Galaxy Shots!

What's up guys?! How was your weekend? I'm hoping you guys accomplished more than I did! I didn't do much at all other than read; thanks a lot Mr. Parker ;(. But anyways, so you guys remember my last post about star trails? Well, I've been researching even more astrophotography and have gotten really into galaxy photos! These photos are sooo sick, and I want to shoot some of these SO BAD. So far quite a few websites have aided in finding information necessary to shoot these photos. In this 'tutorial' I'll teach you how to shoot these incredible photos and show you the sites I used to find the information needed to take these. Just so you know, I have NOT taken any of these photos (yet), so I'm yet again basing this info off of other peoples' experiences, so if your photos go wrong, don't blame me...

A Milky Way Galaxy shot taken by UHD Wallpapers

Finding the right spot is key here. Similar to star trails, light pollution can't be a part of the photo, or else it won't turn out the way you want it to. The moon can't be out or else it'll be a source of light pollution. So after finding the right nights, you have to find the right spot. For this segment, I use the Dark Site Finder, which is a website showing how much light pollution occurs throughout the area in which you want to shoot in. This is actually very helpful and a good tool for astrophotography. Light pollution affects the photos quality greatly, so you want to make sure there's very little of it.

The next steps to taking these photos are to find the right settings and equipment. Finding a DSLR is crucial to take these photos, so all of you white girls trying to be artsy can't just use your iPhone. On that DSLR you need a lens as well, which preferably should be as wide-angle as possible. I've read that a great lens for galaxy photos is the Rokinon 14 mm Ultra Wide-Angle. This seems like a great lens, and I might consider investing in it. Another thing necessary is a tripod. The camera obviously needs to be stable to take a clear photo. Flashlights and other things similar to it would help as well, since you will be shooting in the middle of the night. To focus your camera, use the flashlight as a focal point a ways away. Now here are the settings (and these may vary for your lens, camera, lighting, etc.): ISO should be quite high (around 1600), but from what I've read, 6400 is too grainy. The f/stop should be around 1.4 with a fast lens, but with a slower lens go around f/2.8 (but you may need to raise the ISO with a slower lens as well). Now there's one other thing that I've learned about in galaxy photos: the 500 rule. This rule tells you how long your exposure should be. What you do is divide your focal length of the lens by 500-- this gets you to your optimal shutter speed. So the number you get is the highest amount of seconds your exposure should be. One last thing on settings: USE RAW, not JPEG. Astrophotography is just much better with RAW because of the white balance and other things similar to that. 

So, did that help? That has helped me a ton, and I can't wait to actually try it out this weekend! Tell me how your guys' photos turn out or send me a photo! Thanks for reading, hope to talk to you soon!

Another shot showing how amazing these photos are
Creds to Pix Good