• Home
  • Store
  • Beat Dietsch’s Portfolio
  • Licensing
  • About Me


    If I am not taking photos, I am the permanent stunt double of the Incredible Hulk. Enjoy my photographs!

  • Follow Me On

Taking photos of the stars

2. September 2017

Did you ever wanted to take photos of the stars? It is not that hard to do! It just requires a little practice. My first few attempts to take photos of the Milky Way or doing a star trail, failed.

There are a few thing that you should know before starting. In General you should, before go out to take the photo, investigate the location during daytime. Depending on the location, it can be very dangerous not knowing where you go. Only get there when you have a clear sky. Otherwise you will have a cloud trail and not a star trail photo.

Also be familiar with the moon cycle. Moon has bright light and sometimes that is not wanted in the photo!

 

The Location

When you want to take night photographs, you need to choose a location where it is pitch black. Usually I search for “Stellarium” on the web to be sure to hot one of the darkest areas in the neighborhoods.

 

The Tripod

For sure you will need a tripod. The exposure time will be between 15 and 30 seconds to take photos of the stars. I cannot really give you an exact time because this is different from camera to camera. The location also pretty much determines about the shutter speed.

A remote shutter release is also mandatory because the slightest move can ruin your picture.

 

Wide Angle Lens

There is no other option to take nice photos of the stars than putting a wide angle lens on your camera. Photos of the stars not made with a wide angle lens just look ugly. I did all my star photos using my Nikon system with the 14-24mm. Why? Because I can open up the aperture (low F-Stop) there more than with my Sony system. I can only open it up to F4.0.

 

The Compass

If you do not know the directions, download a compass to your cell phone. If you want to take a star trail photo in the northern hemisphere, you have to point north. Of course in the southern hemisphere it is south.

 

The Flashlight

I always carry a flashlight so I can see where I walk. It will also become handy when setting up the camera. Some photographers use it to light up the area in the foreground.

 

The camera settings

That is the tricky part. And here you got to find your own settings for your camera system. I will advise you how my settings were. I put the camera into M-Mode. In this mode I am responsible for the Aperture and the shutter speed.

Manual Focus

Sometimes the camera has trouble to focus because it is pitch black out there. I turn the focus ring to infinite and then slightly back. Usually I take a few test shots and look zoomed in at the display for the focusing before “go live”.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed needs to be as high as possible. But not more than 30 seconds. More than 30 seconds will make the stars moving and they start getting blurry.

For the star trail, I will keep my settings and add interval timer to the camera settings. Later I will use Adobe Photoshop to create the final image.

Aperture

I open up the aperture as much as I could (lowest F-Stop number). On my Nikon D750 with its 14-24mm lens this is F2.8.

ISO

Increase the ISO as much as needed. My ISO settings were at 1600. It will be a little blurry but increasing the ISO makes the stars to pop!

 

It is really best to play around with the settings because every camera and the location is slightly different. My general settings are:

Shutter speed: 15-30 sec
Aperture: Lowest, mine at 2.8
ISO: As high as possible, mine at 1600

Just keep practicing and once you know your camera good enough, you will get the perfect shot!

 

Share

Journal  / Places  / Tutorials

  • Do you want to learn photography?

    Do it with me and jump over to my store. There are several eBooks and presets I have been working on over the past few years – no kidding, it took me quite some time to make all this happen! And I am still working on it, there is more to come!

     


    Photography Store by Beat Dietsch

  • My Next Trip


    Beat Dietsch’s next trip: Albania

     

    Come join me on an adventure through the breathtaking scenery of Europe as I set out on a road trip from Switzerland to Albania. Currently, the trip is scheduled for September, but be sure to check my social media accounts for updates and sneak peeks of the journey, including a new beautiful photograph every other day.

     

    by Beat Dietsch

     

    There will be a lot of fun! Take care and stay save!

  • Recent Posts

    • Nancy – A city filled with History
    • The Shibuya Crossing
    • A Charming City
    • Big Apple
    • Chasing the Eifel Tower
  • Follow Me On



© Beat Dietsch - www.lightsandbytes.com - Bringing Photography into Focus

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}