shutter speed 30 seconds. Now we need to convert this exposure into the ISO and aperture values that we want to use for shooting. Let it be ISO200 (I read that for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II this is optimal). For good depth of field, set the aperture to f/8. Recalculation occurs as follows. In order to go from ISO1600 to ISO200 you need to increase the shutter speed by 3 stops:

ISO1600 -> ISO800 = 1 stop
ISO800 -> ISO400 = 2 stops
ISO400 -> ISO200 = 3 stops

In order to go from aperture 5.6 to 8, you need to increase the shutter speed by another stop. Which gives us a total of 4 stops. Let's recalculate the excerpt:

30 seconds -> 1 minute = 1 stop
1 minute -> 2 minutes = 2 stops
2 minutes -> 4 minutes = 3 stops
4 minutes -> 8 minutes = 4 stops

As a result, we obtain the following shooting parameters: ISO200, f/8, shutter speed 8 minutes. We set the camera to “BULB” mode. It is advisable to take a test frame with such settings, but I was sorry to waste so much time, I set ISO400, that is, reduced the shutter speed by a stop, so it became 4 minutes - the test frame suited me. I set ISO200 and programmed the remote control: shutter speed 8 minutes, number of frames 99 (the process can be interrupted when you get tired), interval between frames 5 seconds.

Note 1: If you shoot on a cropped camera, set the interval between frames to no more than 3 seconds, otherwise you will get track breaks between frames. I shot Canon 7D tracks at a focal length of 17mm with an interval of 5 seconds and the gaps are clearly visible on a 100% cropped image:

Note 2: The longer the focal length of the lens, the longer the tracks in the image are (this is logical, but it’s worth remembering).

Note 3: On Canon cameras, instead of the remote control, you can use the add-on for the “Magic Lantern” firmware http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/ru:install The shooting at the Kotovsky reservoir was done with this firmware, and the remote control was used on the 7D - it was shot in a slightly different direction.

Note 4: If you shoot an hour after sunset, then with each frame the color temperature drops and the overall illumination also drops - then you will have to equalize them in the editor. But you can get a good color of the sky and horizon. The failure in the tracks is due to the fact that the shutter speed was measured an hour after sunset, and after 40 minutes it became dark, I had to stop the series, increase the shutter speed by 2 times and continue the series:

Note 5: When shooting tracks, you should try to exclude the Milky Way from the frame, since the tracks from it come out blurry, and in the place of the Milky Way in the pictures you get a whitish spot. Quickly scroll through these frames, starting with the test one, you will understand what I'm talking about.

9. Frame stitching program

I tried StarTrails and StarStaX among the free ones. I liked StarStaX better - the output picture is no different from a single frame.

The procedure for gluing frames:

Ravs are loaded into the editor(I use Lightroom) bring it to the same color temperature and approximately the same brightness, the rest of the settings are to taste.
Save the result in .tif(we need a high-quality picture!).
In StarStaX we select these typhus. The program has few settings (the default settings give good results), but you can experiment with the blending mode.
Let's start the process and after a few seconds we get the result, which we save again in .tif (the program automatically saves in .jpg).
The result can be corrected in the editor, the horizon will definitely have to be adjusted if the camera was not leveled.

Examples of calculations

First example. Shot on a 7D from 17-40, focal length 17mm, moon phase 58%, taken on May 19, the foreground is well lit. Be sure to expand all examples to full screen (click not thumbnail).

20130519-IMG_4460.jpg ISO3200, aperture 5.6, shutter speed 6s - underexposed (there was auto-metering, apparently the flashlight was taken into account)	20130519-IMG_4461.jpg ISO3200, aperture 5.6, shutter speed 10s - quite good, but you can turn it up a little	20130519-IMG_4462.jpg ISO100, aperture 5.6, shutter speed 373s - shutter speed calculation:

ISO3200 -> ISO1600 = 1 stop
ISO1600 -> ISO800 = 2 stops
ISO800 -> ISO400 = 3 stops
ISO400 -> ISO200 = 4 stops
ISO200 -> ISO100 = 5 stops

10 seconds -> 20 seconds = 1 stop
20 seconds -> 40 seconds = 2 stops
40 seconds -> 80 seconds = 3 stops
80 seconds -> 160 seconds = 4 stops
160 seconds -> 320 seconds = 5 stops, that is, it turned out to be 5 minutes and 20 seconds

Remembering that I could add a little more, I added another minute and programmed the remote control.

