Sark17 wrote:
Hello! I put the New Moon on my calendar last week because I am so excited to try for a Milky Way shot and I am counting down the days. I am driving a bit north on 9/28, to where it seems to have much less light pollution (per my light pollution map). I have googled this and searched this forum, but have not found the exact answer I am looking for (and also can't find how to get to the astronomy/astrophotography portion of UHH so forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask). I will be about two hours north of Atlanta.
My gear: Canon EOS R, tripod, Canon EF 14mm 1:2.8 L Ultrasonic (ultra wide angle lens) and I recently purchased PhotoPills which I imagine will help but not sure how yet.
My question: What exactly do I need to do to actually shoot the milky way? I am also curious... the photos that people post of the Milky Way where it looks so dramatic, does it look like that with the naked eye? Or does keeping the shutter open for 25-30 seconds make it glow and there is some editing afterwards? Because if it actually looks like that with the naked eye, I may have to drive further north to see it/take these photos.
Also, to piggy back on this post, I will probably try star trails too which I would use the same gear plus my intervalometer but suggestions on best settings would be SUPER helpful!
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Hello! I put the New Moon on my calendar last week... (
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Your camera and 14mm lens will be perfect for photographing the Milky Way. Once you get everything figured out, you will find it to be not difficult to do. Some of the process is not 100% intuitive, so you may find the need for a little trial and error.
Step one is to find a good dark sky site and a night with good "seeing"...this may be a challenge in your neck of the woods because of humidity levels. Even here in Texas, the best sites are way out west, where elevations are higher and air is drier and clearer. There are likely some good dark locations in north Georgia, but finding good clear air may be a challenge.
When you choose your spot, plan to arrive before sunset. Use the time to find a good, accessible spot to set up your tripod so that you can get to it in the dark without tripping over plants or rocks. Also set aside some time to capture the sunset. You might just capture that "greatest one ever." After the sun is gone, do some "blue hour" photography. Depending on conditions, white balance temperature could be from 10000K to 20000K or even higher. As it gets dark, your eyes will adjust, and you will eventually see better in the dark than you ever have.
When it does get dark, your tripod should be already set up and leveled, and you should be working with a headlamp with a red light to preserve your night vision as much as possible. This time of year, the Milky Way will be somewhere between overhead and the high western sky. It will be difficult to capture the full arch until later, so concentrate on capturing images of the galactic core (the widest, brightest part) at first. This will let you experiment with focus and exposure. Jupiter and Saturn are the bright objects in the southern sky. Use a magnified live view on the back screen to focus on them.
I use a D810 and D850 for night sky photography, but I'm guessing with confidence that you can use very similar exposure settings and be really close with your EOS R. First, make sure that you are set up for normal contrast and saturation. You can use enhanced sharpness beneficially. (This will help a lot when reviewing your exposures.) White balance close to daylight (5800K) will let the red stars, blue stars, and white stars all be captured realistically. Of course, you may want to make a different artistic choice, and if you are going to do light painting, you will probably want to set color temperature to match whatever light you are using for that.
I start with ISO at 5000 or 6000, lens wide open at f2.8, exposure time of 25 seconds. You can probably come down to 20 seconds if the air is really clear.
If you trust the dynamic range of your camera, you can bring ISO down to 2500 and leave other parameters the same, then pull the exposure up in post processing. That can help with noise. Just try and see which works best.
As the night progresses, you should have opportunity to see and capture the arch as it gradually moves toward the western horizon. That will require a series of probably vertically framed images to be stitched together into a panorama.
Please make sure to take at least one other person with you to help watch for critters and to be able to help in case of accident or other unforseen events. Have fun while you are out.
We are close to the end of the Milky Way season. It will be too close to the sun to photograph after next month until next May. But you can work on technique, and there is no reason you won't be able to capture the core near the southern horizon. Then next spring you'll be ready to go out again.
Good luck and have fun. Please feel free to PM with questions if you like.