First shot of Milkyway. Advice appreciated.

Hi all, took my first shot with the Milkyway in it. Any advice to get better shots without too much noise and blur and without any special tools etc.? Also, what du you think those two stripes are? Appreciate any advice and suggestions. EXIF in file.

Fujifilm X-T10, 14mm @ f2.8 ISO 1600

reg,

Use ISO6400. Shoot in RAW if you didn't already. LENR on.

The 2 streaks are meteors. They are quite common at a dark site. In a light polluted area you only see the very brightest ones but at a dark site you see the more minor ones and they happen quite frequently.

Greg.

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

Use ISO6400. Shoot in RAW if you didn't already. LENR on.

The 2 streaks are meteors. They are quite common at a dark site. In a light polluted area you only see the very brightest ones but at a dark site you see the more minor ones and they happen quite frequently.

Greg.

Thanks Greg!

There was some pollution about 20 miles away(city), other than that quite dark. I used LENR ON. Got to push up the ISO then. Do you find Fujis OK for those kind of shots?  Do you focus at infinity?

edorf_71 wrote:

Hi all, took my first shot with the Milkyway in it. Any advice to get better shots without too much noise and blur and without any special tools etc.? Also, what du you think those two stripes are? Appreciate any advice and suggestions. EXIF in file.

Fujifilm X-T10, 14mm @ f2.8 ISO 1600

reg,

From my limited experience with this lens you setting are just about right. I would raise the ISO a little in this case but stay within the 1600 - 3200 range. I feel that there is too much noise beyond ISO 3200 for a single exposure. 2500 would be optimal here bit this is just my opinion -:)

There is tremendous amount of information in this shot - if you have the patience and if you have the RAW version you can find hundreds of sites and youtube videos on how to process an image like this - you may be very pleasantly surprised at the end.

jacob

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

Use ISO6400. Shoot in RAW if you didn't already. LENR on.

The 2 streaks are meteors. They are quite common at a dark site. In a light polluted area you only see the very brightest ones but at a dark site you see the more minor ones and they happen quite frequently.

Greg.

Are you giving sarcastic advice now? Why ISO 6400? His shot is bright enough and it would only blow out bright stars and add noise. LENR takes out stuck pixels, but you can better take a dark frame (lens cap on) and subtract that if necessary.

Second, the streaks are straight without fade in/out, a tell-tale sign of satellites. The chances are much higher for satellites than meteors of this brightness at f/2.8!  They move slower and expose pixels more effectively.

The shot should be taken raw and as a starting point for editing, fix the white balance at daylight/sunny and then use RGB curves to balance the color. Less noise can only be had by using brighter apertures or by stacking (look for Sequator - it works even if a tracker was not used)

Thanks all for your tips and advices although most of it goes over my head

I'll read myself up on this topic but It seems like a lot to take in. Im sure it'll be worth it, though. My thought was to keep it simple and not invest in any software or gadgets for this. Gotta keep working on it I guess.

edorf_71 wrote:

Thanks all for your tips and advices although most of it goes over my head

I'll read myself up on this topic but It seems like a lot to take in. Im sure it'll be worth it, though. My thought was to keep it simple and not invest in any software or gadgets for this. Gotta keep working on it I guess.

A good site to read is clarkvision.com, the author is active here in the Astrophotography forum (rnclark).

However, I do not necessarily agree with his very saturated yellow/orange Milky Ways. It may be a correct representation, but when the photograph is a night landscape, not an astro object, we humans see mostly neutral to slightly bluish tones in the dark due to the Purkinje effect. For example at full moon we are bathing in warmly reflected sunlight, but all we see in the landscape is pale blue. Light of our own astronomically yellow star we perceive as white anyway, too!

edorf_71 wrote:

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

Use ISO6400. Shoot in RAW if you didn't already. LENR on.

The 2 streaks are meteors. They are quite common at a dark site. In a light polluted area you only see the very brightest ones but at a dark site you see the more minor ones and they happen quite frequently.

Greg.

Thanks Greg!

There was some pollution about 20 miles away(city), other than that quite dark. I used LENR ON. Got to push up the ISO then. Do you find Fujis OK for those kind of shots? Do you focus at infinity?

None of my lenses I have ever used have a reliable infinity mark. I manually focus on a bright star at ISO6400 and use magnified view. You'll see the star shrink and then enlarge again as you go past focus so back and forth and then you can see the exact focus point. Its usually just before infinity.

Alternatively focus at infinity during the day and tape the focus ring if your lens lets you do that and make sure the camera is set to manual focus before you use it at night.

The Fuji lenses I have used that were good are:

1. 14mm F2.8 ( one of the best).

2. 16-55 at 16mm and F2.8 is quite good.

3. Not a Fuji but the Samyang 12mm F2.0 is good at F2.0. Perhaps not a very sharp daytime lens but fine for a nightscape where sharpness isn't your primary concern. Your primary concern is no coma in the corners and not too much CA. CA can be corrected in post, coma only if its slight otherwise you have to stop down and then it requires too long an exposure for untracked imaging.

Greg.

oscarvdvelde wrote:

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

Use ISO6400. Shoot in RAW if you didn't already. LENR on.

The 2 streaks are meteors. They are quite common at a dark site. In a light polluted area you only see the very brightest ones but at a dark site you see the more minor ones and they happen quite frequently.

Greg.

Are you giving sarcastic advice now? Why ISO 6400? His shot is bright enough and it would only blow out bright stars and add noise. LENR takes out stuck pixels, but you can better take a dark frame (lens cap on) and subtract that if necessary.

