3 steps to get decent stars/night sky photos (even with amateur camera)

Google Maps tips & tricks
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  1. Find the right place. You should allocate the camera away of any light sources. Light pollution is crucial for this purpose. Mine photos were made in small camp in Oregon forest in September 2018.
  2. Check the weather forecast. Even slightly cloudy weather could effect a lot. But sometimes you can use clouds for artistic pictures :slight_smile:
  3. Try different camera settings. of course you should use manual mode to change the parameters. Focus. You should set the focus to maximum distance. Until stars started being clear. Aperture. Set the widest number of aperture (near f/1.4) to catch stationary stars (like dots), or set it less to get “star traces”. Camera shutter speed. During night shooting we are talking about shutter speed near 20 seconds. Apparently the tripod is needed. ISO. When other 3 parameters are ready we can go to ISO: the bigger number gives high sensitivity. I recommend you to start from 1600. If you cannot get anything, you can go to 3200 or higher. But in that case the black would be grey.

How many stars are above??
How many stars are above??1732Ă—1154 309 KB

Here is my photo by Sony alpha 6000. Personally I was glad how such camera can work out this challenge.

I hope you can get perfect images after getting these tips. Obviously, parameters could be individually changed, but still basic set up is above.

What is your experience with night sky photo? Did you managed to catch the Milky Way?

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@ArtyZ They are really very good tips. Seems you know technical things of photography well. Are you a photographer?

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Thanks @SaifIS ! The thing is the talk about amateur photographers.

I am used to make everything with auto mode on cam. I was sure that making photo in manual with all set-up’s are quite difficult. How wrong I was…) All you need just to play with camera closer during reading basic staff like “what is ISO or how the aperture works”. Some practice and experiments afterwards and you will be good )

I am convinced that the photographer is the person who do making money by photo-shooting. I am 100% amateur one.

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@ArtyZ Then I am considering to be an amature one soon by olaying with manual settings. Thanks for inspiring.