How to photograph the Milky Way
By: Matt Quinn
Tags: IMHO, Photography, How To

If you live in a remote area with dark skies, you are one of the lucky ones; the lucky ones that get to look up on a clear dark night and see a thick band of glowing light stretch across the sky. As a kid I grew up in the countryside of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. On one side I had a corn field and on the other I had a pig pasture. Nights were free from the orange glow of the city and what little light I did see was from the Moon and stars. Being out on those nights and looking up is something I remember fondly. As I got older I was pulled to the energy and activity of city life. In that life I forgot what it was like to have that blanket of stars in the sky at night. Over time I stopped looking upward and more often looked downward into my iPhone. I would read about adventure photographers in remote locations taking the most mind blowing images of the night sky I had ever seen. It made me remember the skies I grew up under. Over time this ignited my passion for being outside at night and exploring. These amazing photographers fuelled my desire to stop looking down and instead look up at the real world that was around me. With this article, I hope to pass on some of what I’ve learned and inspire you to get outside and experience first hand the awesomeness of a crisp, clear, dark night sky near you.

Part I — The Moon

In a previous post I wrote about how to photograph the Moon. A lot of that knowledge transfers over to this article so if you haven’t already, I encourage you to read that article before continuing.

What you will need

DSLR Camera

A good camera is essential when trying to capture the majesty of the Milky Way. There are many types of cameras that will be capable of taking fantastic images of the night sky. It doesn’t have to be your traditional DLSR camera. There are some great mirror-less options available these days. The Sony ones in particular I’ve read are excellent choices with a wide array of interchangeable lenses. My personal experience has only been with classic DSLRs but as long as your camera shoots in RAW and has manual shooting mode, I think it’s worth giving it a shot. A big factor when considering a camera to use will be its low light capabilities. For the Milky Way you are going to want to get as much light into your camera as you can before the rotation of the Earth starts to blur your image. So using a camera that can shoot a decent image at 1600 or 3200 ISO is a wise choice.

Lenses

The Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 in front and the Canon 24–105mm f/4L lens in back

When choosing a lens, I would recommend a very wide angle lens; something that will allow you to capture a huge portion of the sky. The main reason is because the Milky Way is massive! It will stretch across the entire sky and to get it in your composition can be challenging. The wider your lens the more you will see — by wide I mean small focal length. As you get more comfortable shooting the Milky Way you can move in closer with a larger focal length to capture the galactic core and so on. To start out look at something in the 14mm — 24mm range.

The lower the lens’ aperture the better, as you will be able to let in more light with a faster lens. A personal recommendation would be the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens. It’s a “budget” lens but it can produce some of the most outstanding images of the night sky. The bang for the buck is unmatched. My only gripe about it would be the vignetting it produces. Keep in mind, the 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 kit lens that comes with most entry level DSLRs will definitely work for the Milky Way, so don’t feel you need a special lens to get started.

A Good Tripod

When taking long exposures of the night sky — 15–40 seconds — you are going to need a very sturdy platform to put your camera on. When I started taking night photos I used a cheap $50 tripod and my images were not as sharp as they could have been. This was mostly due to gusts of wind that shook my rig ever so slightly. When you start out, just seeing the Milky Way on your camera’s LCD will be a great feeling. As you progress you will most likely yearn for a crisper image. You can mitigate this shake by using a sandbag or something heavy to hang from your tripod, however this usually means hauling something like that around with you. As you move forward in the craft I would suggest getting a heavy duty tripod that has some weight but is still portable.

When shooting the Milky Way your camera is going to be facing upward in a lot of cases. I would suggest getting a tripod that has a head that gives you the versatility to shoot right into the sky as well as along the horizon. I personally use a 3 way pan/tilt head that gives me the degrees of freedom I need to shoot all sorts of compositions. Ball heads can work as well, but they might be harder to do specific types of things like panoramics or in some cases straight up into the sky.

Remote Shutter

Using a remote to control your camera’s shutter is essential for shooting the Milky Way. You can get away with using your 2 second delay timer but it will limit you. When shooting the Milky Way you will want to use the ‘Bulb’ mode on your camera instead of the programmed shutter speeds. This will give you full control over how the long camera’s shutter stays open. How Bulb mode works is you hold down the shutter button for as long as you want the exposure to be and when you’re done you let go of the button. This is critical for getting the best shot as you will want to let in as much light as you can before the stars start to create blurry trails in your image. Since you will be holding down the shutter button, pushing the one on your camera isn’t convenient or productive. You will end up with a lot of blurry images due to your body’s movement and the pressure applied to the button on your camera’s body. This is where a remote shutter comes to the rescue. You can hold the remote shutter button in your hand completely independent of the body of your camera, therefore introducing no shake at all. The result will be a consistently sharper image. You can get remote shutters on eBay for a very good price. I’d recommend getting a remote with an intervalometer built in. Not much more money and you can do time lapses!

My Rig

My weapons of choice for shooting the Milky Way have evolved over time. When I first started, I used a Canon T2i and then upgraded to the Canon 6D. Recently I upgraded my tripod to a Manfrotto which was a very nice change from my el-cheapo brand tripod.

Canon 6D Body

Rokinon 14mm Ultra Wide-Angle f/2.8 IF ED UMC Lens

Manfrotto 190XPROB with 804RC2 Basic Pan Tilt Head

Nexus 7 Tablet w/ the DLSR Controller app as my Remote Shutter