天の川を撮影する方法の完全ガイド

自動露出機能を使用する カメラが常に夜空に適切に焦点を合わせるとは限らないため、カメラを持っている場合は注意してください。 ISOを高くすると、カメラのセンサーの感度が高くなり、うまく機能します より多くの光を集めるので、天の川の写真撮影のための広い口径を備えています。

カメラを手動で設定する

夜空や天の川を撮影するときは、手動でカメラの焦点を合わせるのが最適です。 自動機能を使用して適切な焦点距離を取得するのに問題が発生する可能性があるためです。

天の川を撮影するときは、ライブビューも使用することをお勧めします 手動フォーカスの一部として、適切な焦点距離を見つけて、前景のオブジェクトではなく非常に遠くにある空にフォーカスを設定できるようにします。

ライブビューを使用して、フォーカスを無限の値に設定できます 、そしてこれを達成するためにレンズマーカーを使用する人もいますが、レンズマーカーは必須ではありません。古いレンズを使用している場合は、レンズマーカーを使用できますが、この方法は精度が低くなります 。

Even if you’re only slightly off using the lens markers during live view, it can cause your stars to end up looking like glowing blobs instead of defined shapes.

Using your camera’s live view is the best way to achieve perfect focus with your lens, and you’ll want to concentrate at the brightest point in the sky. From there, you can move the focus ring on your lens until you see clearly defined shapes and then turn off live view when you finish.

Use a Longer Shutter Speed

Using a longer shutter speed alongside the widest possible aperture is how you capture enough light coming from the night sky to get excellent milky way images.

Your shutter speed shouldn’t be so long that the stars have time to move and cause blurry spots on your image, but there’s a quick calculation that you can do to find the optimal time, and it’s called the 500 Rule.

Using the 500 Rule

The 500 rule isn’t the only rule for calculating the correct shutter speed or exposure, and there are other methods called the 600 Rule and The NPF Rule 。 Each of these works a little differently, but the 500 Rule is one of the more conservative options, so you are sure to get good milky way photos.

The formula for the 500 Rule is:SS =500 / (CF x FL)

The SS stands for shutter speed in seconds , CF represents the crop factor or the ratio that exists between the megapixel sensor on your camera and a full-frame, and FL is the focal length expressed in millimeters.

Each type of camera will have a slightly different crop factor, and you’ll want to use ISO 3200 to start and shoot in RAW 。 The 500 rule will let you know how many seconds you can expose your image without the sky moving and causing blurring, and you can use live view to set the proper focal length using the brightest star in the sky.

A full-frame camera will work a little differently than crop sensor cameras like Canon and Nikon. The 500 Rule isn’t a perfect calculation , so you might want to use the seconds it indicates for your exposure time as a guideline. There are helpful charts online for the 500 Rule that show you the number of seconds for each camera type and focal length.

To make things even easier, though, you can take 500 and divide it by the focal length of the lens that you’re using. So, for a 16mm lens, you would take 500 and divide it by 16 to get 31.25, which is the maximum exposure length in seconds.

To be on the safe side, you might want to make your exposure time a few seconds shorter , and you can always make adjustments to the time either way based on the image you get.

Long Exposure Noise Reduction

Many digital cameras will have a feature called “in-camera long exposure noise reduction,” which is a useful, but often time-consuming function. The camera first takes a normal exposure of 30-seconds and then a second round that’s also 30-seconds but ‘blank.’

Once the camera has these two exposure images , it automatically compares them to find the digital noise and eliminate it. The downside to this process is that it does take time and battery power to perform, but it does work rather well for most applications.

If you are taking panoramas, this function will likely take too long to capture images of the milky without blurring, but the noise reduction is helpful for getting a clearer picture. You can also use software like Photoshop to perform noise reduction later, but it’s worth the 30-seconds to use the automatic function on your camera if you have the option.

