![]() Ideally you’ll want to use a lens with an aperture of F2.8 or wider as this will help you capture very faint stars that you wouldn’t be able to see with the naked eye. When you’re photographing a subject 2.5 million light years away that isn’t visible to the naked eye, those two stops suddenly become a really big deal. So an F2.8 lens is two full stops brighter than F5.6, which means it lets in four times the amount of light. For each extra ‘stop’ of aperture you have, twice as much light is able to reach the sensor. This dictates how much light is able to pass through the lens and onto the sensor. Probably the most important feature to look for is an ultra-wide aperture. Some are sharper than others, some have wider apertures and some can better control unwanted optical aberrations such a coma flare. SIGMA 14mm F1.8 DG HSM | ArtĪs you’re probably aware, not all wide-angle lenses are created equal. photographysenses (workshops available). For this technique exposure times are usually between 20 minutes and several hours, and may involve lots of exposures stacked together. The other technique is to shoot with much longer exposure times to allow the stars to ‘trail’ as the Earth moves. Usually this means a maximum of about 25-30 seconds of exposure time, depending on the focal length used. In other words, to keep the stars as sharp points of light, as we see them with the naked eye. One is to choose an exposure long enough to let in plenty of light to reveal lots of detail, but not so long that the rotation of the Earth causes the stars to appear as long streaks of light. There are two popular wide-angle astro techniques. So if you’re new to astro and want a good starting point, a wide-angle lens and tripod are the sensible first step. Shooting wide is the most popular approach to night sky photography because it requires a relatively small amount of kit (a lens and a tripod is enough to get started) and the techniques are mostly relatively straightforward, many of them requiring only a single long exposure. A wide-angle or ultra-wide-angle lens is required for this type of shot. These images aim to capture a wide vista of the night sky, usually set against a foreground here on Earth, and may or may not feature the Milky Way. The skills and equipment need to master these two main approaches are quite different, so let’s look at them separately. But as darkness descends and the stars begins to appear, a whole new world of photographic possibility presents itself. With the right gear and small amount of knowledge, it’s easier than you might think to start achieving breathtaking night-sky images.Īstrophotography is actually quite a broad church that encompasses a wide range of photographic approaches and techniques, but for the purpose of this blog post let’s split it into two main areas: wide-angle nightscapes and deep sky photography. As the warm glow of golden hour gives way to the cool tones of twilight, most photographers take that as a cue to pack up their kit and start heading home. ![]()
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