Secrets of the Milky Way
Photograph by Jim Richardson
Photograph courtesy Jim Richardson
Contributing editor Jim Richardson is a photojournalist recognized for his explorations of small-town life. His photos appear frequently in National Geographic magazine.
It was a grand sight to see, the Milky Way stretching across the sky behind Owachomo Bridge. It was a natural subject for the opening spread of "Our Vanishing Night" in the November 2008 National Geographic.
First, let’s get this out of the way. This is a straight shot.
That’s right. No layers in Photoshop. No multi-image, bracketed-exposure HDR computer magic. No telescope-mounted clock-driven hours-long exposure. At National Geographic we really can’t use all those wonder weapons of the digital era. Readers expect reality, and we try to deliver.
Read the whole article here: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/secrets-milky-way-richardson/
Fortunately, the Milky Way is always the same exposure: 90 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200 will always get you a nice, bright Milky Way. Or, 60 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 5000 will work.
You also need to know when and where the Milky Way is going to be “up.” It rises and sets just like the sun and the moon. To find out when it will be visible, where it will rise, and whether or not the moon will be up (not what I wanted) I used a very nice astronomy program called SkyGazer 4 from Carina Software.
One last technical tip that you’ll need: The exposures took the requisite 90 seconds. (And I experimented with other exposures and ISO combinations along the way.) But then I had to turn on high ISO noise reduction. It’s buried down in your camera’s menus somewhere. This is essential. The sensor heats up during long exposures, building up unacceptable levels of noise. So the camera does a “null” exposure with the shutter closed, to see where the noise is building up, then digitally reverses that exposure and subtracts it from the real exposure. Voilà—the noise has been nullified, so to speak. Doing this will slow you down, but do not bypass this critical step. All this means you’ll be lucky to do one exposure every five minutes. Use your dark sky time wisely.
It was a grand sight to see, the Milky Way stretching across the sky behind Owachomo Bridge. It was a natural subject for the opening spread of "Our Vanishing Night" in the November 2008 National Geographic.
First, let’s get this out of the way. This is a straight shot.
That’s right. No layers in Photoshop. No multi-image, bracketed-exposure HDR computer magic. No telescope-mounted clock-driven hours-long exposure. At National Geographic we really can’t use all those wonder weapons of the digital era. Readers expect reality, and we try to deliver.
Read the whole article here: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/secrets-milky-way-richardson/
Fortunately, the Milky Way is always the same exposure: 90 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200 will always get you a nice, bright Milky Way. Or, 60 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 5000 will work.
You also need to know when and where the Milky Way is going to be “up.” It rises and sets just like the sun and the moon. To find out when it will be visible, where it will rise, and whether or not the moon will be up (not what I wanted) I used a very nice astronomy program called SkyGazer 4 from Carina Software.
One last technical tip that you’ll need: The exposures took the requisite 90 seconds. (And I experimented with other exposures and ISO combinations along the way.) But then I had to turn on high ISO noise reduction. It’s buried down in your camera’s menus somewhere. This is essential. The sensor heats up during long exposures, building up unacceptable levels of noise. So the camera does a “null” exposure with the shutter closed, to see where the noise is building up, then digitally reverses that exposure and subtracts it from the real exposure. Voilà—the noise has been nullified, so to speak. Doing this will slow you down, but do not bypass this critical step. All this means you’ll be lucky to do one exposure every five minutes. Use your dark sky time wisely.
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