Remember the Histogram

The histogram allows you to see the exposure level on your camera’s display so you can see if you need to adjust any of the camera settings before you begin. On the left side of the histogram, you’ll see the maximum values for darkness that your camera can pick up, and on the right are the white values.

There’s not much detail given on the screen, but if your image is underexposed, the histogram will show a marker on the left side of the graph. An overexposed image shows the peak on the right of the graph, and a neutral exposure displays a peak near the center. If the histogram shows a neutral exposure , you don’t need to perform any further adjustments.

White Balance, Screen Brightness, and Metering Mode

You’ll want to set your white balance manually so that you get the best possible color temperature on each milky way shot. For a lot of photography, a white balance of 4840K is a very pale yellow that limits the amount of brow n in the shot and helps prioritize more of the blue in the image.

How you set your white balance will vary based on the amount of moonlight and other ambient light you are contending with, but you don’t have to worry much because when you use RAW image files, you’ll have the data you need to make adjustments later.

A Step by Step Guide for Photographing the Milky Way

Knowing how to photograph the milky way can save you time and effort while ensuring you get prepared for anything that might come up during your travels. Here is our step by step guide to milky way photography and some important tips to remember.

Show up Early, Set up Your Gear

It never pays to be late when you’re doing milky way photography, and no one wants to set up in the pitch dark if it’s avoidable. Granted, when you’re doing this type of photography, you will be working in the dark a lot, but when you get there ahead of the time you need to start to shoot the milky way, you can take your time setting up and get a test image or two in while you wait.

As you set up your location and gear, keep these tips in mind:

• Remove UV filters prior to shooting
• Light pollution filters are optional but can prove helpful
• Lens stabilization systems for this type of photography aren’t needed
• Temperature differences can cause condensation on your lens

Showing up early also ensures that you get to pick the ideal location for your image and choose where you want to set up for the best foreground additions and angle.

Exposure Times and Noise Reduction:Leave them On or Turn Them Off?

Regardless of the camera that you are using, you will likely suffer noise issues while you photograph the milky way. You can attempt to get a full-frame camera or another device that is better at reducing the amount of noise in your images, but most camera settings have an option that helps you shoot the milky way and other items in dark skies with less visual noise.

There are different types of noise, including luminance, thermal, chromatic, and hot pixels, and they tend to come up more when you’re using a higher ISO or warm temperatures. Even if you use a long exposure to get as much light as possible, you’re still looking at some considerable noise in your image, which is why you should leave the reduction feature turned on.

This feature takes two images and compares them so that the camera removes the noise automatically, and you can see a semi-final image. If you wish to shoot lots of sky photography, it’s essential that you get the best possible camera and lens combination that you can afford for the best performance.

One of the main drawbacks of this feature is that it takes twice as long to capture an image, and at night it’s crucial to have a short enough exposure time to avoid blurring the stars. This function also eats up the battery power of your camera, and if you’re taking time-sensitive shots of things like meteors or star trails, you should turn it off.

Always Shoot in Raw

When you shoot in RAW, you’re preserving all of the data recorded by the sensor on your camera, so the image is higher quality and more comfortable to correct in post-processing. A JPEG image doesn’t have this data , and it’s unrecoverable as the data gets compressed and ultimately lost when it’s stored.

Keep in mind that the image you see on the screen of your camera is a JPEG version of the image you took and not the RAW file version. This fact means that the histogram of the RAW file and what you see on the camera aren’t exactly the same.

Use a Short Focal Length

Another tip to follow when you’re planning out how to photograph the milky way is to use the shortest possible focal length to preserve the field of view and photograph the milky way in full.

Shorter focal lengths also help ensure you gather as much light as possible, and the lowest possible shutter speed combined with a maximum aperture and exposure time will guarantee you capture a milky way image that is full of light.

Shoot in Manual Mode

When you use your camera in manual mode , you have far greater control over the shutter speed, focal length, and other camera settings that allow you to get the best milky way image possible.

