THE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO PHOTOGRAPHING THE GALAXY

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS TO DOCUMENT IS THE NIGHT SKY. I’VE ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO SHOOTING AT NIGHT AND, WITH SUMMER UPON US, HERE ARE SOME OF MY ESSENTIALS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING THE MILKY WAY.

WORDS + PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS BURKARD

My love affair with the night sky started when I took a road tripin 2006 along the entire California coastline. My friend Eric Soderquist and I spent over two months on the road in his Volkswagen bus searching for waves in every county in California. The trip was later turned into a book “The California Surf Project” and looking back through its pages you can see some of the early stages of my night photography. 

Camping under the stars literally every night made me that much more appreciative and eager to capture the beauty of the night sky and my favorite subject was always the Milky Way. Fast forward eight years and I’m still drawn to these dark moments where my friends and I are huddled around a campfire in Iceland or getting lost in the magic of the northern lights in Norway. Photographing in the dark certainly requires some adjusting as you’re never doing the same thing every night. So keep that in mind when reading the tips below.

Before we get into the nitty gritty, I wanted to lay out a few golden rules I always think about when shooting the Milky Way. If you walk away with nothing else from this guide, let it be these four tips.

1. EXPERIMENT 

Don’t be afraid to test settings to see what works best. The beauty of working with digital cameras is that you get instant feedback. I usually open my aperture as wide as it will go (f/2.8 or wider) and then vary my ISO depending on how bright the sky is. I like to keep my ISO as low as possible.

2. GET PEOPLE INVOLVED 

Adding that human element to a picture can give it a sense of perspective and depth. Play around with where you place the subject in your frame. The less busy your framing, the better.

3. MIND THE MOON

If you want to have clear stars, shoot underneath a new moon or when the moon is below the horizon. If the moon is out, you can play with the effects that it can have on your photograph. Use it to backlight trees or your subject, but be careful not to let it wash out your picture.

4. FRAME UP

Remember, you’re shooting at night and the night sky is the hero of your image. Try to include just enough foreground to give the sky context. Try framing the sky in the upper ⅔ of your image and then vary your angle depending on the scenario. 

GEAR

Camera body:

It goes without saying that shooting at night means you’re shooting in the absence of light which translates to high ISO cameras and low aperture lenses. The Sony a7sii is pretty much a purpose-built night camera. They designed it with a full frame 12 MP sensor with the idea that each pixel would have more surface area and therefore would be more sensitive to light. 

Lenses:

Venus Laowa 15mm f2.8 fisheye — You can include so much sky and still show your subject. It’s a great lens to have in your kit to get a different ultra-wide perspective. 

Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 — This has superior auto-focus capability and it’s great for low light situations when you’re shooting a feature that’s a little further away and you want a slightly more compressed perspective. 

Sigma 20mm f1.4 w/ adapter — This is my fast lens that I’ll use for my astrophotography. At f1.4 you get incredibly clean images and the focal length is perfect for 90% of what I want to shoot.

FotoPro Tripod FPH52Q 

Super lightweight, it’s one of the only tripods on the market that can get fully extended to eye level but still pack down to the size of a small umbrella.

Black Diamond Ion Headlamp

A good headlamp to help you find where you want to shoot. It’s always helpful if it has a redlight feature that way you aren’t bumming out other photographers around you and you’re preserving your night vision.

PhotoPill Iphone App 

This app can help show you exactly where the Milky Way is moving to so you know when it will be in the most ideal position to shoot. There is no guessing, you can set your alarm and be there right in time to get the shot. 

CAMERA SETTINGS

The number one thing to consider when shooting the Milky Way is the amount of star trails or movement in the image. So it’s important to ensure that the Milky Way galaxy is tack sharp. I know by my lenses what I can get away with. For 20mm, it’s 30 seconds long exposures. For 15mm, it’s 45 seconds. And the 35mm, it’s only 15 seconds. 

My typical ranges for settings are generally…

Aperture: F1.4

Shutter speed: 8-20 second exposures 

ISO: I’m comfortable shooting up to 6400-8000 ISO if the scene is super dark. (It’s best to experiment with your camera and determine what ISOs you’re comfortable with.)

Focus: Set your focus to infinity or focus on a far away light sources to make sure you get the sky in focus. If you want to focus on your subject, shine a light on them, it makes it way easier to make sure things thing are tack sharp.

Happy shooting!