How to adjust the camera when shooting stars at night?

Nowadays, the function of mobile phone photography is getting stronger and stronger, especially in shooting night scenes, long exposure and starry sky. And the picture quality has been greatly improved (although it still can't catch up with professional cameras). For most amateur photographers, these powerful functions of mobile phones provide a lot of playability.

Today, we will talk in detail about the method of shooting the starry sky with mobile phones and teach you how to shoot the vast starry sky with mobile phones.

0 1

Common sense of starry sky photography

First, we need to know when to shoot the starry sky. The best time to shoot the starry sky is the end of the lunar year and the beginning of the month. Basically, it is easiest to shoot the starry sky from the 23rd to 30th and the 1st to 7th day of the lunar calendar, because the moonlight is very weak during this time, and you can't even see the moon at night. The brightness of the stars is much weaker than that of the moon. If there is a moon, the stars can't be photographed.

We are in the northern hemisphere. Due to the earth's rotation/revolution, the best season to shoot the starry sky is April-10, during which the brightest galaxies can often be photographed.

In addition, the weather is also very important. Clear and transparent night sky or slightly thinner clouds are very suitable for starry photography. Therefore, it is very necessary to go out to shoot the starry sky in advance and watch the weather.

Most importantly, the shooting location can't be in the city. There are very complicated artificial lights in the city, which will affect the exposure of the starry sky. It is best to shoot in the wild, with less artificial light, and the less light, the better.

These keys are necessary for starry sky photography. As long as one condition is not met, it is difficult to shoot beautiful starry sky. Everyone must remember this.

02

How to set up a mobile phone

Shooting the starry sky requires a long exposure and requires a professional mode of mobile phone. Most Android phones have professional mode, and there are three key parameters that need to be adjusted, namely, sensitivity (about 6400), shutter speed (25-30 seconds) and focusing (manual focusing to infinity). Basically, you can shoot the starry sky with reference to this set of parameters without adjusting other parameters.

Take Huawei mobile phone as an example. After switching to professional mode, the interface looks like this. Just adjust these three parameters directly:

Huawei's mobile phone professional model

ISO:6400, shutter speed: 30 seconds, MF

The parameters of the above two photos are ISO6400 and the shutter speed is 30 seconds.

Apple mobile phone has no professional mode. Shooting the starry sky can be done with the help of a software: Nightcap, which has the mode of shooting the starry sky and star orbit. You can shoot directly by switching to the corresponding mode.

However, the shooting effect of this software is not very good, and stars are rarely photographed.

03

Matters needing attention in shooting starry sky

Because shooting the starry sky is a long exposure shooting, you need to use a tripod. During the shooting, the phone can't shake. There is often night wind in the wild, so pay attention to avoid the shaking of the mobile phone caused by the wind.

How to find the brightest starry sky and the Milky Way? I recommend that you use some starry sky photography software, such as starwalk, which can see the direction of the Milky Way and help us shoot easily. There is also a professional landscape photography software: planit, which can accurately calculate the rising time of the Milky Way, the rising and falling time of the moon and the sun, and the altitude angle of the center of the Milky Way. It is very convenient for starry sky photography.

04

Which mobile phones can shoot the starry sky?

At present, as long as the shutter speed is adjusted to 30 seconds in professional mode, Android phones can theoretically shoot starry sky, such as Huawei, Nubia, vivo, Xiaomi and Meizu. As for the imaging quality of the starry sky, it is mainly related to the size of the photosensitive element of the mobile phone lens. Some mobile phones have a professional RAW format, which can be opened when shooting the starry sky to improve the imaging quality. At present, Apple's mobile phone can only use the software Nightcap to shoot the starry sky, and the imaging effect needs to be improved.

Of course, starry sky photography can only be regarded as an attempt for the current mobile phone, and it is good to shoot it. If the quality is high, you still need to shoot with a high-end camera.

Since the mobile phone can shoot the starry sky, it is enough to shoot one or two friends occasionally to show off. Although this is a good season for starry sky photography, let's go out and take a picture in the dark night.