Me and my gang was crazy with nightscape with stars since last year but too bad year end is not a good season for stars photography due to weather … so we stop for months and now we are back with full actions where we are thinking, dreaming of stars every moment .. and we also try to plan as much as possible stars chasing outing 😀
it is not a dream, we able to shoot the Milky way at not really too dark area … it was my dream to chase it 2010 but some how I failed to make it … but 2011 me and my few close friends (shunfa, Lio, Jason … SP …. Mingkai) have start our crazy chasing project where we travel ~400km (return) 3 times in a week …. even we try to make it coming weekend but due to the some security issue at the location so we decided to cancel our trip there ….
one of the failure Milky chase
My friend – Shunfa was so happy while he 1st got it with him 30mm F1.4 … and too bad what I have much obvious compare to what he has, not matter what setting I use (high ISO, long exposure, ISO NR, LE NR … ) but my F2.8 lenses still cannot get any clearer Milky as compare that 30mm F1.4 got … hmmmm so the conclusion is under not so dark place. it is always good to use bigger aperture lenses to have more stars, brighter stars (so thicker star trail) and more objects (Milky way) …
the Milky way
let’s me share my setting and some PP done on this
Canon 5dm2 + Canon 15mm F2.8 + tripod for sure
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 43/1 second ===> 43 second
# Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 28/10 ===> ƒ/2.8
# ISO Speed Ratings = 500
– no Manipulation done ..
– crop both site to make square look (no crop on top and bottom)
– some dodge and burn on the sky
it is not difficult to shoot stars as long as we have the luck and right setting, and let me share some of my experience… but it is fun and tiring for sure ……
as Earth is rotating itself, so all the stars are moving (except for the Poles star, North star, or call Polaris)… so while we shoot the sky for more than certain time the stars will become either lines or circle (depend which direction, how long you shoot usually >30s small line will be appear). to avoid this, extra telescope equipment (e.g.Losmandy G11 with Celestron C8), we can either shoot a star trail or max ~30-50s else the star will be look like a small lines instead of blinking stars….
e.g. of 727s single exposure
and sample of 30s
– I do not own one those equipment so I do not know in depth .. but basic is those equipment will auto trace the stars so we can have longer exposure (which really need it while in real dark environment and do not want to shoot super high ISO
so … I shoot as below
1. star trail
a. in real dark environment, make a rough estimation of exposure with setting below
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. for the exposure depend on the light pollution … may need few try to get right exposure
vii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground
– refer picture above expose 700s in single shutter
b. not so dark environment
i. biggest aperture as possible
ii. infinity focus
iii. manual focus
iv. mirror lock up
v. high ISO normally I use ~400-1600 depend the environment
vi. shoot 10-30s depend how bad is the light pollution
vii. set shooting mode to continuous shooting, and use remote to continue shooting for >20mintues (you should see some line or curve depend which direction you face)
viii. shoot 2 picture .. the sky one could be very long and make the foreground over expose. so shoot another exposure for foreground
viiii. use a software call startrail.exe (google it) or StarStax (MAC) and it can auto stack the all shots into single frame which combine the star as line/curve
or check out here
x. shoot north and south 😀 , if possible… if you prefer circle/curve compare to lines
xi. I use a software load into my android call skymap .. real coold application, you should have it , if you love night photography
so here is few sample for option b
~40minutes exposure
exposure of ~30minutes of F2.8 @ISO800
to capture Milky Way, it is almost same like a star but it is more sensitive to light pollution and rotation.. (mean star trail , and we try to avoid that for Milky way as it crease blur cloud object instead the beautiful milky way)
we may need to take note of rule 600 where
600 rule simply basic rule to avoid “star trail” effect while we have too long exposure on our effective focal length.. e.g.
16mm on FULL frame, we should have max exposure of 600/16=37.5s
16mm on canon APS-c , we should have max exposure of 600/16*1.6=23.4
so if we have anything more than the exposure time the the rotation of earth will create “star trail” effect create blur effect on to our frame.
with minimum light pollution .. the color of the milky will look so beautiful
.. Milky from Bake’lalan …
from Bali …
… Milky way from Bali …
e.g. of light pollution
… city light pollution …
and Milky way near city (Kuala Lumpur) .. not viewable by nake eye .. but make use of big aperture len .. it can be capture
I found this place ~2 years ago while I look for macro spots but accidentally found this is a nice place for birding (birds seem not too worry/shy to human) ….
While I revisit this place last few weeks ago, found this is a good spot for nightscape, sunrise, and sunset too …. so decide to travel ~160km from KL toward north … while we reach we are shock with the stars and the stars reflection on the lakes ….
within 48 hours I make 2nd visit and continue to shoot the star trail .. which I stop sharing months back due to the bad schedule and weather ……….
45 pictures stack
each 40s , ISO800, F2.8 (Fisheye)
5dm2
I am sure this place going to be another famous spots for night scape, sunrise and sunset soon … but before I share out the location let’s me check is this private area or public 😀
