How to shoot the starry sky with SLR?

Sharp tools can do a good job. Let's talk about what kind of equipment is needed to shoot the starry sky.

1. camera: high sensitivity. The popularity of starry sky photography in the past two years is largely due to the popularity of SLR cameras in Quan Huafu. One of the main advantages of Quan Huafu SLR camera over half-frame SLR and smaller CMOS camera is its high-sensitivity image quality. Because starry sky photography generally requires ISO 1600 to take off, 6400 or even 12800 is also very common, so high-quality image quality is particularly important. Quan Huafu SLR camera is recommended. Half-frame or 4/3 system cameras can also shoot, but the picture quality will be worse.

2. Lens: super wide-angle and large aperture. Starry photography generally uses ultra-wide-angle lenses for two main reasons:

1) The shorter the focal length, the less "trailing" the stars in the picture. Because of the rotation of the earth, the position of the stars in the sky is not fixed. With the increase of exposure time of starry sky photography, the stars in the picture will have obvious "tailing", and how long the exposure time will produce tailing is related to the length of lens focal length. The shorter the focal length, the longer the exposure time without tailing. Generally speaking, according to experience, the exposure time without tailing is 500/ focal length.

2) When framing, we should take into account the vast starry sky and the ground prospect, and the super wide-angle view is wide, making it easier to frame.

So generally speaking, we will choose a super wide-angle lens, and the larger the aperture, the better. For example, Nikon's 14-24/F2.8 or Canon's 16-35/F2.8 Here, we recommend a Sanyo's 14mm/F2.8, which is only in the early 2000 yuan and has a very high cost performance. Although it is a manual lens, we focus on starry sky photography manually, so this lens is designed for starry sky photography.

3. tripod: stable. Starry photography needs long exposure, so it needs a stable tripod system. How to choose a tripod, please refer to my book How to Choose a Tripod.

4. Cable release: Avoid shaking the shutter. In order to pursue better image quality, any vibration needs to be avoided as much as possible. Cable release can be well out of plane operation to avoid vibration when pressing the shutter. Some people say that delayed selfie can also replace cable release. I still recommend cable broadcasting here. At present, the effect is still more stable than delayed self-timer, which is needed when using B-door. It's okay to press it for a minute or two, but if you press it again, you'll break your hand and arm ~

5. Headlights: explore the road, focus and fill the light. Starry photography is often far away from light pollution in the wild, and headlights with good performance are essential for exploring safety. After all, safety comes first. Secondly, in the extremely dim night sky, the exposure prospect is extremely difficult. The method I use is to hit the foreground with headlights and then focus manually on the LCD screen. It is difficult to focus with a lamp with insufficient power. Finally, we often add some light to the foreground, and then the headlights can be used again. So don't look at a small headlight, it has many uses.

6. Clothes, hats and gloves: keep out the cold. Shooting the stars is often in the middle of the night outside the deep country. Even in summer, the temperature is different from that in daytime. Long exposure is long exposure. Therefore, warm clothes, gloves, hats and shoes are all conventional weapons, depending on the shooting location. If it is extremely cold, you can refer to my other article: List of Outdoor Photography Sporting Goods in Winter.

7. mobile APP: of course, shooting the stars in the direction of the milky way at sunset depends on the stars. We need to know the direction in which the Milky Way rises. We need to know when the moon rises and when the sun sets, because if there is a sun or moon, they will completely block the light of the stars. Thanks to advanced technology, we can now conveniently use our mobile phones to check the astronomical phenomena. With these apps, we can easily know the location and time when the Milky Way rises, the time direction when the sun rises and the moon rises, and we can also identify constellations. I am so happy. The software I mainly use is TPE and Stellarium. TPE can be used to check the time and direction of sunrise and sunset, and the rise and fall of the moon. Stellarium is mainly used to help check the time direction of the rise of the Milky Way. These two softwares are charged in the Android market and Apple market, but the version on the computer is free. Friends who want to save money can check it on the computer before acting, or they can use some free software, such as Google Sky Map and Planes.

Others, such as frozen CCD and orbiter, belong to the category of deep space photography (such as close-range shooting of Andromeda nebula), which will not be discussed in this paper for the time being.

Astronomical knowledge you need to know to shoot the Milky Way.

First, talk about the sun. As we all know, due to the direction of the earth's rotation, the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, but due to the deviation of the earth's axis, the sun does not rise in the east and sets in the west, but rises in the southeast or northeast and sets in the northwest or southwest due to the change of seasons. Please refer to the software for specific instructions.