20130512-IMG_4941.jpg - ISO6400, aperture 3.5, shutter speed 20s - the sky is clearly overexposed here, we don’t pay attention to the strong overexposure of the branch (while I was taking a test frame, my friend was focusing with a flashlight), that is, one stop can be taken away when calculating the shutter speed:

ISO6400 -> ISO3200 = 1 stop
ISO3200 -> ISO1600 = 2 stops
ISO1600 -> ISO800 = 3 stops
ISO800 -> ISO400 = 4 stops
ISO400 -> ISO200 = 5 stops, ISO200 is enough for brand

20 seconds -> 40 seconds = 1 stop
40 seconds -> 80 seconds = 2 stops
80 seconds -> 160 seconds = 3 stops
160 seconds -> 320 seconds = 4 stops - 5 minutes and 20 seconds
320 seconds -> 640 seconds = 5 stops - 10 minutes and 40 seconds

But I have a stop in stock - I decided to close the aperture a little to 4.5 (fisheye vignettes at an open aperture)

Aperture 3.5 -> 4.5 is less than a stop, i.e. the shutter speed of 10 minutes and 40 seconds can be reduced, I decided to stop at 8 minutes (subsequently my intuition did not disappoint: after half an hour it began to get light)

Here are 6 frames from which the picture was stitched together:

20130512-IMG_4942.jpg	20130512-IMG_4943.jpg	20130512-IMG_4944.jpg


20130512-IMG_4945.jpg - you can clearly see how the horizon has brightened	20130512-IMG_4946.jpg	20130512-IMG_4947.jpg

Light pollution

The thing is that for a good photograph of stars in the night sky, you need to move away from light sources.
After all, a small number of lamp posts is enough to cause light pollution in a wide range of the atmosphere. Moreover, cities should be avoided, driving kilometers away from them.
This is the most important rule when photographing the night sky.. Therefore, every photo shoot at night is an exciting trip that will give you a wonderful experience.

The best locations for photographing the night sky are mountains or places where civilization has not yet arrived. Our guys take great pictures in the Caucasus Mountains in Bermamyt, Elbrus and Crimea. Be sure to read my report about. Many have seen a wonderful video with time lapses filmed on the slopes of the Teide volcano or pictures from Nepal.
But it is not necessary to rush to the other side of the world, for example, to photograph the Perseid shower; it is enough to go to the Moscow region, to a dacha or to a field in August.

The darker the location, the better the celestial bodies will be visible in the picture!

So, remember that the main thing in night photography is the shoot place.

Tripod

Everything is simple here. Without a good camera fixation, you will not get sharp pictures, but blurry ones. I use Manfrotto, but you can choose any that have stable legs and are not subject to wind vibrations. I recommend that there be a level on the tripod; with it there will be less chance of blocking the horizon in the dark. =)

For additional stability, you can attach a briefcase or bag with equipment to a tripod.

Wide angle lens

Not required, but highly recommended: the shorter the focal length, the more time it takes to capture the stars.
For example, for a 16mm lens, you can set the shutter speed to 30 seconds on a full-frame camera, but on a 50mm lens, after 15 seconds the stars will turn into star trails and will be blurred. I will provide focal to shutter speed charts at the end of my guide to photographing the night sky.
For a beginner, a kit lens that came with your DSLR, for example Nikkor 18-55 or 18-105, is enough.

