For astrophotographers, there is a huge need for finding an important balance between the landscape or foreground, and the amazing interest in the sky. Whether you are photographing the Milky Way, Aurora Borealis, or the Winter Circle, the fundamentals of composition are still just as important as they are in normal landscape photography. In this video by Jeroen Linnenkamp, he provides three tips that will help you improve your compositions.
When choosing a subject in astrophotography, an argument can be made for the stars themselves to be the subject, but in reality, you need that anchor in the image such as an interesting building, tree, or object to first capture the audience's eye.
To add balance in the image, a good tip is to use the rule of thirds. The four points around the frame are where the human eye tends to go first when viewing an image, so you can use the rule to compose your image by having an element of interest in these intersections.
Lastly, we have depth, which you can use by trying to find leading lines such as a path, river, or road that leads you further into the image and increases that depth. Patterns can also work well and creates that 3D effect which can elevate your image.
These tips from Jeroen are not just helpful for astrophotography, but can be used in many other styles of photography too. I highly recommend watching the video, and you can let us know in the comments below if you have any additional tips.
in the beginning of doing MW's is the desire to get it all in so you go with wider and wider lenses 16mm to 14mm to 12mm then you learn to do panoramas 200 degree for the part then when vertical you do two or three vertical rolls, yea up and over your head. What most forget is super ultra wide is not about getting it all in but a upclose subject with a wide strong background story just like a day shot. If you do a get it all in it will be like a tourist capture of something.
First you have to understand the whole season from Feb to Oct. Feb.'s early morning 5 to 7 with 7 fully up. Then Mar. to Jul. when it up starting from 3 or 4 am till the blue hour to Jul. from sunset to sunrise a all nighter even Aug till just before 11pm. It is the time for the ARC. If you do the 200 degree arc you will need a lot of low foreground subject from left to right.
A 14mm or even the 12mm in portrait view will capture the whole arc all the way to Jul when it is directly over head, that is a lot of foreground.
From Mar. to May you can go out 5 days before and capture a crescent moon below, oh yes the whole season you have a 10 day time frame so if a lot of weather just watch for a clear night or so, even clouds at a faster SS can be made to stand still or even rolling in fog. Lots of times you will have to wait for every thing to clear but capture anyway you will be surprised how the clouds become a soft light reflecting and lighting up you foreground. So bring a chair and just enjoy. As you drive along the coast you will see a lot of spots use Photopills night AR change the date for all months and keep maps of locations. Also if in back of hotels your foreground will be lit even lit parking lots.
One thing I am trying to say here is you do not need to go to the desert and play with the snakes you have the whole east and west and even the Gulf coast with dark skies above. Also with a Sony mod 1 or mod 2 you can download apps to the camera https://www.playmemoriescameraapps.com/portal/ there is the "Digital Filter" app where sky and foreground are captured separately with every setting you want and gets processed in camera with RAW/Jpeg and adjust horizon before sending to the SD and post processing will make better.
Lastly get rid of the RED headlamps it ruins others images wear green, I was in the navy for 24 years and a tron flight deck worker and used a flashlight with green magic marker, exp. snipers love smokers at night the red glow can be seen for miles.
A Sony 12MP to 61MP will give a very bright foreground even when the faster SS yes the 12mm as a higher ISO but you will never get above 12800 only the video guy will, again use Photopills Spot Stars select camera (each has different pixel height and distance between) put mm and f/# pick accurate or default. If near the ocean uses Planit Pro it as a tide section, if moon is rising above horizon tide is going out.
A lot to remember but all will be apart of your soul as time goes by.
Sony mod 2 and beyond have Bright Monitoring you assign to the trash can button, no one else has it!