How to photograph the Milky Way?

The environmental conditions required for shooting are very high.

Let's start with the shooting time. We shoot night scenes. The best time is the moment when the sun just sets on the horizon. The sky is not completely dark, and there are colors or blue brilliance. But shooting the starry sky and the Milky Way is easily affected by other light (we call it light pollution). It is best that the sky is completely black, and the moon should try not to affect the shooting. Generally speaking, we wait until after midnight.

The weather is very simple. Wan Li has the best clear skies and a good semi-cloudy environment. Cloudy days, smog, rain and snow, as long as you can't see the sky, go home and rest.

Then there is the shooting environment. The best place to shoot the Milky Way in the starry sky is barren hills, that is, to avoid man-made light pollution brought by cities, towns and villages, that is, to avoid lighting. So we see that domestic photographers like to shoot in no man's land in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Because other light sources will block the faint starlight, the scene in the picture is not so shocking.

Go ahead, get ready to shoot. The first is to use the "Starry Moon Phase" APP to query the time trajectory of the moon's movement and the position of the Milky Way. This is very important to avoid not shooting anything.

Then the preparation of photographic equipment. A very stable tripod is necessary. As for how high the price can be, it depends on everyone. Camera, SLR, micro-single will do. The bigger the border of the sensor, the better the effect. Generally speaking, Quan Huafu is enough. The combination of lens, large aperture and wide angle is the best, such as 24mm F 1.4 lens, 16mm F 1.4 lens and so on.

The sensor has a big frame. In order to have better noise control ability in high-sensitivity use, the wide-angle lens can shoot more stars and the large aperture captures weaker starlight, so this combination is needed.

How to adjust camera parameters when shooting?

The most critical step is to adjust the parameters before the shutter.

The parameter part is nothing more than three options: aperture, shutter and ISO (sensitivity), and other parameters are the same as head-up view. In addition, there are some operations on the camera to make it clear to everyone. It is recommended to use M gear and manual gear for camera mode.

Aperture, just use the maximum aperture of the lens, such as F2.8, F 1.8, F 1.4 and so on. As mentioned above, this is to make the lens perceive weaker starlight.

Shutter usually takes 15-20 seconds. It doesn't take 30 seconds, because the star orbit will appear after 30 seconds of exposure. Of course, if you don't mind, a 30-second exposure is ok. If you want to take a single photo of the star's orbit, you can take it for 20-30 minutes with B-door and cable, or superimpose it. I will share it with you in another article.

ISO, this is more complicated, depending on what camera you use. If it is APS-C format, it is recommended to use ISO 1600 or lower resolution. If Quan Huafu is used, ISO 1600-6400 is recommended. For example, ISO 1600 can be used for 5D4 level, and ISO 6400 can be used for 1DX level.

ISO doesn't have to be in this range, but you can try it yourself. How high the ISO is depends mainly on the noise control ability of your camera. Because long exposure will increase noise.

The other is the lens, which requires manual focus mode. Generally, a lens can adjust the focal length to infinity. Some lenses need to be adjusted to infinity and then turned back a little, because some lenses will be out of focus at infinity.

The best time and direction to shoot the Milky Way during the Spring Festival.

For the northern hemisphere, in summer and autumn, when the solar system moves close to the center of the Milky Way, clearer and brighter galaxies can be seen from the earth, while the Milky Way in winter is much dimmer and unsuitable for viewing.

The reason why it is difficult to photograph the Milky Way in winter is that the relatively bright Milky Way near Orion is mainly seen at night, and the brightest galactic center only appears during the day. The starting and ending time of the galactic center rising into the sky varies from month to month, and there is a general timetable.

In February, the center of the galaxy will rise from southeast Fang Xiangsheng to the sky and fall from southwest at about 4 or 5 a.m. (In March, it will rise from around 3 o'clock, and so on, and it will rise about two hours in advance every month, so the galaxy can be seen in the first half of summer).

So the discovery of Scorpio or the brightest Venus near the center of the Milky Way around 4 or 5 o'clock indicates that the Milky Way has risen. If the weather conditions are good enough, shoot directly with a lens with large aperture, high sensitivity (ISO800~6400) and long exposure (preferably no more than 30S), and there is still a chance to shoot the Milky Way before dawn.