The ideal lens for shooting stars and the night sky is a wide-angle with good aperture: for Nikon it can be Nikkor 16-35 or Nikkor 14-24, and for Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 L USM. Personally, I now shoot at 16-35 and don’t worry about the fact that I can only open the aperture up to f4 ;).

Why is aperture needed?

The wider the aperture on the lens is opened, the more light the matrix will receive per unit of time, which means it will be able to well expose a frame with stars or the Milky Way.

Low aperture can be replaced by high ISO or vice versa. Do not shoot with lenses with long focal lengths; the longer the focal length, the lower the shutter speed you can use to avoid blur.

The lens is number three when it comes to shooting stars.

Camera sensitivity - ISO

A simple rule - the more the better, but don't forget about the noise!
Each camera has its own ISO value at which you can take high-quality pictures. For full-frame cameras, ISO can be raised much higher than for half-frame amateur cameras.

For example, on a Nikon D800 or Canon Mark III, you can safely set the ISO value to 6400. But for cameras like Nikon D90 or Canon 7D, it is better not to raise the ISO above 1250.

To get an exposed photograph of the night sky and stars, in addition to the shutter speed, you need to increase the ISO sensitivity of the matrix.
The higher the ISO value, the better the stars are visible and the more noise there is in the photo.

I hope you shoot in RAW, then you can remove the noise a little in graphic editors like Adobe Lightroom.

Excerpt

How to determine the exposure time so as not to get the movement of stars in the frame. It's simple.

Use the 600 rule. Divide 600 by your focal length number and you will get the shutter time you should set for your photo. For example, 600/18=33 seconds. For a full-frame camera, the number still needs to be divided by the crop factor of the matrix - 1.6. For example, 600/18/1.6=20 seconds. I recommend subtracting an additional 1 second from the resulting value.

Moon in the sky!

Remember the important rule is that if you want to photograph the stars in the night sky, the Moon will get in the way. The solution is simple - avoid the full moon and mid moons. The best shots are taken when the month is very small or is below the horizon.

Sometimes the Moon can be in place, and sometimes not at all. The light from it does not allow us to see the stars =(

But let's get to the point!
You're at the place! We chose a location and shooting point. I recommend arriving before dark, since at dusk it is quite possible to break your leg or neck, which means the instinct of self-preservation will not allow you to find the most delicious locations and angles.

A short step-by-step guide to photographing stars at night

Now I'll give you 10 great tips that you won't find elsewhere. By following these tips, you will significantly increase the quality of your night photos! So, pay attention, like and read the secret knowledge:

Be sure to shoot in RAW. Then you can brighten the photo and remove the noise!
Don't forget to take a couple of spare batteries, as they are used up quite quickly.
Don't forget about composition and landscape elements in the frame. Light up with a red lantern.
To avoid blurring and shaking of the camera when pressing the shutter button, I recommend using a cable, and if there is none, then simply set the camera to shooting mode with a timer. This way you can safely press the button and keep your hands away from it =).
Don't forget to dress warmly, pour tea into a thermos and take a couple of sandwiches =) It will be a long night.
To know in advance which stars and constellations you want to capture, where they will be, and also what time the Moon will leave the sky, use applications for phones and tablets. I recommend Photopills and Star Walk.
Be sure to take a bright flashlight with you to avoid breaking your legs.
Don't forget to grab your phone to read these tips again while you're shooting!
If you want to get star tracks in the night sky, then set a long shutter speed, for example, 2-5-15-30 minutes. But for this you will need a control panel or a cable, since it costs mere pennies, up to 10 bucks on eBay. I’ll tell you more about shooting tracks.
Don't put it off until tomorrow! Go shoot today!

To take the coolest photos of the night sky: rise higher above sea level, shoot after rain and without the Moon, closer to the equator and without clouds! =)

Please share this guide to photographing stars and the milky way in the night sky on social media! This will encourage me to tell you some more great how-to scenarios.

I look forward to your photos and observations in the comments! Don't hesitate to ask questions! Share the post with your friends on social networks.