Automatic camera functions frequently miss the mark in milky way photography, and you’ll need to use a high ISO and freely adjust the white balance, aperture, and shutter speed, among other things. Without having this full level of control over your camera, your photo won’t have the proper exposure.

Use the Largest Aperture

It’s best to use the widest aperture possible when doing milky way photography, and if you can set it to the smallest f/ number, you stand a better chance of getting the best image. Anywhere from f/1.4 to f4 is acceptable, and it’s best to experiment until you find what works best with your equipment before the night of your shoot.

Focus at the Sky, and Double Check Your Focus

We’ve talked about focusing at the sky when doing milky way photography, but specifically, when you’re doing this you have two options:

• Set the focus to the Hyperfocal Distance
• Focus on a single star close to the center or core

PhotoPills has a helpful calculator if you don’t want to do the math to calculate the hyperfocal distance. Focusing on a single star is much easier and allows you to get extra sharp stars in your image and a tiny bit less sharpness on the rest of your subject.

Other tips for ideal focus include:

• Using the infinity focus on your lens
• Working on your focus skills during the day
• Use the Live View on your camera to zoom in and double check the focus
• Don’t be afraid of focus stacking
• Freely compose test shots to verify the picture is exactly the way you want it
• At night you’ll need to really turn up the ISO
• Watch your shutter speed to avoid Star Trails and use the 500 Rule or NPF Rule

If you double check your picture for the things on this list, you’ll avoid many of the primary pitfalls that plague most photographers attempting to capture the milky way.

Perfect the ISO

You should be using a really high ISO for your test shots, but you may need to adjust this setting further to account for the exposure triangle and the amount of noise produced by your specific camera.

Since you’ve already set the aperture and shutter speed as you set up, adjusting the ISO is the last step to help amplify the signal that the sensor on your camera picks up.

Setting the White Balance Level Manually

Higher-level cameras will allow you to manually set the white balance levels , which can significantly help you improve your images taken in different light conditions, including images of the milky way. To photograph the milky way, having full control over the white balance levels and using the histogram on the screen can help save you time editing the image later.

Light Painting a Landscape

Light Painting gives your milky way photo a sense of depth and adds shadows , so the picture appears more natural looking. You don’t have to alter the foreground in your images, but adding some lighting there can help the image feel more expansive , reduce harsh shadows, add vital contrast, and create a sense of place.

The Histogram and the Best Exposure

The histogram on your camera is what allows you to alter the exposure using settings like aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. When you get these settings right, your photo will look appropriately exposed and have excellent color without a grainy look.

Post Processing Tips and Tricks

Once you’ve captured the perfect milky way shots and you’re ready to begin processing your images, consider these tips as you get started. Although the process of editing your images will vary widely from one photographer to another, there are a variety of tutorials available online to help you with these steps.

Editing Your Milky Way Photography

Some images of the milky way will need more editing than others, and using software like Lightroom can make the process easier and faster. There are several ways to edit your images of the milky way, but in general, you’ll want to:

• Bump up the saturation to bring out the colors of the milky way
• Use noise reduction filters modestly at first
• Use the white noise functions to remove more brown and increase the blue
• Scan the image for vignetting and remove it
• Remove chromatic aberration (color fringing around objects)

Correcting white balance in post-processing is a reasonably easy task using the tools in Photoshop or Lightroom, but if you want more tools, Photoshop has a more significant number of features.

However, when you shoot images of the milky way in a RAW format, there is more data that is useful for changing the white balance available for these types of adjustments that get lost in JPEG format.

Capturing Inspiring Photos and Perseverance

Learning how to photograph the milky way is an adventure all on its own , but when you add on the need to venture out to a remote location, it adds a whole other layer of complexity. If you want to be an excellent photographer, you’ll need to persevere until you get that perfect shot and plan on overcoming equipment failures and other obstacles along the way.

Once you get to processing and editing your images, you can freely experiment with different effects and make adjustments as needed to the balance, saturation, and other characteristics.