How do you...

[fishinchicks]

Take photos of stars or capture the Milky Way? My widest angle lens is a 17-55mm 2.8. The sky was so gorgeous tonight when I got out of the combine. I came home and spent about 30 minutes trying to capture at least a little bit of what I saw. Some of the photos have trees and buildings in them, but how do you get everything so clear?

Here is one of my first attempts with no buildings (It looks way better when it's larger, but you get the point):

This one has a few buildings:

[eyeguy 54]

I'm a rookie but I set on infinity for the milky way, 1600 or so ISO and about 15 to 20 seconds, and then I check the lighting and focus with photoshop. Others will know lots more than me. I like star trail pics. They are fun to do. The second looks nice and sharp.

[Dbl]

Take a look here. If you want more Milky Way you need to start around 6400 ISO at least. I use about 25 sec shutter speed, any more and you get star movement. This is somewhat lens dependent though it is a good starting point. The more ISO the more ambient light that will show through.

Recent post on Milky way shots.

If you need more help just ask!

[eyeguy 54]

6400? wow. do you need to sharpen then or do they come out of your camera looking so great? so much to learn. thx for the tips !!

[Dbl]

Actually unless you use very subtle sharpening at the higher ISO's it will bring out unwanted artifacts and noise. The Mark IV shoots very clean at even 12,800 ISO. You just don't have much room to play with your files if you don't get a good exposure at higher ISO's. Open up your lens to help, you don't need to worry about depth of field when shooting hundred's of thousand's of miles away

[eyeguy 54]

thought they were closer... My D5100 goes to 6400 so I will have to try it sometime.

[fishinchicks]

Thanks, Dan and eyeguy!

I didn't start out at 6400, but I did bump it up for the last few shots. I think my biggest issues was using 30 sec shutter speed.

Your shots are beautiful, Dan! It probably helps to get some of those when you are not directly underneath the Milky Way?

[Dbl]

I prefer to not be under it because I like to have something in the foreground to anchor the sky. It really is personal preference, I've seen beautiful shots of the Milky Way with nothing but stars but again my preference is to have some type of object in the frame. In your case a shot of the combine in the field with the Milky Way or an old barn, hay bale, etc. The list is really endless, a lot of great opportunities where you live

If you have no light on your subject, for instance a combine take a flashlight and quickly sweep over the machine to add some light to the foreground. Experiment with how long you need light during your 25 sec exposure. It is really fun to use different light sources to paint.

Here I used my flash to pop off a shot or two at the airplane to light it. I was at least 75 yards away from it. If I hadn't done that it would have been difficult to see the plane. A flash, flashlight, spot light most anything will work. Take multiple shots with various lighting lengths to achieve the look you are after.