I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I was invited by a friend of mine to be part of a “jeeping” expedition in Moab, Utah. We decided after dinner one evening to go in the patio area of our condominium to try to shoot the Milky Way. It was visible to the naked eye and we thought we could be lazy and just walk a few feet outside the back door versus driving a few miles to an area with lower light pollution. To be honest, I did not think that the images would turn out well at all. To my surprise, they were much better than I expected. I can only imagine how much better they would have been had we gone out to the countryside to shoot.
Shooting the Milky Way is tricky. Using the 500 Rule is a must in order to avoid star trails and to capture enough stars to create a good image. In addition, using the right lens, aperture and ISO setting is critical. This was not the case here but using scouting tools such as Stellarium to better understand the position of the Milky Way is generally a requirement. All-in-all, I’m pleased with the results. The bright orange building in the lower left corner is our condo. As you can see, we did not venture far…
This image was taken with my Sony A7R using my Sony 16-35mm f/4 Lens set on 16 mm. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/4, shutter speed at 25 seconds and the ISO set at 3200. This is a single image processed mostly in Lightroom.
Click on the image to get a better look at it. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions or suggestions.
© 2015 T. Kahler Photography
I like the way the condo is positioned pointing toward the MW.
Thanks Rick. I like it too. And, we didn’t even have to light it up.
With the dark skies in Utah, it would be hard to resist a MW shot! Very sharp stars.
Thanks Tom. You are right, the skies were very dark and an amazing amount of stars.