I showed some photos today on my main blog of the Milky Way, that I photographed last night and I have had quite a few people ask me what settings I used, so I thought I would do a quick post on what I did.
We traveled away from the city lights as much as possible, so were down on the coast. We both had apps on our phones that would tell us where the milky way was, though you can kind of see it.
I used a Nikon D800 camera with a 14-24mm 2.8 lens. Earlier in the day I tried to focus the lens for infinity, put tape on the lens and then turned the lens and camera onto manual focus.
The camera was mounted on a tripod and the lens was pointed in the direction I wanted. I sent the mode to manual on the camera, put the aperture on f/2.8, the shutter speed on 30 seconds and the ISO on 6400. Then I took some photos. You do have to do stuff with the images on the computer, but you can do what you need to with Lightroom.
I did play around with the ISO and took some at 3200, some at 4000, but most of them were at 6400.
It is quite easy to do once the camera is set up, you just keep clicking.
Good luck.
On a side note, if you have enjoyed this post or learned something new, please remember this is how I make my living, so it would be wonderful if you would consider making a small donation.
