Description
This online night photography class will cover the following topics:
- Predicting where the Milky Way will be
- The changing positions and angles of the Milky Way
- Finding the galactic core
- Planning photo shoots based on the Milky Way and the moon and twilight
- Finding dark skies
- Computer programs and smartphone applications for planning photo shoots
- Camera settings for night photography
- The 600 rule vs. 500 rule vs. 400 rule
- How to focus at night
- Composition for effective night photos
- Adding people to your shots the right way
- Introduction to advanced imaging with meteors
- Using Adobe Lightroom to process your Milky Way photos
- Introduction to advanced imaging processing with meteors
This workshop includes a FREE copy of my Adobe Lightroom Night Sky Presets. I use these presets to process my own Milky Way photos. The workshop also includes recordings of the classroom presentations.
If you live in an area with lots of light pollution, consider getting a Night Sky Filter (If you buy from this link, I may get a commission).
Schedule
Classroom Session One: Learn how to shoot the night sky with the proper settings and how to find night sky objects. We will discuss shooting the meteor storm.
Classroom Session Two: Learn how to process your night sky images using Adobe Lightroom. I’ll also show you how to stack meteor images. For the later, you’ll need some understanding on Adobe Photoshop, but I’ll walk you through the process.
Shooting: You’ll have almost two weeks on your own to shoot the night sky. I’ll be available on a group messaging application to answer questions that you had when you were out shooting. We’ll use Team Reach to communicate as a group. You can post photos in Team Reach, ask questions and reply to other people taking the class.
Feedback Session: You submit up to three images for feedback. During the feedback session, I’ll pick one or two to talk about and give you honest and supportive feedback that will help you improve your night photography.
Required Equipment
For photography gear, a fast, wide angle lens is highly recommended. For full frame, the perfect lens would be somewhere in the range of 14mm to 24mm. If you use a APS-C camera, divide those numbers by 1.5 to get the recommended focal length. The ideal aperture is f/2.8 or faster. Common lenses that would work, although the list isn’t limit to these.
- Primes: 14mm, 20mm, 24mm with apertures of f/2.8 or wider
- Zooms: 14-24mm, 15-35mm, 16-35mm, 24-70mm with apertures of f/2.8 or wider
Other lenses will work, but these are the most common I see on workshops. I often use a 20mm f/1.8 or a 14-24 f/2.8 lens for my night photography.
Note on f/4 Lenses
If you only have an f/4 lens such as a 14-30 f/4, 16-35 f/4, 24-70 f/4, a 24-120 f/4 or similar, will it work? The basic answer is “Yes.”
This is an example of a night photo that I took in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness with a 14-30mm f/4 lens. I shot it at 14mm, but if your widest option is 24mm, you’d shoot the lens at 24mm.
The Boundary Waters photo is a single photo shot in RAW. It’s a little noisy but not bad. Newer cameras will do better with f/4 lenses at night versus older cameras.
You can increase the quality by doing something called stacking. That is taking multiple images one right after another and then stacking them in software to reduce noise and increase the light gathered. If I’m going to stack I usually take 8 images and 8 dark frames (photos with the lens cap on). You load those images into software, and the software automates the stacking process. While this isn’t a topic on this online class, if your only lens is one of the f/4 lenses I don’t want you to feel limited. You can take a good night shot. To help you enjoy night photography, I’m happy to add an extra session to one of the nights and go over stacking for anyone with a f/4 lens and interest.
Adobe’s new noise reduction can also significantly reduce noise in f/4 lens night images. If you are a Lightroom Classic user, reducing noise this way is my recommendation instead of stacking for those just starting to learn night photography. The results are great, and the process is an easy as pushing a button, moving a slider, and pushing a button. I will demo this during the class.
If all you have is an f/4 lens, don’t let it stop you from experimenting with night photography. While an f/2.8 lens or faster will be better, you can still get night images at f/4. You can use the equipment you have if you don’t want to buy new lenses at this time. If you don’t own a f/2.8 or faster lens, I’d rather have you use a f/4 lens to learn night photography and decide whether or not it is something you want to pursue. If it is, then upgrade to a fast lens.
Required Computer Equipment
You will need a computer and internet connection with the ability to connect to the internet. Ideally, you’ll have a webcam or hook your camera up to your computer using a webcam utility program from your camera’s manufacturer. You’ll want a microphone and speakers as well. We are using Zoom for this class, so if you already Zoom, you’re covered. If you haven’t used Zoom before, download the application and get familiar with it. It’s easy to learn.
