A Beginner’s Guide to Astrophotography

Ever looked up in absolute awe at the starry sky above? That’s exactly the kind of feeling that astrophotography tries to capture. If you want to learn how to photograph stars and take stunning photos of the night sky, you’re not alone. It’s a challenging skill, but with a little practice, you’ll be able to photograph the milky way, the moon, stars and planets like a pro.

To help you get there, here is our beginner’s guide to astrophotography, including our top astrophotography tips for beginners and the best astrophotography cameras.

With astrophotography, a lot of the work happens before and after your night shoot. Here’s how to photograph stars and how to take night sky photos from start to finish.

Before

Head outside the city

For the best photos, you need dark, clear skies - and those are hard to come by in urban areas. The light emitted from all the streetlights and buildings creates “light pollution”, and that makes it much harder to see the stars and other celestial objects. So, try to travel to remote or rural areas for the clearest skies. 

Shoot on a clear day

Think about postponing your night sky shoot if you’ve experienced wet weather that day. After rain or wild weather, the air is often full of moisture and dust, which can affect the transparency of your photos.

Visit your shoot location during the day

That way, you can look for any interesting subjects to include in the foreground of your photos, like buildings or trees. These features not only draw in the viewer, but help them to appreciate the vastness of the sky.

During

Use the Rule of Thirds

This will help you to compose balanced photos. To do it, divide your image into nine equal squares, and place your points of interest where those lines intersect. Your viewer’s eye will naturally be drawn to those points. 

Follow the 600 rule

Stars are beautiful - but unwanted star trails in your astrophotography can be distracting. To minimise them and get the best exposure for astrophotography, divide 600 by the focal length of your lens. This is the longest exposure time (in seconds) before stars start to trail. For example, if your focal length is 24mm, the longest exposure would be 600 divided by 24 = 25 seconds

Make the most of filters

If you’re shooting close to a city, invest in a Clearsky Light Pollution filter. This will block any extra light in the sky so you can snap a clearer photo of the sky.

Ted’s Top Pick of Astrophotography Lens Filter: Cokin Nuances Clearsky Light Pollution Filter

After

Set aside some time for post-processing

If your astrophotos don’t turn out as well as you’d hoped, don’t stress. When you’re photographing the sky, a lot of the magic happens in post-processing. Use Lightroom or Photoshop to adjust the colours and exposure of your images, and make the stars appear even brighter.

Here are some of the best places for stargazing and astrophotography in Australia:

1. Leon Mow Dark Sky Site, VIC
2. The Jump Up Dark Sky Sanctuary, QLD
3. Warrumbungle National Park, NSW
4. Wiruna (Blue Mountains), NSW
5. Lincoln National Park, SA
6. Dubbo Observatory, NSW
7. Twelve Apostles, VIC
8. Sydney Observatory, NSW
9. Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, SA
10. Innes National Park, SA

Here’s how to set up your camera and find the best camera settings for astrophotography to capture the best night sky photos:

• Switch to manual mode (at infinity) - Astrophotography involves taking long exposure shots at night. Manual mode will give you the greatest control over your images, and allow you to adjust the exposure, shutter speed and ISO as needed.
• Shoot RAW images - This preserves the original image information, so you have more data to play around with in post-processing.
• Choose a fast aperture - When you’re shooting dark skies, it’s important to let in a decent amount of light. For the brightest photos (and clearest stars), go for an aperture of f/2.8-f/4.

• Turn off autofocus - Some cameras struggle to autofocus when there isn’t much light. However, you don’t need the best camera for astrophotography to capture a beautiful photo. Give your camera a helping hand by manually focusing on the moon, a star, or a building.
• Turn off the flash too - Since your subjects are far away, flash isn’t necessary.
  Change your white balance setting to “daylight.” - This setting will colour-correct your photos based on the whitish colour of the stars.
• Use an ISO of 400-1600 - A high ISO will bring out the moon and stars. If your camera works well in low-light conditions, you can turn up the ISO even more.
• Select a slow shutter speed -When it comes to shutter speed for astrophotography, the sweet spot is 20 to 30 seconds - this will give your camera’s sensor enough time to capture the long exposure.

If you like astrophotography, you might want to invest in these products:

A high-quality mirrorless or DSLR camera - Since you’ll be taking long exposures, the ability to shoot in manual mode is a must.

A wide-angle lens of 35mm or more - With a wide-angle lens, you’ll be able to capture more of the night sky and landscape below.

A tripod -  A sturdy tripod is the key to clear, blur-free photos. It can get windy at night, so choose a tripod for astrophotography that has stabilising features, like a centre column or spiked feet.

A remote control - To cut down on camera shake and star trails, firing your camera remotely is a must. If you don’t have a remote control, try using your camera’s in-built timer.

To produce the best possible starry sky photos, pop into your local Ted’s Cameras store today. Our team will help you find the best camera for night sky photography, and answer any questions you might have about astrophotography; we can even guide you through choosing your first telescope, so you can fully immerse yourself in the night sky.