In one of the next posts I will tell you how to properly shoot star trails and take epic pictures with the movement of the Earth. Don't get lost!

The main advantage of night photography is that such shooting forgives many mistakes. This type of photography does not require special weather conditions to get a beautiful shot. All kinds of night lights and city lights give us everything we can work with and get excellent shots. But if you try to photograph the starry night sky, it will be a completely different story.

The reality is that photographing the night sky takes some skill. If you are going to do this kind of shooting, be prepared that your options will be very limited. And you should be prepared for some overlaps and possible mistakes.

Taking beautiful photos of the night sky means being mobile. You will have to travel to remote places and travel long distances to get a truly worthwhile shot. This will cause you to lose valuable sleep time. So let's try to avoid some mistakes when shooting the night starry sky. Therefore, I have prepared and analyzed for you 6 main problems that you may encounter when photographing stars.

Killer #1: Moon

One of the biggest enemies when photographing stars, and the Milky Way in particular, is the moon. This may surprise you, but it's true. Why is this so? Because the light coming from even a quarter moon is more than 100 times stronger than starlight. So the moonlight just washes away the scene.

Having the moon in the sky also has its advantages. For example, the moon can illuminate the foreground of your chosen scene and help create a beautiful night scene. But when it comes to shooting stars (the Milky Way), the moon is a killer.

Moreover, the moon is in the night sky for most of the month. Honestly, I would not plan to photograph the night sky in the period before and after 5 days from the new moon. Shooting on a full moon is out of the question. The bad time to photograph the milky way is about 70% per year. So this is quite a limitation for shooting.

So, how do you avoid problems with the moon? There are two ways to avoid it in the night sky, and for both of them you need a website called TimeAndDate.com. This website will tell you all about the moon phase. This way, you can plan your night sky shots at or close to the new moon.

If you are not familiar with the phases of the moon and do not know what a new moon is, then I will answer, a new moon is when there is no moon in the sky at night. From the new moon, the Moon will move to a crescent moon, a quarter moon, and then a few weeks later to a full moon (and then the process will begin in reverse). The nights before and after the new moon are critical for star photography because not only does it limit the light coming from the moon, but during the new phase, the moon won't even be in the night sky.

The moon travels across the sky during the day during the new moon phase and travels across the sky at night during the full moon phase. The closer the time of the new moon, the less time the moon will be in the sky at night.

This leads to the second way, we can avoid the moon before it rises in the night sky. Again, you can calculate the time until moonrise via TimeAndDate.com. However, you need to make sure that it matches the other conditions you need to successfully photograph the stars (i.e. total darkness time, weather conditions, star movements, etc.). We will talk about them below.

Killer #2: Light Pollution

You already know that you need to time your darkness to be as dark as possible to get good results when shooting stars. But you might be surprised at how dark it really can be. You can't just drive out of town half an hour before your shoot and expect it to be dark enough to actually photograph the beautiful night sky or the Milky Way. The city will not have perfectly dark skies due to light pollution. Light pollution is the light from city lights that illuminates the sky.

To find the best location to shoot, consult Dark Site Finder. This is the best resource I've seen that shows places with minimal light pollution. It's basically Google maps with different colors overlaid to tell you how much light pollution there will be in a particular location. The darker the color, the better (i.e., the less light pollution).

How dark does it have to be to get a great starry sky? Really dark. Take a look at this photo:

This photo was taken in the blue area on the Dark Site Finder, which is the fifth darkest area out of 15. The light pollution you see in the lower left of the picture was not from a metropolis, but from a small town shaded in green on the map. The town was located 15-20 kilometers away.

I couldn't see this light pollution with the naked eye; the sky seemed completely dark. But it's obvious in the photo. So make sure the sky is dark enough before shooting.

