3 Tips for Astro Photography
I recently became interested in learning about night or astro photography. I knew my camera had potential in taking low light photos after playing around with it so I started learning everything I could in my free time which also translates to watching a lot of YouTube videos. Once I had an idea of what I needed to do in order to photograph the evening sky, I went out to a couple of places near a local lake to try and I loved the outcomes. It wasn't quite astro photography but the settings and tips I learned were so important for allowing these photos to turn out successfully. The beginner's luck I had when taking these photos definitely has me wanting to learn more and improve. Here are 3 takeaways from what I learned:
Have a tripod & delayed 2 second timer- by using a tripod and a 2 second delayed timer allows the photo to turn out crisp despite having a very low shutter speed in order to allow more light into the camera.
Understand the difference between Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO in Manual Mode and the correct order to set them- also referred to as the 3 main sources of light for a camera. Try to keep ISO as low as possible in order to avoid having noise in your photos, especially if your camera is capable of having a large aperture and slow shutter speed. Then set your aperture to the lowest number allowed (which allows the camera to let in more light). Lastly, slow your shutter speed significantly.
White Balance can be changed in post production- When I first heard one of my favorite photographers share this in their YouTube video I was so intrigued, so naturally I started playing around with the feature when shooting and editing. Sure enough, when I came back to view the photos on my computer in Lightroom I was able to change the white balance completely.
Shoot in RAW (if possible)- the possibilities in light room are incredible and so much of the data in underexposed parts of the photo are still there and can be recovered. It's game changing and that was 4 points :). If you're interested, I'll link the video which helped me make the transition from shooting in automatic mode to manual in a day!
