How to shoot the starry sky

Basic equipment: 1, camera SLR body, preferably Quan Huafu body with high sensitivity, such as Canon 5D3, 5DS Nikon D800, D800E；; Sony A72, etc. And my own 5D2 is not in these ranks ... Many children's shoes reflect that some micro-singles and mobile phones can also claim to be able to shoot the stars. First of all, I haven't used it, so I can't comment on it, but judging from the photosensitive elements and frames, even if these devices can record the starlight of the exposure second, the picture quality can't be guaranteed ~ so try to use the machine well. 2. The lens needs a wide-angle large aperture lens. Because we need to find ways to capture the ground and the starry sky as much as possible, we usually use wide-angle lenses to shoot the starry sky. Starry photography requires a wide-angle or ultra-wide-angle lens with a large aperture. Canon 14mm 2.8, Zeiss 15mm 2.8 and other fixed-focus lenses are excellent choices for folk starry sky shooting. Zoom lenses, such as Canon/KOOC-0/6-35 2.8 Nikon/KOOC-0/4-24 2.8, are also good choices, and then downgraded, that is, the aperture is not that big, but the wide-angle lens is similar to Canon/KOOC-0/7-40/4 and Nikon/KOOC-0/6-35/4. My first photo of the starry sky was taken with 18-55 of "the dog in the dog's head". . . . The better the lens, the more expensive it is, but the purchase still depends on the wallet and demand. In fact, large wide-angle lenses are not often used. One suggestion for everyone is to see if there are any lens rental shops in Beijing. General ultra wide-angle 30 yuan/day. The longer the lease term, the cheaper the average price. Generally, if I have a star shooting plan, I will rent a travel rent 16-35 for ten days.

Step 3: tripod

It takes a long exposure to shoot the starry sky, and the shooting location is usually in a windy place on the top of the mountain, so a stable tripod is needed.

4. The battery for shooting the starry sky is powered by a separate battery. It is very power-consuming to expose for a long time and constantly look at the real-time viewfinder, and the scenes for shooting the starry sky are generally cold, so be sure to prepare more than two batteries. Flashlights and mobile phones should be equipped with a strong flashlight that can change light, which can be used to illuminate the foreground when shooting. If you don't need to move the flashlight, you can. When shooting, the mobile phone needs to undertake the functions of flashlight, starry sky software viewing, playing music to relieve boredom and so on. At the same time, it also ensures the safe contact guarantee when you can't see your fingers. Camera setting 1, aperture: use the maximum aperture of the lens, such as 16-35 2.8, and use an aperture of 2.8. Shutter (exposure time): The exposure time of the starry sky or the Milky Way is usually set at 20-30 seconds. 3. Sensitivity (ISO): Set the ISO of the camera according to the environment and lens aperture value. If the aperture is f2.8-4, ISO usually needs to be set at ISO2500-3200. 4.Block M: set the camera shooting mode to block m.5. Focus: Adjust the focal length of the lens to infinity. The specific method is to cut to MF first, and then aim the lens at the infinite symbol ∞ on the lens. Canon's lens has a "∟" symbol before the infinite symbol ∞. It is rumored in the Jianghu that you need to turn around a little after aiming at infinity. I think this method is not reliable. We still need to turn on the zoom function of the real-time viewfinder to observe the brightest star and see if it is in focus. If the picture is too dark to see clearly, we can take a picture of it in Shoot, and then zoom in at 100% to see if there are ghosts in the stars.

6. White balance of the camera: Personally, I like to put the white balance in fluorescent light mode, so that the sky will be a little bluer and look better ~ ~

7. RAW format: Due to the later needs, it is best to set the shooting starry sky to RAW format.

Looking for the stars

The premise of shooting the starry sky: sunny weather! Meteors are a test of the weather. Be sure to watch the weather forecast or nebula map before shooting. In addition, shooting stars are most afraid of light pollution, and try to stay away from smog cities.

Moon: Under these two premises, many stars are already visible to the naked eye, but we should pay attention to the influence of the moon on the stars. As the saying goes, don't shoot when the moon is too bright. Generally, I choose the period from the end of the month to the beginning of the month, and the starry sky is less affected by moonlight.

That is to say, when I have a trip far away from the city (plateau, island, forest), check that the local weather is not rainy season, and the travel time is at the end of the month or the beginning of the month, then I can decisively rent a wide-angle lens with a large aperture and prepare to shoot the starry sky.

Official shooting tips 1. Select the foreground. When you find the Milky Way, you need to find a good prospect to match it. I really don't like those pictures that take pictures of the horizon and then there is a galaxy in the sky. The foreground can be a tree, a car, a tent or a person. When shooting, you can sweep the foreground with headlights and flashlights to enrich the foreground and background. 2. Remember that during shooting, the scene may be dark when shooting at night. You can use a fast shutter with high sensitivity (such as 6400) to check the composition, whether the horizon is straight and whether the focus is accurate. After confirmation, you can call back the normal parameter shooting. 3, fill the light for the characters If you want to shoot the characters, you can use the flashlight of the mobile phone during the exposure process, wrap it with a layer of paper towel, and then quickly sweep the light to the characters, you can fill the light for the characters. In the process of exposure, people really have to stand in the picture all the time, but in fact, they just need to stay still in the process of filling the light, and any other time is fine. The following two contrast pictures are those with or without fill light. In addition to filling the characters with light, we also fill the mountains with high beams. Obviously, if there is no fill light, there is only a lonely galaxy. In addition, there is a very popular method to fill the light with the side light of the flash, which I haven't tried yet. Come back and write your feelings when you have a chance to shoot it ~