You don't need a clear night to get good night sky shots.
The night sky can be a wondrous thing to behold, but capturing all that wonder in a picture is a little difficult. The default settings on camera are designed for daytime photography, where there is usually a lot of light, so when you try to use those setting on the night sky, everything just looks black. Single Lens Reflex cameras, or SLR cameras, allow you to manipulate many of the camera settings so that you can be sure the camera's sensor is sensitive enough to capture the sky and is exposed enough to make the moon and stars bright.
Instructions
1. Find a location with little to no ambient light. This includes streetlight, porch lights, car lights, houselights through a window or even residual light from a nearby town. The more ambient light in the area, the less clear your night sky pictures will be, if they come out at all.
2. Set the ISO on the camera to somewhere between 200 and 400. The exact process to set this will depend on your SLR camera model, but you should be able to access the setting through the menu. If you have a film camera instead of a digital camera, insert 200 to 400 ISO film into the camera, as there is no setting for you to adjust.
3. Set the white balance on the camera to use the "Daylight" setting. Film cameras will not have this option.
4. Move the autofocus switch on the lens to the "M" position, which will turn off the autofocus feature. Turn the focus ring on the lens clockwise until you see the infinity symbol.
5. Place your SLR camera on a tripod and screw it into place. Set the tripod in the location where you want to take the shot and make sure it is steady with all three legs firmly on the ground. Tilt the camera on top of the tripod to point at the sky where you want to shoot. Plug your cable release into the side of the camera.
6. Adjust the exposure time to anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds. You can use the menu to do this, although it will be better for you to learn quickly change this with the buttons on the camera, as you will be changing this setting constantly during the session. If your SLR camera gives you the option to keep the shutter open until the release button is pressed again, you can use that option instead.
7. Press the button on the release cable to take the picture. You will hear the camera snap as you press the button. When the exposure time is up, you will hear it snap again. If you set the exposure time to wait for a second shutter release push, press the button again to finish taking the picture.
8. Bracket your exposure by taking pictures of the same piece of sky using varying exposure times. If you are using a digital camera, you can also experiment with changing the ISO and white balance settings, as there is no wasted film if you take bad pictures.
Tags: exposure time, your camera, ambient light, camera tripod, digital camera, press button
