Milky Way Photography Tips

Updated: July 2023

Photography isn’t exactly a new art form.  The downside of shutterbugs working their craft for more than a century is that it’s challenging to come up with something new.  You constantly read articles and blogs (mine included) that contain repeated references like: “Don’t take the standard shot,”  “Find a unique perspective,” “Put your own spin on the image.”

Well, Milky Way photography is something new.  Only in the past decade have non-astronomers been able to capture high-quality shots of our home galaxy. Like many of you, I found these photographs to be enthralling but didn’t understand how it was possible.

Well, the simple answer is that recent technological improvements in both camera sensors and software have made it possible for nearly anyone with a newer, decent camera, a quality wide-angle lens, and some inexpensive software to take shots like this:

But there IS a catch (isn’t that always the way?)  Most of us live near urban areas that have so many lights that the Milky Way is ‘washed out’ at night.  Therefore,  You first have to find a location that isn’t smothered by light pollution.  One quick way to do that is by checking out Blue Sky.  This is a free website that allows you to look at any location on the globe and see how free it is from light pollution. 

With this information, all you need is a dark night with clear skies and you are good to go! Okay, okay, there ARE a few other things you need to know but seriously, it really isn’t rocket science and I’m going to walk you through what you need to know in this blog.

Please be aware that internet bandwidth limitations result in my photos being displayed on this blog with less than 25% of their full resolution. The images you can capture should be far sharper (my originals have at least 4 times the resolution shown here).

Necessary Equipment

Camera

• Full frame cameras (either DSLR or Mirrorless) truly excel at low-light photography. Their large sensors capture lots of light and they can deliver exceptional results
• ASPC cameras (“cropped-frame”) are certainly more affordable but they can’t deliver the same level of quality. Nevertheless, they can still produce impressive Milky Way shots.

A Fast, Wide-Angle Lens

• The Milky Way isn’t bright, so you need a lens that excels at capturing light.
  • You can tell how good your lens is at capturing light by checking what its lowest aperture setting is (known as the f stop). The lower the f stop a lens has, the better. Lenses that can gather a lot of light are known as being ‘fast.’
  • I consider a lens with a 2.8 f stop (f/2.8) to be the minimum for Milky Way photography (a f/2.8 gathers TWICE as much light as a f/4.0 lens)
• The Milky Way is WIDE…it can stretch from horizon to horizon. So, ideally, you need a wide-angle lens.
  • If you have a full-frame camera, then I’d suggest a minimum of a 16mm lens.
  • If your camera is ASP-C format, thenana 8 or 10mm might be your best bet.
• An alternative to a wide lens is to use a lens that isn’t as wide but take series of smaller, overlapping images and then stitch them together as a panorama using the ‘photomerge’ function in Photoshop.

Tripod

• Milky Way photography requires long exposures..far longer than you can make if you handhold your camera. You will need a tripod
• Get a substantial, solid unit (even a mild breeze can shake a lightweight tripod, which will ruin your shot)
• Treat yourself to a tall tripod. You will often need to review the images on your camera and if you have a short tripod, you might find it aggravating to continually have to contort yourself to view your LCD.

A Shutter Release cable or a Wireless Shutter Release

These inexpensive accessories let you to trip your shutter without actually touching the camera.  Even a minor shake can blur your image, so why take the chance?

Intervalometer

Intervalometers are devices you plug onto your camera that allow you to automatically take a number of sequential shots.  This comes in handy when you are “Star Stacking” (see below).  Most higher-end cameras already have an intervalometer built-in but if your camera doesn’t, just pick one up for less than $20 (they are camera-specific, so be sure to get one made for your model.) 

Headlamp

You will need both hands to manipulate your camera and a headlamp is a perfect solution.

Lights

Off-camera lighting allows you to illuminate the foreground so that the Milky Way isn’t just a bunch of stars behind a black silhouette.   As of 2023, I am using Lume Cube 2.0s, which are small, lightweight, and can be controlled remotely with my phone!

