How to shoot a star in the sky?

Have you ever seen a picture of the starry sky with a million stars and the Milky Way all around it?? You want to learn how to shoot like that?? It’s time to master the basics of astrophotography. First, let’s understand what we need to get a good picture. First things first, we need to know what we want. In astrophotography there are many ways to shoot. You can shoot the starry sky alone, get star tracks or shoot a classic landscape with a sky dotted with star-spots. For the purposes of this article we will take a look at just one scene: the star-spots.

Nikon D850 AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED f/2.8, 30 sec, ISO 6400.

The Milky Way above an abandoned chapel in the village of Nemyata, Kenozersky National Park, Arkhangelsk Region

So what do we need to do to get a spectacular photo of the starry sky? First of all, let’s get ready. And, first of all, technically. Unfortunately, astrophotography, unlike normal daytime scenery, has high demands on technique. This is the best way to go stargazing with a full frame DSLR camera like the Nikon D850. You need a fast wide-angle lens like the AF-S Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8. For me, it’s the prime lens for all night landscapes and all of the pictures in this article were taken with it.

Why this combination. Let’s figure it out. We want to capture the light of the stars. The light is very faint, I must say. So we set up the camera to capture as much light as possible. Start with ISO speed. You need to set it to 3200 or higher. I shot some of my night landscapes at 6400 and even faster, so I could suppress the noise in post-processing afterwards by using special techniques. For this purpose we need a camera which produces acceptable signal to noise ratio, and full frame cameras are the best for this task.

The next “source” of light is the aperture. The wider we open it up, the more stars will appear in our picture. This is where you need a fast lens, which gives you great image quality even at the maximum aperture.

And the last factor: shutter speed. It would seem, why bother with high ISO and high-speed optics, if you can just set a shutter speed slower. But here’s where we get a surprise: our Earth isn’t standing still. To us, this means that all the stars in the sky slowly revolve around the Pole Star. So, if we set the shutter speed slower, instead of the star-spots we will get star tracks. Stretched out long enough, they can give an interesting effect, but short dashes instead of dots won’t look good. So you have to limit the shutter speed. Exactly how much to set? To do this, you need to remember the simple rule of six hundred. To get a shutter speed in seconds at which the stars won’t blur into tracks, you divide 600 by the focal length of the lens. Don’t look for the physical meaning in this formula, it doesn’t. Just take it for granted. So what do we get with this rule?? Let’s say we’re shooting our astropeysage with a 14mm lens. That’s 600/14=42 seconds. And what if we shoot the same scene with a bright 50s?? 600/50=12 seconds. You will need a very fast lens to get beautiful pictures of the starry sky.

The rule of thumb is very relative, though, and the further we turn away from Polaris, the more the stars will blur into tracks. Working with a shutter speed of 40 seconds without a special remote control will be a real challenge. So I shoot all my night landscapes at 14mm with a shutter speed of 30 seconds, ISO no darker than 3200 and an aperture of 2.8. Obviously you need a stable tripod to shoot with these parameters.

We got the settings, but it’s not good enough for a good night landscape yet. You need to be in the right place at the right time. Let’s start with the location. Have you ever noticed that in a metropolis you can only see the brightest stars. It’s all about light pollution. The city is so bright that it simply outshines the faint light of the stars. So in order to get a good picture, try to get as far away from big cities, towns and even villages as possible. So, to shoot the chapel in Vershinino village in Kenozersky National Park, I asked the park’s administration to turn off the architectural lights on the chapel, since the most powerful projectors were blocking the starry sky. If you want to shoot some backlit subject, take a flashlight that gives a narrow beam of light and use it as a light brush.

Nikon D850 AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED f/2.8, 30 sec, ISO 3200.

Lights of Vershinino village illuminate the chapel in Kenozersky National Park, Arkhangelsk region

But it’s not just cities that can create unwanted light. When organizing your nighttime shoots, keep a close eye on the phase of the moon. A full moon or a moon with more than half of it will hang in the sky most of the night and give off a lot of light. The perfect time to shoot a night scene is on a completely moonless night. However, the phase less than half will do too – the moon will illuminate the landscape with interesting light, and you can shoot moonrise or sunset, when there is light and you can see the stars.

So you’re armed and waiting for a moonless and, just as importantly, cloudless night. What’s next? Scouting the scene, of course. To start with walk around the scene in the daytime, look closer, look for a foreground, think about your next shot… Doing all this at night is going to be very problematic. For me, I choose a point of interest and use the free software MapsME to mark it on the map, it helps me not to walk through the bushes at night. Don’t forget about the Milky Way. It’s perfect to have it in the frame, because the starry sky on its own can look a little boring. The Milky Way rotates with all the stars, so it’s a good idea to predict when it will come out in the right place. For this, I use the program PhotoPills. The software shows the Milky Way at a specific time right on the camera image. Similarly it can show you the time of sunrise and sunset and the moon. It’s available for iOS and Android and I think it’s one of the best apps for a photographer.

You find your shot, go back to your spot, set up your tripod, set up your camera. But how do you focus in such pitch black darkness?? It’s very simple. Take your phone, turn on your flashlight, move it seven meters away from you, and light up a rock. You can use autofocus to focus on the bright spot. Now the autofocus has to be turned off. Completely . Generally. What’s more, you’d better seal the camera focus ring with a piece of duct tape so it doesn’t move accidentally. Now you have the focus on the stars for the rest of the night. You can take your phone out of the frame. By the way, if you’re not shooting alone you can ask your friend to stand 7-8 meters away and use a flashlight to shine it on yourself and focus on him. After focusing all the auxiliary lights can be turned off.

Nikon D850 AF-SNIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, f/2.8, 30 sec, ISO 3200.

Lights of Vershinino village illuminate the chapel in Kenozersky National Park, Arkhangelsk region

But how do you frame a shot in total darkness?? I suggest turning the camera off so the bright service information is gone from the viewfinder – it will blind you badly at night. Afterwards you just have to peer through the viewfinder and gradually your vision will adapt to the darkness and you will start to see single contours, and then the whole picture. Once your eyesight is used to the dark, expose the frame. Now you can turn the camera on, set the parameters you want and take a test shot. You might have to rearrange the frame a bit, correct the horizon or change the composition, but this is a detail. Have a great night shoot! And one more friendly piece of advice – don’t forget to set the ISO back to 64 immediately after taking a picture. What if there’s a sunrise extravaganza and you’re at ISO 3200?.