The skills of shooting starry sky are as follows

I remember when I was a child, I looked up at the starry sky at night, Ursa major in the spring night sky, Orion in the winter night sky, and even the Milky Way ... Now it is exciting to look up at the sky and see a star. Everyone goes to the mountains every holiday, just to find the sky in childhood memories. Nowadays, air pollution and light pollution make the sky above us always have a mysterious veil that we can't take away. If you really want to shoot the beautiful starry sky, run to the mountains in the suburbs and avoid the interference of ground light sources. The best time is at the beginning or end of a clear and cloudless month, probably after the 25th day of the lunar calendar and before the 5th day of next month. Avoid the fifteenth full moon, because the moon is big and round, and moonlight will interfere with the starlight. The so-called "moon stars are rare" is the truth.

Step 2 get a lamp

Shooting the stars requires a tripod and a cable, no doubt! But just shooting the starry sky will be boring, so it is better to add some foreground, which requires the use of fill light, preferably with adjustable brightness and powerful fill light.

Rule 3600

The 600 rule is a little experience taught by the old-timers who shoot stars in photography, and it is the rule of setting exposure time. Without an equatorial camera, the exposure time cannot exceed "600 divided by the focal length of the lens". Example: 20mm wide-angle lens, exposure time: 600÷20=30 seconds; 200mm long focal length, exposure time: 600÷200=3 seconds. Over the maximum exposure time, the photographed starry sky may not be static, and there will be "dragging lines" on the track. This elusive picture is a bit ugly. The rule of 600 is only an empirical value for reference only. The exposure time in actual shooting should be less than the theoretical value.

4. Maximum aperture

When shooting scenery, we know that we need a small aperture and a large depth of field. When shooting the starry sky, it is right to turn the aperture to the maximum. The reason is simple: reduce ISO and reduce noise. According to the 600 rule, the maximum exposure time is limited, and the maximum aperture can not only reduce ISO, but also enlarge the point light source, making the stars appear bigger and more obvious.

Step 5 turn up the brightness

Due to the extremely low ambient light, focusing or composition is quite inconvenient. Let's first adjust the aperture to the maximum and ISO to the maximum, so that the LCD screen will be brighter and the stars can be seen more clearly, which can effectively improve the focusing accuracy and facilitate framing and composition. Remember to lower the ISO again before the official shooting.

6. Focus issues

"Focus on infinity" ∞ is a common technique when shooting large scenes. Manually twist the focus ring to infinity and come back a little, and you can get the clearest picture in the largest range. "Come back a little" is an imprecise concept. How much should it be screwed back? This distance is different for different shots, and distortion may cause the whole picture to be out of focus. The recommended practice is to find a ground scene dozens of meters away, illuminate it with lights, focus it, and lock the focus after focusing, so as to ensure that the picture will not be out of focus ~ Another view of "slightly out of focus flow" in starry sky photography is that the starry sky is accurately focused at infinity, and the stars are too clear to look good. The starry sky should be slightly out of focus. When the focal length is infinite, adjust the focus ring back a little. If the starry sky is slightly out of focus, some tiny stars and dark stars can be eliminated to make the stars less dense and the "head" will become bigger.

7. Start with the semi-high ISO test.

When shooting stars, using high ISO doesn't mean you have to open ISO6400 directly. Adjust the aperture to the maximum, set the exposure time according to the 600 rule, and slowly try different ISO values to see how the effect is and whether the brightness of the stars is enough. It is recommended to start with half of the highest ISO value. If you think the stars are bright enough, dim them; If you think the stars are not bright enough, add them up.