Lights Stands

• Foregrounds are best illuminated with light coming in at a sharp angle from the side of the frame to emphasize texture and shadows.  Elevated light often gives even more dramatic results, so having light stands is essential.   Currently, I use these carbon-fiber units made by Besnfoto which weigh less than 1.5 lbs and will loft my light-weight Lume Cubes over 7′ high. 
• Add a $5 tilting head to your stand and you will be able to adjust your light in any conceivable direction.  

PhotoPills

• This smartphone App allows you to “see” exactly where the Milky Way will be visible in the sky at any location in the world at any time on any date. This allows you to visualize and preplan shots far in advance.  I consider PhotoPills to be an absolutely indispensable tool for Milky Way photography. Plus PhotoPills is an incredible bargain for $9.99.

Processing Software

• Yes, we photographers are gearheads.  We tend to obsess over the latest camera or lens (didn’t I JUST list all the equipment you need before I even mentioned software?)  But to be honest, how you process images has far more of an impact than the camera or lens you use to take them. Recent software advances have delivered dramatic improvements in Milky Way image processing compared to even a few years ago.
  • Photoshop. Photoshop is the 500-pound gorilla of photo processing, and with good reason…it can do almost anything and it is the foundation of 90% of my Milky Way workflow. If you really want to capture a great shot of the Milky Way, you are going to need to process the photo in Photoshop/Lightroom or a similar photo processing program. Your shot right out of the camera might be impressive, but just a bit of work in Photoshop can make your shot a real knockout!
  • Nik Topaz DeNoise AI, Astro Panel, etc. There is other software on the market that does some things better and/or quicker than Photoshop. I’ll talk about two of those (Nik and Astro Panel) later in this blog.

Technique on Site

Find a place to shoot

• As I mentioned before, you first need to find a spot that isn’t saturated with light pollution. That doesn’t mean that you have to be in the middle of nowhere…a glow on the horizon from a distant town can be a nice touch, but light pollution from large urban areas creates so much illumination that it can overwhelm the Milky Way in your images.

Decide when to shoot

• Ideally, you want a moonless or near moonless night. A full moon is so bright it overwhelms the Milky Way and makes it difficult/impossible to photograph well.
• Obviously, you also want a clear night…no lens is going to see stars through thick clouds. 

• Although the Milky Way is visible throughout the year, the galactic plane or core (which is its most attractive feature), is best viewed in the Northern hemisphere from May through September (late February to late October for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere.) Plan accordingly.

Find a Foreground

• Just like daytime landscape photography, your Milky Way images will be more impactful if they include an attractive foreground element. Sure, a shot of the Milky Way with nothing else in the frame is cool but don’t stop there.
• Trees, mountains, buildings…find subjects that are situated in such a way that the Milky Way will appear behind them (use your PhotoPills app for this).
  • Scouting locations during daylight hours is critical. Showing up in a new location for the first time at night hoping to get a great Milky Way shot is not a recipe for success.

Set up your Lighting

• If you are going to show anything in the foreground, you will probably need some lighting.  Natural ambient light might be enough in some circumstances but if you bring your own lighting, it will open up a lot more possibilities.
  • At one time, most photographers just used a flashlight to ‘light-paint’ the foreground in their Milky Way shots. However, light-painting gives inconsistent results that are difficult to control and repeat.

Low Level Lighting (LLL)

• Low Level Lighting (LLL) is a much better technique than light painting. It uses stationary lighting which gives you much more control and consistent results.
• Low Level Lighting is also much less obtrusive to others since it uses far lower levels of light plus it doesn’t ‘move around’ like a hand-held light does.
• Personally, I found LLL to be an absolute game-changer which resulted in a step-function improvement in my imagery. Check out this article for more detail on to use Low Level Lighting.
• Be aware that ALL lighting (including LLL) for night photography is prohibited in some locations.
  • As of 2023 the following locations prohibit all lighting: Arches NP, Capitol Reef NP, Canyonlands NP, Natural Bridges National Monument and Hovenweep National Monument.
    • This list is accurate eff. July 2023 but new locations may have been added since that date. Check the local regulations since these rules can and do change with no notice.