Secondly, talk about the moon. Many people will think that the moon rises at night, but it is not. The moon has its own rising cycle (hence the lunar calendar), which is shorter than every day. Almost every day, the rising time of the moon will be delayed by one hour, so the rising and setting of the moon may be out of sync with our day and night. We can often see the scene that the moon is already high in the sky before sunset, because the moon rises during the day. In this way, there may be no moon all night, or there may be a situation where there is basically a moon all night. Because the brightness of the sun is much greater than the full moon, the full moon is greater than the sickle meniscus, and the sickle meniscus is much greater than the brightness of the brightest star, we can't see the moon when there is the sun during the day, until the sun gets weaker and weaker before sunset. If there is a full moon at night, we can't see the stars and the Milky Way before the moon sets. If there is a meniscus at night, it depends on the direction of the meniscus. If it is in the same direction as the stars in the Milky Way, the stars and the Milky Way will still be greatly blocked by the brightness of the moon. If it is not in the same direction, it can still be seen, but it is not as obvious as when there is no moon.

The angle at which the moon rises is similar to that of the sun. It also rises in the east and sets in the west, but it is a little different from the position of the sun. Please refer to the software for details.

When the moon rises, the light actually feels like the sun, and it is also red. The following photo was taken when the moon rose.

Let's talk about the Milky Way.

Imagine that our solar system is a plate, the planets revolve around the sun, the Milky Way is a bigger plate, and our solar system revolves around the center of the Milky Way with other galaxies.

What needs to be known is that the plates of the solar system and the Milky Way are not on the same plane, and there is an included angle of about 63 degrees between them. The direction of the solar system's revolution around the Milky Way is almost 90 degrees perpendicular to the plates of the solar system. This tilt angle leads to the change of the position of the Milky Way in the sky. This movement has two cycles-daily and annual, so there are two time factors to watch the Milky Way: the time of night and the season of the year. When two days are observed in the same place at the same time, the position of the Milky Way in the sky is basically unchanged.

Summarize several factors in observing the Milky Way:

1. time

There are two time factors, one is the time of day. The other is the season of the year.

The time of day means that the Milky Way can only be seen at night. This night, refers to the sun center below the horizon 18 degrees. Everyone has a feeling that when the sun just goes down, the sky can still appear dark blue, and this brightness is far greater than that of the starry sky, so it will take some time for stars to appear. Around this time, it is time to shoot scenery and prime time. It should be noted that the time required to reach "the sun center is below the horizon 18 degrees" from sunset is also different due to different angles of the earth axis, latitudes and seasons, and the specific time can be determined according to experience and software.

The so-called time of year refers to the season. If the center of the Milky Way (the brightest part seen on the earth) is a relative celestial body, then the Milky Way also has a rising and falling cycle. The galactic center rises at midnight between June and July and can be seen almost all night. With the coming of winter, the time for the Milky Way to rise is getting later and later. It's getting harder and harder to observe, and you can't see it until the galactic center rises before dark.

Therefore, the best time to watch the Milky Way throughout the year is from late May to early August. (Cowherd and Weaver Girl crossing the Milky Way is Tanabata)

2. Weather

Generally, it takes sunny or cloudy nights to shoot the Milky Way.

3. The influence of the moon

Because the brightness of the moon is much higher than that of the Milky Way, we should try to avoid moonlight when shooting the Milky Way.

There are several ways to avoid the influence of moonlight: try to shoot when the moon has not risen or set. Test-fire the new moon. Try to find out the time when the angle and position of the moon are staggered from the Milky Way.

Because the position and time of the moon rising change obviously every day, but the difference between the time and position of the galaxy rising is not obvious, we can use this law to calculate the position and time between the staggered moon and the galaxy.

4. Differences in observation between the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere

Due to the declination of the earth's axis, the most significant June and July of the Milky Way are winter in the southern hemisphere and summer in the northern hemisphere, so the night time in the southern hemisphere is longer than that in the northern hemisphere, and people see the Milky Way for a longer time. Secondly, due to the declination of the earth's axis, the southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere see galaxies in different directions at the same time and night on the same day with symmetrical latitude. Compared with the southern hemisphere, the Milky Way in the northern hemisphere is closer to the horizon. If you take pictures, it is easier to combine the northern hemisphere with the ground prospect.