Second, the streaks are straight without fade in/out, a tell-tale sign of satellites. The chances are much higher for satellites than meteors of this brightness at f/2.8! They move slower and expose pixels more effectively.

The shot should be taken raw and as a starting point for editing, fix the white balance at daylight/sunny and then use RGB curves to balance the color. Less noise can only be had by using brighter apertures or by stacking (look for Sequator - it works even if a tracker was not used)

What?? No I am being serious  ISO6400 is my usual ISO for short exposures. If I do longer exposures I bring the ISO down. Noise is still not much of a factor at ISO6400 and no you will not blow out the stars in 20 seconds ISO6400. LENR gets rid of most of the noise. Yes you can do a dark (same exposure and leave the lens cap on then set it to subtract blend mode in PS as a layer with the light image).

XT2 30 seconds  ISO6400 F2.8 16-55 at 16mm 9 images stitched

As you can see I practice what I preach!

But you may be considering doing that in a light polluted area in which case you are right ISO6400 will be no good as the skyglow will saturate the image too quickly.

I only looked at the posted image at a small scale and yes you're right its probably a jet or a satellite. Probably a jet as a satellite usually shows up in telescope images not wide lens images. Meteors fade out.

Greg.

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

oscarvdvelde wrote:

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

Use ISO6400. Shoot in RAW if you didn't already. LENR on.

The 2 streaks are meteors. They are quite common at a dark site. In a light polluted area you only see the very brightest ones but at a dark site you see the more minor ones and they happen quite frequently.

Greg.

Are you giving sarcastic advice now? Why ISO 6400? His shot is bright enough and it would only blow out bright stars and add noise. LENR takes out stuck pixels, but you can better take a dark frame (lens cap on) and subtract that if necessary.

Second, the streaks are straight without fade in/out, a tell-tale sign of satellites. The chances are much higher for satellites than meteors of this brightness at f/2.8! They move slower and expose pixels more effectively.

The shot should be taken raw and as a starting point for editing, fix the white balance at daylight/sunny and then use RGB curves to balance the color. Less noise can only be had by using brighter apertures or by stacking (look for Sequator - it works even if a tracker was not used)

What?? No I am being serious ISO6400 is my usual ISO for short exposures. If I do longer exposures I bring the ISO down. Noise is still not much of a factor at ISO6400 and no you will not blow out the stars in 20 seconds ISO6400. LENR gets rid of most of the noise. Yes you can do a dark (same exposure and leave the lens cap on then set it to subtract blend mode in PS as a layer with the light image).

XT2 30 seconds ISO6400 F2.8 16-55 at 16mm 9 images stitched

As you can see I practice what I preach!

But you may be considering doing that in a light polluted area in which case you are right ISO6400 will be no good as the skyglow will saturate the image too quickly.

I only looked at the posted image at a small scale and yes you're right its probably a jet or a satellite. Probably a jet as a satellite usually shows up in telescope images not wide lens images. Meteors fade out.

Greg.

Your image illustrates exactly my point. It is too bright, you cannot get the clipped RGB channels of stars back if you bring down the brightness, nor the noise. It is better to be conservative with the ISO, you can always brighten in post.

Planes here in Europe fly with red and green lights and white ones blinking on the wings

Thanks again Greg & Oscar for good advice and suggestions! Very nice shot Greg 👍😊

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

edorf_71 wrote:

Astrophotographer 10 wrote:

Use ISO6400. Shoot in RAW if you didn't already. LENR on.

The 2 streaks are meteors. They are quite common at a dark site. In a light polluted area you only see the very brightest ones but at a dark site you see the more minor ones and they happen quite frequently.

Greg.

Thanks Greg!

There was some pollution about 20 miles away(city), other than that quite dark. I used LENR ON. Got to push up the ISO then. Do you find Fujis OK for those kind of shots? Do you focus at infinity?

None of my lenses I have ever used have a reliable infinity mark. I manually focus on a bright star at ISO6400 and use magnified view. You'll see the star shrink and then enlarge again as you go past focus so back and forth and then you can see the exact focus point. Its usually just before infinity.

Alternatively focus at infinity during the day and tape the focus ring if your lens lets you do that and make sure the camera is set to manual focus before you use it at night.

The Fuji lenses I have used that were good are:

1. 14mm F2.8 ( one of the best).

2. 16-55 at 16mm and F2.8 is quite good.

3. Not a Fuji but the Samyang 12mm F2.0 is good at F2.0. Perhaps not a very sharp daytime lens but fine for a nightscape where sharpness isn't your primary concern. Your primary concern is no coma in the corners and not too much CA. CA can be corrected in post, coma only if its slight otherwise you have to stop down and then it requires too long an exposure for untracked imaging.

Greg.

Very good advice there, Greg!

Reg,

I have done a test with lower ISO and boosting versus higher ISO. They don't work out the same, something shifts in the colour response and I found at least on an XE, that the colour was off, there was a bit more noise in the shadows and the image was a tad degraded compared to the high ISO.

Test it yourself and see for yourself.

Lower ISO I agree is the way to go for longer exposures. But for the casual Milky Way shot the old formula of F2.8 30 seconds ISO3200/6400 is what 95% of nightscape photographers use. I don't see anyone who puts out good images use ISO500 and 30 seconds.

I have done 100's of these images with all different types of settings and these are the ones I find work the best.

Perhaps you can put one of your images up for critique.

Greg.

Tried some more milkyway shots which I think came out alot better.

Bumped up the ISO and a little shorter eksposures

Exif in files.

thanks for looking.

Reg,