just started photographing, went for milky way shooting on top of a hill during new moon
1st photo is a merge of 3 shot
Feedback needed !!
Gear
canon 6D
canon ef 50mm f1.8
ISO 1600
F2.0
10 sec exposure
Beginner Milky way shot and edit with 50mm f2.0
They seem a little blurry. Did you focus the lens ahead of time on something far away or did you manually focus?
i did manual focus on the brightest star
Might just be my monitor at work that's making it blurry then. I know some people tape their focus ring then focus before the sun sets.
it was my 1st astrophotography shooting, kind of forget the tape when preparing ... and it was windy that day, so focus may shift abit
totally have no idea if the stars are in focus or not ... basically just focus the brightest star to the smallest dot possible without chromatic aberration.
Why wouldnt you just focus to infinity. You're using a 50mm lens.
technically canon 50mm f1.8 (well what to expect from the cheapest lens) has infinity focus but have to find it ... + i did not bring tape when preparing for the trip so focus is shifting everywhere and i had to keep refocus it :( and it was windy that night
Regarding infinity focus: I found infinity on my kit lens and marked it with a sharpie. At night, I set the lens to manual, align the marks, and I'm good to go.
To find infinity, I auto focus on something near the horizon, switch to manual, and mark. No tape required on my kit lens... Nikon d3300 55-200mm. Okay not really a kit lens but close enough.
Great first attempt and FF camera (best for a wide lens selection) with a 50mm and smart to use f1.8 corners looks good! Not much foreground subject matter! A good lens for a pano shot, so keep and learn something new after a while. Get a wide to ultra wide lens like normal 16mm but a 14mm or 12mm to get a lot of sky and wide foreground subject. A f/2.8 lens is best for faster glass you will crank down to f/2.8 anyway for coma reasons. Use PhotoPills app spot stars to get a shutter speed so no trailing stars for your cameras pixel info, NPF default is fine for a wall hanger (aways frame your first). Use Lightroom CC, first camera portrait then lens profile to globally PP bringing out the shadows of the foreground then graduated filter for the sky color (not too blue) but use Radial filter (inverted) around MW to warm and do shadows and brighten, kinda like the reverse of a global edit even may have to reduce saturation slider to pinpoint a magenta side of the galactic center (left light magenta, right a shade of blue different than the sky). After a couple of edits it will be a snap. This an old one using a APS-C lens 10-18 on a full frame @12mm f/4 30s 6400 lit by stars above not really a island to the north. Tell also the the story with the foreground. The camera is like a microscope at night for the eyes can not see the colors of the MW, and everyone will say it is PS'ed for they never see it but it is not!! So enjoy the peaceful, quiet time under the stars and do not be afraid of a lit parking lot.