Shoot in RAW

• If you’ve never shot anything other than the default JPEG format, you will need to give RAW a try if you want to make your Milky Way shots the best they can be. 
• Unlike JPEG, which condenses and throws away a lot of the data your camera’s sensor captures, RAW files keep all the data.  As a result, raw files have extra digital information that your software can use to process your image with better results.

Set your Focus:

• Your autofocus won’t work well at night, so you need to shoot with manual focus.
• Simply setting your lens to ‘infinity’ usually won’t work…most lenses don’t have a hard stop on their focus ring at infinity…if you go a bit too far the stars will be unfocused.
• The best idea is simply to focus on an object in the far distance before the sun goes down. Then turn off the auto-focus and put a piece of gaffers tape on the focus ring to hold it in place. This way, your camera will already be pre-focused for your Milky Way shots. If you don’t use the tape, you could bump the lens during your shoot throwing all future shots out of focus.
• If you don’t get a chance to set up your focus before dark, try to focus on any illuminated item in the distance…perhaps a particularly bright star. Take a shot, then review it at full magnification to see if your focus is crisp. Adjust until you get it perfect then tape your focus ring in place.

Check your Composition

Once you figured what you want in your composition, take a trial shot to make sure it is actually showing on your camera (trust me, it is easy to accidentally cut off stuff when shooting at night). 

• First, increase your ISO to 12,500 (or more) and take a 5-second shot. The result will be noisy but you will be able to clearly see your composition. 
• Then adjust our camera until the composition on your image is perfect.
  • Then just reset your camera settings as detailed below and get to work. 

Take your Foreground shot

• Now that you have your composition perfect, your next step is to take a high-quality image of the foreground, which you will later combine with an image of the background in Photoshop to make your final photo. 
  • This is necessary because the camera settings you use for the foreground are completely different from those used for the Milky Way.

Foreground Camera Settings

1. Set your camera to Manual Mode (Manual Priority)
2. Set your ISO to 400
   • This setting will allow most cameras to create a near-pristine image. Your camera might be different but ISO 400 is a good place to start.
3. Set your lens aperture to its sharpest setting (f/8 works for most lenses)
4. Now all you have to do is figure out how long a shutter time you need for a properly exposed foreground image.
   • To start, take a 15-second exposure and review the image. If too dark, increase the exposure time and take another shot. Keep adjusting until you have a properly exposed image
   • You may well need more than the 30 second maximum that most cameras offer as an option. If so, use your Shutter program’s “Bulb” option. This will keep the shutter open as long as you keep the trigger depressed on your remote shutter cable.

Take Your Milky Way Shot

After getting your foreground shot, don’t move or adjust your tripod/ballhead in any way.  Your next step is to make a high-quality Milky Way shot in the same spot but with different camera settings:  

Shutter Speed

The goal here is to take as long an exposure as you can without the stars start to “streak” in your image (when stars no longer appear as round spots but instead appear as a line…because of the earth’s movement).  

•  So how long?  Well, with my Nikon Z7ii and the Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, I start seeing star trails after about 12 seconds
• HOWEVER, every camera/lens combo will be different. First take a 30 second exposure and then review the stars on the back of your camera at full magnification. If the stars are not perfect circles, reduce your exposure by 5 seconds and try again. Keep reducing your exposure time this until the stars no longer show any ‘streaking.’

ISO

You will have to boost your ISO far higher than you did for your foreground shot.  With my current camera, the ISO sweet spot for night photography is ISO 6400. Although high ISO settings do result in more noise, they also capture more of the color that makes the Milky Way so beautiful. If your camera isn’t as light-sensitive as a high-quality full-frame model, then you will likely have to shoot at a higher ISO

Aperture

Use the widest aperture your lens has can since you want to capture every bit of light possible. I consider f/ 2.8 to the minimum.

Star Stacking

Star stacking is a process that will result in an image with sharper stars and less noise.  Rather than taking a single shot of the Milky Way, you take a bunch of identical, sequential Milky Ways shots and combine them into a single image with a software program.   

