5 Tips for taking photos of the Milky Way

Have you ever wanted to try, but didn't know how to go about taking photos of the Milky Way?  It is easier than you think!  With a little help, and some basic gear, you can get some amazing shots of the night sky & Milky Way too. Keep reading for a few of my top tips on how to do it!

TIP #1 - Location, location, location!

Light pollution from cities makes seeing the night sky a big problem in many places.  Ideally, you will need to put some planning into the location you choose to use for your Milky Way photos.  So get in your car, and start driving.  Keep going.  You'd be amazed at how the camera will pick up light pollution that your naked eye cannot see.  Luckily, with the Internet there are some incredible resources to help you find the perfect spot.  One of them is Light Pollution Map - A google map based program that shows quite specifically the reach of light pollution.  There are several others, and they are definitely worth referencing when planning your shoot.

I'll mention composition too, because I think it is important.  If you are going to be taking photos of the Milky Way, it would be worth finding an interesting spot to do it.  Perhaps an interesting landscape feature in the foreground, such as a rock formation, or a rugged mountain on the horizon.  There are some serious shooters out there who will setup at a location before the sun has set to get a shot of the scene before dark, and then blend it together with the night sky shot they will capture later.  Bring some coffee & snacks if that is your plan.

TIP #2 - Timing is everything!

There are a few things to consider in relation to when you go out to shoot.
Firstly, it is important to know that the Milky Way is seasonal!
And typically what we are looking for with these shots is in fact the 'core' or galactic centre of the Milky Way.  Basically, it is the brightest part of the Milky Way.  Depending on the time of the year , it will display in different ways.  It might be vertically across the sky, or more horizontal.  This will depend of where you are located (Northern vs Southern hemisphere), and the time of year.  I'm in the Northern hemisphere, and so Milky Way season here is best from June to August, but certainly extends well beyond that, so that for about half of the year you can see it at some point.
Obviously you will be shooting at night, and depending on the season, the galactic core will appear at different times of the day, so it is important to plan around that.  You don't want to be out at 10pm, when it won't appear for several more hours!
Of course, there is another thing to consider...That other prominent celestial object in the night sky...The moon!  Even having a little bit of moon in the sky will drown out the light of the stars to a certain extent.  So knowing the moon schedule is critical.  This means not only trying to plan your shoot around the new moon (when it is at it's smallest), but also the time of night when the moon is below the horizon.
My all time favourite app for planning my Milky Way photos is Photo Pills.  It is a very comprehensive app, that thankfully is now available on Android, and of course iOS.  It enables you to plan for any location on earth, and know on a specific date not just the path of the sun & moon, but also the Milky Way.  You can view an 'augmented reality' of each of them tracking across the sky from the location you choose.  I can't really recommend this one enough.  It is the one app you can rely on to plan exactly when to shoot at your chosen location.
Of course...Mother Nature can cancel a shoot for you too.  An overcast sky won't work so well, even if you have planned the perfect date & time.  You'll just have to reschedule!

TIP #3 - Gear

Ok this tip should be taken with a grain of salt
Essentially any DSLR (or film camera for that matter) can get you shots of the Milky Way.  I will share my opinion though...  Firstly, I would recommend shooting with a wide angle lens.  Right now I am using a Fuji XT2 with a 16mm lens.  It is a crop sensor, so that makes the lens a 24mm full frame equivalent.  Not exactly the widest lens out there, but it works for me.  The other thing you should look for in a lens, is a wide aperture.  My Fujinon 16mm is a 1.4 lens...Meaning it will let in a lot of light.  This is important for night sky shooting, as you are trying to get as much light in as possible in as short a time as possible (more on this later).  If you have a wide angle lens, but it doesn't have an aperture wider than f/4 for example, then it won't be as useful for night sky shooting.

Getting back to camera bodies for a moment... The low light capabilities of your sensor will make a difference also.  You'll be trying to gather as much light as you can, and so if you can get  that at ISO 1000 as opposed to ISO 2000 you will obviously have a cleaner image with less digital noise.  Now, these days sensor technology is incredible, and even at high ISO many cameras exhibit very little noise, so this is becoming less of an issue.  Still, it is important to be mindful of it.

Along with a camera and appropriate lens, you will certainly need a tripod.  Shooting the Milky Way means exposures of several seconds...Anywhere from 10-20 seconds or so depending on the results you want to get & the lens you are using.  So a tripod is obvious.  Many people use a remote trigger to fire the camera as well, or you can also use a timer delay, of a couple seconds, to avoid any camera shake from physically pressing the shutter.

