How to take pictures of the starry sky

How to shoot the starry sky

Photography equipment

When shooting the starry sky, SLR and mirrorless cameras are the first choices. Choose a large wide-angle lens. The wider the lens, the wider the range of the starry sky you can shoot. Only in this way can we express the magnificence and vastness of the starry sky. A tripod, shutter release cable, and flashlight are also necessary

Tripod: Photographing the starry sky requires a long exposure, and a monopod must be used to maintain stability

Shutter release cable : In order to avoid camera shake when pressing the shutter button, a shutter release cable is required. If not, you can use a time-lapse self-timer instead

Flashlight: It is not very convenient to set camera parameters or use a tripod after dark, so a flashlight is needed for lighting.

Photography location

If you live in a city, it is recommended to go to the suburbs to shoot stars, because urban light pollution is serious and it is difficult to see the stars

Light pollution is a new source of environmental pollution after waste gas, waste water, waste residue and noise pollution. It mainly includes white light pollution, artificial daytime pollution and colored light pollution.

You can see the comparison in the picture below

The yellow area in the picture on the left is the light pollution emitted by the light. Affected by this, the stars in this nearby area cannot be seen

Taking time

1. The weather should be clear, and on cloudy days the clouds are too thick to see the stars

2. It is suitable for shooting from one hour after sunset to one and a half hours before sunrise in the evening

3. Because the light of the moon will also cover up the light of the stars, it is impossible to take pictures on the 15th full moon day of the lunar calendar, so it is recommended to take pictures at the beginning or end of the month. If the moon happens to be strong, you can take pictures of the starry sky opposite the moon

ps: If you want to shoot the blue starry sky, it is best to shoot on a moonlit day or one and a half hours before sunrise

If you want to shoot the spectacular Milky Way, you must If you go to a place without light pollution, it is best to shoot from April to September every year, because only in these months will the brightest part of the Milky Way rise above the horizon

If you arrive at the shooting site, If you still can't find the Milky Way, you can download the mobile app "star walk" or "Google SkyMap" and you can see the names of stars and constellations specifically like the map

Specific shooting

Parameters Settings: Switch to M manual mode, set the shutter to 15-25s, F 4 or larger aperture, 800 or higher iso

Why do you need to set the shutter to 15-25s? First of all, at night The light is relatively weak. In order to ensure sufficient light intake and normal exposure, a long shutter is needed, but the shutter time cannot be too long. If it is too long, the stars will become trails

A tripod keeps the camera stable

Since the shutter speed requires a long exposure of 15-25 seconds, handheld shooting will inevitably be blurry, so a tripod must be used to keep the camera stable. In order to avoid shaking when pressing the shutter, it is best to use a shutter cable. If not, try to use a time-lapse self-timer

Find the foreground composition

Photographing the starry sky alone is not very beautiful. Find a good-looking scene to set it off, such as mountains and trees.

How to focus

< p>When shooting starry skies, it is often impossible to focus due to the dark environment. How should we focus?

1. Manual focus

When shooting starry skies, focus is the key to the success or failure of shooting. You must use manual focus. Focus

2. Find light to focus

Generally in real-time view, that is, screen view, you can look for distant light to focus. When the spot is the smallest, the focus is accurate< /p>

3. Find the foreground

The stars do not need to be particularly clear. We can find a good-looking foreground, then use a flashlight to add some light to the foreground, zoom in in real-time view, and focus on the foreground

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4. The wireless distance mark is unreliable. The infinity mark on the camera lens is very unreliable on the zoom lens, so the flashlight will fail to fill in the foreground if the focus is turned to infinity

How to fill in the light? It's very simple. When the camera is exposed for a long time, use a flashlight to "scan" the object you want to illuminate several times. The length of the fill in the light time determines the brightness of the foreground building