First Time Astrophotography for Complete Beginners

Astrophotography is one of those genres that few photographers have actually tried. It can be difficult, it can be intimidating, but it's highly rewarding, and you don't need a lot to get started. This video shows Lizzie Peirce's first-ever attempt with the help of friend and fellow photographer, Sam Lydya Smith.

When I was a child, I stayed at my grandparents' house for a few days. When I returned home, my parents had overhauled my room, painting the entire thing to look like the universe, with glowing stars and planets — it was really rather impressive. I loved it because I had been obsessed with the night sky as long as I could remember and it has never gone away. Unfortunately, I live in the U.K., wedged between several major cities, and dark spots aren't that dark and aren't that common.

Nevertheless, I have spent many nights in the darkest places around me, trying to capture the Milky Way or celestial bodies, and it's an experience I really would recommend to every photographer that they try it. It's one of those genres that you can go as deep as you want, from simply pointing at the sky and doing a long exposure image, to buying trackers and delving into the science to work out the optimum angles, rotations, and timings.

In this video, you get to see a talented photographer, Lizzie Peirce, who has never done astrophotography before, give it a go for the first time.

Rob Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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1 Comment

Wow that's some terrible post processing, it's kinda sad to see vidoes like this being shared and upvoted so much.