Last year I attended a National Geographic Expeditions Photo Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The weeklong seminar was aimed at photographers of all levels, but most of the attendees were intermediate to advanced photographers who wanted to learn new ways to use their cameras, and better yet, their minds, to take better and more interesting photographs. I thoroughly enjoyed the week and came home with a new appreciation for what goes into a good photograph, and a new willingness to experiment with the camera. One of the areas of photography that I have wandered off into lately is what I'll call night sky photography.
I live in a small town in the high mountains of West Texas called Fort Davis. Our town is surrounded by mile and miles of sparsely populated contryside and as a consequence, very few outside lights. When high altitude is combined with dark surroundings, you get spectacular night skies. The stars visible from Fort Davis are truly amazing. The night sky viewing in our area is so good that the University of Texas built McDonald Observatory in the heart of the Davis Mountains, about 14 miles from Fort Davis.
With such spectacular night sky viewing right outside my front door, I decided that I'd try to use my camera to capture some of what I see here at night. Having no direct experience with night photography, I decided to see what information was available on the internet. At this point I wasn't even sure what other photographers called this kind of work. Dark photography? Night photography? Astrophotography? Although there doesn't seem to be total concensus on the matter, "night sky photography" seems to be the most readily accepted name for what I'm trying to do. Keep in mind, I'm talking about taking photos using the same equipment I use to take daytime photos. No telescopes. No timed aiming tripods. Just me, my camera, and my tripod. The information available on the internet was spotty at best, so I was on my own. Not a problem.
After a couple nights of trying various methods, here is an example of what's possible.
This photo was taken at Fort Davis National Historic Site, a facility operated by the United States National Park Service. Fort Davis was a frontier fort on the old Overland Trail. The building pictured was the single officers' barracks.
Through trial and error, I found a "recipe" that works for me when shooting night sky photos. First, look at the calendar. You want to go out on a night that's as dark as possible. Best nights for dark skies are about five days to a week after a full moon. Next look at the weather forecast. Clear skies are a must. Even high thin clouds significantly interfere with your ability to see clear star fields. Once you've picked your night. Take your camera (a high quality digital SLR or advanced digital camera are best) and a good stable tripod and head out to shoot. Try to pick an area that is as free from extraneous lights as possible. Look for something to place in the foreground that will compliment the picture. An old building or church might work fine. Be sure there are no lights on inside the building. Even the smallest lights will shine like a car headlight in a long exposure photo.
Try to aim the camera as close to the north pole as possible. Star movement in this area of the sky is least noticable in long exposure photographs. Once you've got the scene framed in the camera's viewfinder (you will need a flashlight to light up the subject so that you can see it in the viewfinder) set the camera as follows. ISO set at about 2000. Shutter speed at 30 seconds. If your camera won't allow these settings, get as close as you can and see what happens. Put your best wide angle lens on the camera and set the lens aperture to the second to widest. If your widest open aperture is 3.5, set it at one setting narrower, for example 4.0.
Next set the camera to manual focus and adjust the focus ring on the lens to "true infinity". What I mean is this. Look closely at the focus ring. You should see an infinity symbol (like an "8" lying on its side) at the far left of the possible focus settings. To the right of this symbol you will see a small "L" lying on its back, if you will. True infinity is not found at the lenses most extreme setting. It's found by setting the lens to the point of the "L". Look closely at your lens and you'll see what I'm talking about. The far extreme setting is only used in very, very cold temperatures when the lenses actually change size slightly. Here's a website with photos that may help (focus at infinity).
Set the camera's white balance setting to either "auto" or "incandescent". Finally, set the camera for delayed shutter release. That's the way you set the camera when you want to get in the picture. By using this setting you allow the camera to stop moving prior to opening the shutter. Very important when taking long exposure shots.
So you're ready to take a picture. One last thing. Have a flashlight handy. One that allows you to adjust the beam is helpful. Set it for a wide or diffuse beam. Now, press the shutter release and wait for the shutter to open. Once it does, wave the flashlight beam on the foreground subject for three or four seconds. This puts a little extra light on the subject and adds interest to the photo. After the camera finishes the exposure, look at the results and make adjustments as necessary. I found that changing the amount of flashlight time, adjusting the focus, the white balance setting, or the ISO setting were helpful. Take your time and try lots of different combinations.
After finding out what your camera can do in night sky situations, plan more ambitious outings. If you're camping use a tent for the foreground. Play with the foreground lighting. Place a small flashlight or candle in the building. Have fun with it. But most of all enjoy the beauty of the night sky. As our planet get more and more crowded, beautiful star fields will become harder and harder to find.
This is so cool! I don't have a fan-dancy camera but my dad does - I have to try this. Especially because I live in Ottawa (Canada) and round about November we can sometimes see the northern lights - that would be so beautiful to try to capture. Thanks so much for this!
Posted by: Christy | June 19, 2009 at 07:15 AM
Thanks for your kind comments. I encourage you to give it a try. Even if it doesn't work you get to spend some really nice time under these wonderfuly stars. How can you lose?
Posted by: Steve | June 19, 2009 at 08:14 PM