A good flashlight, and/or a headlamp are obvious tools for shooting at night.  You'll need them to find your way around, and also to check your camera settings.  They can also come in handy for doing some creative things like light painting.  I recently picked up a couple dimmable LED light panels that I'm going to test out this summer with a technique called low level lighting, which you can read about at www.lowlevellighting.org.

Beyond that, I would recommend that you dress appropriately, wear good shoes or boots, and be aware of your surroundings!  I can tell you that shooting in Utah at night at Delicate Arch it was a little unnerving to be hiking along some sharp drop offs at night...Not to mention coming across scorpions in the dark!

TIP #4 - Technique

Ok you have the gear. You have the spot.  You are there at the right time.  Now what?

Remember that flashlight?  I hope so.  If you didn't setup your composition before dark, then you might need it to illuminate the scene so you can compose your shot.  This might not be necessary, depending on if you have an object in the foreground you need to focus on or not.  I'm going to mention hyperfocal distance here, as it is important to consider if you do need to focus on an object in your scene as well as have the stars in focus.  Due to the likely wide aperture you will be using, your hyperfocal distance will probably be somewhat far away.  You can read up on it online for a full explanation, but here is a video about it from the fine folks at Adorama, and you can also look up a hyperfocal distance chart to figure out what distance you can focus on an object while having the focus carry through to infinity (ie: to the stars!).  I'm going to plug Photo Pills again, as they have a hyperfocal distance calculator built into their app.With my Fujinon 16mm (24mm equivalent) lens set to f/1.4 my hyperfocal distance is around 67 feet...So because of the wide aperture I can't have anything closer than half of that distance (33.5 feet) in focus and keep the stars sharp.  To put it another way...If there is a cool object 10 feet from my camera, and I want to the Milky Way in focus...That object will be blurry.  I'll have to reconsider my composition!
It is definitely worth thinking about this, and how you are composing your shot ahead of time, so that you won't be disappointed with the results!

Let's talk a little more about focus for a second.  Most lenses have some sort of distance indicator on the outside of the lens.  This is important, as you will probably be using your flashlight and manually setting your focus in the dark, without being able to look through the viewfinder and see if your focus is sharp.  It is night remember?  And probably somewhere very dark with no moon either if you have planned this Milky Way shot out properly, so looking through the viewfinder won't show you much of anything.  Remember to set your focus, and to have your camera switched on to manual focus, so that when the shutter is pressed (or triggered) the camera doesn't try to refocus in the dark.  It won't work.  Review your image once it is done, and adjust your composition or focus if necessary.

Aperture.  Generally...The wider, the better.  I mentioned this already.  Open up that lens, and let in that starlight!

Shutter speed.  Ok here is where you have to figure out how long of a shot you can take, before the stars start to appear as streaks instead of sharp dots.  Unless, of course, you are wanting to do a star trail photo.  That is another lesson, for another time!
There is something called the '600 rule' or the '500 rule'...depending on who you talk to.  You calculate 500/focal length = maximum exposure time (without seeing star trails).  For example: My 16mm is a 24mm equivalent, so 500/24=20.8, or 21 seconds.  If I try to shoot any longer than that, I will start to see the stars as streaks instead of points in the sky.  Some argue that 600 is the value you should use, but I would suggest go out & try it, and see what works best for you!  I've had good success with my 16mm lens up to about 25 seconds.

ISO.  You've figured out all the rest...Now you have to decide based on all of the above what ISO you want to use.  Obviously a lower ISO value will be sharper, but also let in less light, so the Milky Way will be dimmer.  This is where you need to decide what is best for you!  Everyone will have a different preference & experimenting is the best way to do it.

TIP #5 - Experiment!

You can really have a lot of fun with this.  I've played with light painting, flashlights, lake reflections, and stitching multiple exposures together into panoramas (horizontal & vertical).  Try different ISO settings & shutter speeds.  There are some amazing techniques you can use with multiple exposures that are worth checking out also.

Have fun with editing the images too.  You can adjust the colours, contrast...There are some great tutorials out there for editing your Milky Way shots.  I'm not an expert, but I am hooked on shooting the night sky & the Milky Way.  In a few weeks I'll be out in Joshua Tree National Park in California with a good friend to give it another try.  I'll be sure to post some photos from that trip on the blog at some point, as I'll also be in San Fransisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, & Yosemite!

I hope you enjoyed the tips I shared, and maybe are encouraged to go out and capture some amazing shots of the night sky.