Killer #3: Star Movement

If you're not familiar with astrophotography and star photography, you might think that you just need to open the shutter for a minute or two to allow enough light into the camera. And you will achieve the correct exposure. But this will not help, because the stars move. And they move much faster than you think. (Okay, I know this is because the earth rotates)

If you take a long exposure shot of the night sky, the stars will move while the shutter is open. The stars will appear in the photo as small tracks. Often stars are deliberately shot with a huge shutter speed in order to get large tracks throughout the entire frame, but that's a completely different story. What we're talking about here is getting clear stars in the night sky.

How long must the shutter be open to produce clear stars? On all but ultra-wide-angle subjects, you should not use a shutter speed longer than 15 seconds. Even at ultra-wide angles, you shouldn't use a shutter speed longer than 30 seconds. You can also use a special rule, the 500 rule, to determine the maximum possible shutter speed at which the stars will be clear. This rule states that the maximum shutter speed is calculated as follows: 500 must be divided by the focal length used, you get the maximum shutter speed (for example, with a 24mm lens - 500/24 or 20.8 seconds). Sometimes the number 600 is used instead of 500. But clearer stars will be obtained by using the number 500.

Because of this, you should use your widest angle, fastest lens to photograph the night sky. In addition, you will have to increase the ISO sensitivity quite extreme.

Killer #4: No foreground

A starry sky or milky way will provide a good background for your photo. It looks like a nice sunset. This is great and beautiful, but the starry sky itself will not be enough for a great shot. You also need a foreground element.

If you just set out to shoot the night sky without any real idea of where you're going, you're likely to run into problems. You will have an uninteresting foreground and therefore an uninteresting photo. The middle of the night is not the time to explore looking for angles and foreground. Remember that where you are going to shoot will be very dark. It will be total darkness, no moon, in a place with no light. That's why you will have difficulty choosing a foreground.

To eliminate this problem, you need to research the shooting area in advance. Sometimes this is physically possible if the location is not far away, but often this is not the case. The Internet can often help. Use the Street View feature in Google Maps to prepare for your shoot.

Killer #5: Unforeseen conditions blocking stars

You probably already know that you can't go out on a cloudy night and expect to successfully photograph the stars. You need clear skies. How can I check this? There are many applications for viewing the weather, use the one you are used to.

But that is not all. I've had many unsuccessful attempts to photograph the stars when there wasn't a cloud in the sky. They were destroyed by things like dust clouds, smoke and fog. These things can ruin everything.

For example, in the desert, weak winds raise dust and fine sand into the atmosphere, which significantly blocks the stars. If you're in a coastal environment, sea fog can do the same. Forest fires hundreds of miles away can also affect your photography.

So be sure to carefully check the conditions in your shooting area. Believe me, it's no fun to drive for hours and then not even get your camera out.

Killer #6: Boring Sky

Finally, you have waited for a clear moonless night. If you go out to shoot without understanding what stars will be in the sky, you risk having a boring sky with few stars. If you have a strong enough foreground element, this may not matter much. But if the night sky is the dominant subject of your photo, you want it to look really good.

For most people, this means including the Milky Way in your frame. This means capturing a group of stars that is passing across the sky. Your best bet is to capture the cluster of stars in the center of the Milky Way. But the Milky Way is not visible all year. It is not visible at any time of the night during November-February. Starting in March, it will become visible just before sunrise. In June and until August it will be visible most of the night. Starting in September it will only be visible after sunset. And no matter what hemisphere you live in.

To schedule the inclusion of the most interesting stars and constellations (and, again, usually the Milky Way), simply select one of the apps available for your phone. I use Sky Guide and I really like it, but there are others like Star Walk 2 and PhotoPills

Conclusion

Photographing the starry sky involves traveling to the desired location. Take steps to prepare and you will reap huge dividends. Planning your shoot will allow you to waste less time and effort.

But don’t expect or look for perfection, it doesn’t exist. Plan and take advantage of the best conditions you can get, then just shoot. Only this can lead to amazing photographs. Well, if you have gaps in long exposure photography, then you urgently need to take a step-by-step video course that will teach you from scratch how to take stunning long exposure photographs even with an inexpensive camera. To view the course, click on the image below.