Let's take the shooting process of a photo as an example to illustrate the shooting of the starry sky.

final product

earlier stage

1, select the shooting location

It is best to shoot the starry sky in areas far away from big cities. One of the main problems is air permeability and the other is light pollution. These two points are much better in remote areas than in cities. In this photo, I chose Narrabri, a little-known town in northern Australia, in the wild more than 20 kilometers west.

Let's see what this place is.

View Google Maps:

You know, Australia is a country with excellent human pollution control. This place is at least five hours away from a big city like Brisbane, Sydney. Three words, wild enough. In addition, the ATCA Australian Telescope Array is also nearby. Since the observatories are all nearby, it can be seen that this place is extremely suitable for watching and shooting the starry sky.

Step 2 Choose the season, time and weather

Many times, we go to the wild, the scenery is beautiful and the weather is good, but it seems that we can't see the Milky Way at night. Why? Probably the wrong season, the wrong time. First of all, the rise and fall of the Milky Way has its own cycle. In the southern hemisphere in May and June, the Milky Way just rose at seven or eight o'clock. In January, if you want to see the Milky Way, you have to wait until three or four in the morning. How many people get up so early to see the Milky Way? Secondly, we can see that the Milky Way should avoid the sun and the moon. If the sun and the moon are still in the sky when the Milky Way rises, their huge light will completely cover up the light of the Milky Way. So, first of all, we can find out when the Milky Way rises-we must rise at night to take pictures, preferably at midnight, so as not to be too tired. Secondly, we need to pay attention to the influence of moonlight. The moon follows the lunar cycle, and the rising time of the moon is different from that of sunrise and sunset. Therefore, we need to inquire about the time when the moon rises and sets, as well as the gains and losses of the moon. Ideally, there is no moon in the sky when the Milky Way rises. If there is, it's better to be sickle moon or just promoted! In addition, the weather is also very important. Clear and cloudless weather is best for shooting stars. Generally speaking, I like cold nights. The air is very breathable in this weather, but we should pay attention to keep warm. Please refer to my other article "List of Outdoor Photography Sporting Goods in Winter" to keep warm.

I found all the above information online, such as Google checking the weather (you can check the weather every hour) and mobile APP.

3. Scene selection

For starry sky photography, the choice of foreground is very important. This is the same as shooting a sunrise. The sun is everywhere, and it is boring only when there are stars everywhere. Only when there are stars is it not very interesting. The scenery around here feels mainly savanna, so our imaginary subject is a dead tree on the wasteland, with the Milky Way behind it and the echoes of other trees in the distance. Dead trees have no leaves, but their surfaces should be textured.

We drove along the highway, slowly looking for the right scene, and finally found such a tree, which is also relatively empty around, oh yeah, let's do it ~

shoot

I use Nikon D6 10 SLR camera and 16-35/F4 lens. Generally, when shooting such a scene, we will choose the widest end to shoot. I look around and choose the right scenic spots: to eliminate the interference of the left and right trees, it is best to put the dead trees on the right third or so, and it is best to have some shadows on the far left, and the Milky Way hangs between the far and near trees. Well, move left and right, finally choose the scenic spot, set up a tripod, connect the cable to release, M file, manually focus to infinity, and then dial back a little, with the largest aperture and exposure time of 30 s. Let's try to take a picture with ISO6400 first. It is found that the starry sky here is very bright, which is obviously brighter than that near Sydney. ISO3200 is enough.

Nikon D6 10 focal length: 16mm aperture: F4 shutter: 30siso: 3200 exposure compensation: 0.0EV

The starry sky photographed in this way is ok, but the trees in the foreground are not perfect, especially if we want to express the texture of trees, because we don't focus on trees, it is a bit lacking. So this part is to realize that my idea is to have the same plane, and then focus on the tree to take pictures, and then later with a Zhang Hecheng in front. It's hard to focus on the trees in such a dark night sky. Fortunately, my headlights are strong enough to hit trees, and there are small spots on my night vision screen, so I can focus them manually. In order to improve the image quality, I reduced the ISO and increased the exposure time by using B-gate. But it's too dark there, and the exposure time with natural light will be long, so we plan to use headlights to make up the light. I asked my teammates to walk to the tree and use the ambient light (scattered light) function of the headlights to shake up and down to evenly fill the light. Finally, I got the following picture. If you look closely, you can see that the star has been dragged out of its orbit because of the long exposure time.

Nikon D6 10 focal length: 16mm aperture: F4 shutter: 85ISO: 640 exposure compensation: 0.0EV

Ok, so far our pre-shooting is almost finished!