Night Photography Cheat Sheet
Things you need:
– DSLR or Mirrorless camera that has Manual Mode, ability to shoot exposures up to 30 seconds and ability to shoot in RAW file format.
– A fast aperture (f/1.4 to f/2.8) wide angle lens 14mm-35mm, the wider the focal length the longer exposure you can shoot without stars trailing.
– A sturdy tripod.
– A headlamp with red light setting, to preserve your night vision while operating your camera.
– Software to be able to process your RAW files like Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop.
– PhotoPills app for planning your night photography and knowing what time the milky way be visible along with the moon phases.
Optional Items:
– Remote shutter release, or intervalometer for single exposure star trails, time lapses, or long foreground exposures.
– Star Tracker for shooting longer exposures while keeping your stars pin point sharp.
– Panorama head for proper and easy alignment of stitching panorama pictures.
– Extra camera batteries, they drain quicker in cold weather.
– Warm clothes, gloves, hat, hand/toe warmers.
– A thermos with something hot to drink.
ISO Settings:
– ISO settings are going to vary. If you are shooting under moonlit conditions you may find yourself shooting between ISO 1600-3200.
– If you are shooting during a new moon or while the moon is set to capture the milky way, you will want to shoot a higher ISO. ISO between 3200-6400 and even higher depending on the camera you have and how well it handles low light noise.
– Bracket, taking exposures at different ISO settings and see where the threshold is for low light noise on your particular camera. Keep in mind that you can also deal with noise when you process your images.
– (ETTR) Expose To The Right. When you capture a picture, look at the histogram. You want your histogram to be further to the right. The more to the right without blowing out your highlights, the better RAW file you will have to work with and likely less noise to deal with.
Aperture Settings:
– If you are shooting the milky way you will likely be shooting with your aperture wide open f/1.4-f/2.8 depending on your lens, because you want to capture as much light as possible. Capturing more light means less noise and better data collected in you RAW file to work with.
– If you are shooting under moonlit conditions, you will likely want your aperture stopped down f/4-f/8 (f/8 under a full moon). Again, this is another time that bracketing exposures using different apertures along with ISO settings for your desired image is a good idea. Keep in mind that you still want to Expose To The Right without blowing out your highlights.
Shutter Speeds/Exposure Times:
– Shutter speeds are going to be dependent on what your focal length is and what the size of your cameras sensor is.
– If you you are shooting a full frame, using the “Rule of 500”is pretty easy. Divide 500 by focal length. So, if you are shooting on a full frame sensor then 500 divided by 20 (20mm lens) is 25. Which means that if you expose your picture for 25 seconds you should have pinpoint stars.
– If you plan to print your pictures, you may find yourself wanting to shoot even slightly shorter exposures for really pinpoint stars. The PhotoPills app will tell you what the ideal exposure time is for pinpoint stars along with the basic “Rule of 500”.
– If you shoot a Canon crop sensor you will take your focal length say 16mm times 1.6 which is 25.6mm full frame equivalent. So 500 divided by 25 equals 19 seconds for sharp stars.
– If you shoot Nikon or Sony crop sensor you will take your focal length say 16mm times 1.5 which is 24mm full frame equivalent. So 500 divided by 24 equals 20 seconds for sharp stars.
Basic Focal Length Cheatsheet “Rule of 500”
Full Frame Camera Sensor
Focal Length Exposure Time
14mm 35 seconds
16mm 30 seconds
20mm 25 seconds
24mm 20 seconds
35mm 14 seconds
50mm 10 seconds
Canon Crop Camera Sensor (with 1.6 crop factor)
Focal Length Exposure Time
10mm 31 seconds
14mm 22 seconds
16mm 19 seconds
20mm 15 seconds
24mm 13 seconds
35mm 8 seconds
Nikon/Sony Crop Camera Sensor (with 1.5 crop factor)
Focal Length Exposure Time
10mm 33 seconds
14mm 23 seconds
16mm 20 seconds
20mm 16 seconds
24mm 13 seconds
35mm 9 seconds
Recommended lenses for Astrophotography
– If you are shooting a crop sensor camera the Rokinon 10mm f/2.8, Rokinon 16mm f/2 (I’ve personally used this lens when I shot on a crop sensor), and the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lenses are affordable and probably your best options on a crop sensor because you want to capture as much light as possible and the wider you go the longer you can keep those shutters open. If you shoot Nikon the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 might be another option.
– If you are shooting on a full frame sensor there is a better, bigger selection of fast wide angle lenses.
– I personally shoot on a Canon 6D and have used the following lenses on it: Sigma 20mm f/1.4 Art, Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Art, Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, Rokinon 24mm f/2.8, Canon 16-35 f/2.8 III, Canon 50mm f/1.8 lenses. Before I shot on a full frame 6D, I shot on a Canon Rebel SL1 with a Rokinon 16mm f/2 lens. One of my best selling prints was shot with the Rebel/Rokinon 16mm f/2 setup, so a fast aperture lens is most important when it comes to night photography, not what sensor you have.
– Lenses commonly used on Full Frame cameras include:
– Rokinon 14mm, 20mm, 24mm, 35mm
– Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, 35mm, 50mm
– Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 III, 50mm
– Sigma Art lenses 14mm, 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm
– Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8
– Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8
– IRIX 15mm f/2.4
– There are likely some lenses that aren’t in this list, the key is wide/ultra-wide angle that has a fast aperture ranging from f/1.4-f/2.8. These will allow you to capture the most light possible in your exposures allowing you to better expose to the right. Ultimately the more light you can capture the less noise you are going to have in your night shots. That holds true whether you shoot on a crop sensor or full frame camera.