• This topic is worthy of an entire blog post, so if you like to learn more click on this link if you have a PC or this one if you have a Mac (they use different software).
• Your intervalometer (mentioned above) really makes taking these multiple shots easier.

All these steps may seem overwhelming and frankly, it is easy to mess something up.   To avoid problems,  I just print the steps on a laminated card (see photo) and refer to it when shooting at night. 

A New Option

Recently a new product has allowed me to take even higher quality Milky Way shots. It is a star tracker called Move Shoot Move (MSM). This is a small, lightweight device you attach to your tripod that compensates for the earth’s movement. The allows you to take much longer Milky Way shots without showing star ‘streaking.’

With my MSM I can consistently take two minute exposures, which allows me to use a much lower ISO (600) with a sharper aperture (f 8). The resulting photos have much less noise, better color and sharper detail.

Plus, you can still take multiple shots and stack them, which will provide even better results.

The technology isn’t new, but previous star trackers were larger, heavier and expensive. Move Shoot Move isn’t much larger than a couple phones, weighs less than two pounds and currently sells for around $300. It is small and light enough that I can hike with it and cheap enough that I can afford it.

Post-Production Processing

• After you return home, it’s time for real fun.  The processing!  There are basically three steps:
  1. Process your foreground image on a layer
  2. Process your Milky Way image on a layer
  3. Combine both layers
• Let’s review those steps below:

Color/Temperature

• When set to the default setting of “Auto White Balance” most cameras will capture the Milky Way in shades of blue.  And since we all know that the sky is blue, most photographers will naturally let the blue tones predominate in their Milky Way photos.  That’s unfortunate because the night sky is actually nearly colorless although light pollution will often add greens near the horizon.  The interstellar dust that comprises much of the Milky Way results in shades of reddish-brown but it also has other subtle colors that are quite attractive.
  • I made this same mistake when I was starting out, as you can see in the photo below:

Compare the photo shown above to the one below.  They were both made with the same RAW file, just processed differently. I think the image below is far more subtle and attractive (as well as being more color-accurate):

• If you would like to learn more about accurate Milky Way color,  this article discusses the topic in great detail.
• When processing a Milky Way image in Photoshop Camera Raw, start by adjusting the temperature slider between 3000 and 4500 until you find a setting that has a nice balance between the cold blues and warm oranges.
  • I have to admit that I still like some blue in my star-field.  Let’s just call it artistic license… 

Noise

You are going to have noise in your image…there is no way around it with current levels of technology.  But noise-reduction software has improved dramatically over the past five years.   

• For example, I have found that the latest (2023) update of Topaz Labs DeNoise AI software to be very effective in reducing noise in my Milky Way images.
• There is other anti-noise software on the market and new products are introduced and old products are updated all the time. This is an area where you just have to keep up with the times…

Emphasize the Milky Way, not the starfield in the background

• Make the Milky Way pop by using your dodge and burn tools to subtly bring out the lighter and darker details in the ‘cloud.’
• Kill off some stars.  Okay, I don’t mean call up Darth Vader and have him bring the Death Star over, but if you over-process your image by sliding the brightness control over too far, it is easy to emphasize the starfield and draw attention away from the Milky Way
  • AstroPanel is a Photoshop Plug-in program that handles this ‘star reduction’ task automatically.  It also automates some other aspects of Milky Way processing that can save you time and provide impressive results.

To me, the whole processing effort is the most creative part of Milky Way photography.  Yes, it can be frustrating and time-consuming.  But just consider it to be a learning process.  If your results aren’t immediately what you had visualized, take your time.  Experiment. Have fun!

The information in this blog will help you create impressive Milky Way images.  But I can guarantee you that the techniques, software, and hardware will continue to evolve and improve…I have no doubt that this article will be obsolete in less than five years. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Jeff

PS: I mention a lot of products in this article. Unlike a lot of folks, I do not get kickbacks or compensation of any kind from these companies. I don’t blindly trust someone’s endorsement who is getting paid to sell a product. I wouldn’t expect you would either. You can trust that my opinions, faulty as they might be, are my own.

 

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