Today I'm going to tell you how I use the Canon EOS R for outstanding Milky Way photography. Let's go Thank you for joining me on this video your beautiful person and your good person and if no one has told you that today Let me be the first to tell you that hit that like button on this video if you like it It's really appreciated if you would subscribe and stick around and enjoy the content video after video I want to make good relevant content for you particularly about my journey with the Canon EOS R for portrait photography event photography And landscapes as well All right, we want to tell you about how to make a great Milky Way image to make this video kind of a strategic Approach to Milky Way photography with the Canon EOS R I Divided my approach into five main areas to remember so these are tips on Stability tips on your attitude tips on focus tips on exposure and Tips on making an image that's relevant or relatable to the viewer. So let's start with stability The first thing you want to know about stability is tripod is a must You're gonna have the shutter open for a long duration a number of seconds You have to have a tripod to have your camera on for a solid foundation so there's no or very very very little movement That's a must tripod is a must Second use the touchscreen on the back of your Canon EOS R to trigger the shot So you can use remote you can use the app There's other ways of triggering the shot opening the shutter But I use the touchscreen on the back and I found that that was very effective And I used it in combination with the two-second timer So the touchscreen on the back any motion of the camera from touching the screen is eliminated by that two second window And then your shutter opens with the two-second timer So you can also be in the shot and ask a friend to trigger a shutter But you want them to use your app or a remote or the the two-second timer So make sure for stability you have the touchscreen enabled You have the two-second timer and you use a tripod. So those are all tees touchscreen two-second timer tripod Remember that for stability attitude tips now You're going to be out in the dark at night and it's hard to see where you're going I was out in Joshua Tree and I felt that I was disoriented And so you have to prepare yourself for setback You drop something and it's hard to see it's hard to find it So you want to prepare your attitude for setbacks It's not going to be easy out there in the dark Taking these shots that have multiple seconds where the shutter is open And there's some processing time you're going to want to build in some patience to your mental approach Be prepared to invest the time to get those shots You want to be ready to invest that time So be prepared for setbacks and be prepared to invest the time to get the shots that are required These are going to be amazing shots. They're worth it Third is focus tips. So here are the things I want you to remember that helped me to get the sharpest focus for your Milky Way photography with the Canon EOS R One is you want to use Canon's built-in live view So that means you're looking on the viewfinder to see the live view of the sky You're going to find the brightest star on the screen And then you're going to use your focus check magnification to zoom in on that star To make sure it's tack sharp on that part of the image To make sure the rest of the sky is in focus like you want it to be You're also going to use the manual focus This is important. You can get a sharper focus with manual focus than auto focus And you also want to turn on the cinema guides on your Canon EOS R Which activates a box on the screen and these kind of crosshairs that align as the object comes into focus Use the cinema guides. Use the manual focus. Use the focus check magnification to see that brightest star Up close and see how sharp you can get it And then also make sure you're using the Canon EOS R live view Trust your eyes. I wear reading glasses so I have to have those out So I can check the focus on the live view screen So make sure that you're trusting your eyes and not just when the cinema guides light up green Because sometimes you bump the camera and it swayes back and forth a little bit And always trust your eyes and go for that pin point focus when you're zoomed in using focus check All right, so that's stability. That's your attitude. That's focus. What about exposure? How do you in the dark night sky get the best exposure? That's a good tip the dark night sky you have to get to a place where there's no light pollution And so we went out to Joshua Tree and then met driving hours outside of Orange County NLA And I found that even into 29 palms which is a very very remote location There was light pollution from the buildings the city the town right there And so it wasn't until we got into the park and to the dark campground that The sky really looked like I thought it should like I wanted it to So go to a very very dark place away from cities away from light And that might mean going hours out of your way it did for us All right for exposure you've probably heard the rule of 500 so you take 500 Divide it by your focal length and that gives you the number of seconds You can have the shutter open and not really get star trails or the white Pinpoint of the stars starting to make a horizontal or curving line with the orbit of the earth All right sounds complicated, but trust me I'll just give you an example 500 divided by my focal length the 35 millimeters for the 35 RF lens Divide that 14 seconds So I knew going out into the desert to Joshua Tree 14 seconds That's where I started I actually found that my camera was pretty high performing And I actually cut down the exposure time to 8 seconds Because I felt like I could get a sharper image And I was getting enough light So that's another tip for exposure It's kind of based on what you see your camera performing at Another thing is ISO I've saw one article say start at 3200 I looked in my metadata and I was around 500 So with the Canon EOS R I wouldn't boost up your ISO to 3200 Try around 500 see where that gets you that was plenty for me And I got some amazing images at ISO 500 Another tip for exposure is use a low f-stop lens Yes, so I have a 1.8 and that was a brilliant choice No pun intended? No, I take it back pun intended to let in a lot of light So the lower the f-stop you shoot at f1.8 or f2.8 So you're letting in a lot of light That's going to help the exposure turn out right All right, so just to round up those tips Get to a dark place, follow the rule of 500 Use your ISO to help bring in the light And use the fast lens low f-stop values please The last thing is how to make your image relevant or relatable to your viewer So you have a great exposure, it's in focus But what makes the viewer care about it? This is tricky because it's a magnificent image But usually what helps is some foreground interest And so learning what you can do to compose your shot To make it relevant to the viewer is really important So if you can have like an old car A barn, a structure, some rocks Like at Joshua Tree, we had some amazing rock formations And we were able to put those in the foreground Which you can do as a silhouette Or you can actually do some light painting And paint them with a source of light Like a flashlight or something like that To help illuminate them And so that's a good way to help make it relatable Why does this work or how does that become relatable? It works because the magnificence of the Milky Way Is almost too much to take in And you help give that element of contrast Or surprise or shock By showing, let's say I saw this in one article Someone sitting in a camp chair And they're illuminated in the shot Before the majesty of the Milky Way So that's one thing You've probably seen the shots where there's a camper or a hiker And they're wearing a headlamp Pointed up at the stars And that helps introduce an element of surprise Or shock or contrast That makes the image relatable to the viewer Because they can put themselves in that position And go, oh that's how big I would be Or that's where I would have this perspective If I were in the image in that place So remember that Keep it relevant and relatable to the viewer By using foreground interest Or putting a subject that's clearly defined against the grandeur of the Milky Way So remember these elements to create an impactful Milky Way photograph With your Canon EOSR Stability, your attitude Focus, exposure, and make it relatable Stability, attitude, focus, exposure, and making it relatable Those are my five pronged approach To a great Milky Way photograph with your Canon EOSR Thanks for joining me Until next time Alright, like and subscribe Click those buttons Check out the links to the Canon EOSR Underneath this video at the bottom And thanks for joining me Hey, if you're joining this video And no one has told you this today Let me be the first one to tell you You're a beautiful person, you're a good person