
This lecture goes over checking your conditions before you go shoot, including the weather, the phase of the moon, and the position of the Milky Way. Knowing when you can go shoot is critical and this will help you figure out how to get it right.
Choose a dark location with minimal light pollution and plan foreground and sky composition, using Google Earth or Google Street View and light-pollution maps to scout beforehand.
covers essential extra accessories for Milky Way astrophotography, gear handling, and pre-shoot considerations—cleaning lenses, protecting insides, tripods, remotes, packing, safety, and comfort.
Master safe field setup for Milky Way photography, from pre-shoot scouting and timing to tripod setup, camera mounting, lens cap removal, and foreground preparation.
Acquire sharp focus by using live view digital zoom on mirrorless cameras, or focus on distant objects for older DSLRs, then lock to manual and redo if focal length changes.
Shoot in uncompressed raw to preserve data for Milky Way editing, using a timer or remote release. Experiment with composition and exposure, and explore stacking and long-exposure noise reduction.
In the field, this Milky Way astrophotography guide demonstrates scouting, gear setup, and focus techniques in Joshua Tree, using wide-angle lenses and iterative exposures to capture the Milky Way.
In this course I dive into everything you need to know to go and photograph the core of the Milky Way galaxy, from figuring out the ideal time and place to shoot, to getting the right settings in your camera, to organizing and editing those files once you're home. It is important to know what you are doing before, during, and after the shoot ahead of the time since it is a bit of a larger endeavor compared to other landscape-style photos so that is what we will talk about. We will also be discussing other considerations you need to have when shooting related to personal safety and well being as astrophotography does present some dangers not present in other areas of photography.
This course is intended for beginners and intermediate photographers who want to capture beautiful photos of the stars. Having some prior knowledge of photography basics will be helpful (exposure triangle, where buttons are on your camera, etc.) but is not necessary as I will still lightly touch on those topics.
By the end of this course you should feel confident enough to find a great spot to shoot from, head out on your own or with a companion, and efficiently capture photos of our galaxy.