Milky Way photography for beginners: when, where and what settings
Everything you need for your first Milky Way photo: the season and time when the bright core is up, how dark the sky needs to be, camera and lens settings, sharp focus at night, and simple editing.
When: season, time and Moon
The brightest part of the Milky Way, the galactic core in Sagittarius, is what most photos show. From mid-northern latitudes it is visible in the pre-dawn sky from about February, all night around June and July, and in the evening until about October. In winter the core is below the horizon at night, though the fainter winter Milky Way through Orion and Auriga is still there.
You need a moonless sky: the week around new Moon, or hours when the Moon is below the horizon. And it must be fully dark, after the end of astronomical twilight. Our Milky Way page gives the hours tonight when the core is up and the sky is dark for your city.
Where: darkness and a foreground
A sky of Bortle class 4 or darker makes a big difference; in a city the core is invisible to the eye and very hard even for a camera. Look at a light-pollution map and pick a spot where the core will be on the side away from town glow (south from the Northern Hemisphere).
The best photos have something on the ground: a tree, a rock, a building, a person with a headlamp. Scout the place in daylight so you know where to stand.
Gear
- A camera that allows manual settings. Recent phones in night mode can capture the Milky Way too, if they rest on something steady.
- A wide, fast lens: something like 14–24 mm at f/2.8 or brighter on a full-frame camera. Kit lenses at f/3.5–4 work, just with more noise.
- A sturdy tripod, and a remote release or the camera's 2-second timer so pressing the button doesn't shake it.
- A red headlamp, spare batteries (cold drains them) and warm clothes.
Settings to start with
Shoot RAW. Use manual mode: aperture wide open (f/1.8–f/2.8), ISO 3200–6400, and an exposure of about 15–25 seconds. Longer exposures make the stars trail because Earth turns. The old '500 rule' (500 ÷ focal length = seconds) is a rough guide: about 25 s at 20 mm on full frame; with high-resolution sensors, use a bit less, or the NPF rule, for pin-sharp stars. Set white balance around 3800–4200 K for a natural sky.
Getting sharp focus in the dark
Autofocus can't lock onto stars. Switch to manual focus, turn on live view, point at the brightest star or planet, zoom the screen in as far as it goes and turn the focus ring slowly until the star is the smallest possible point. Then don't touch the ring again; a piece of tape helps. The infinity mark on the lens is often not quite right.
Simple editing, and the next steps
In any RAW editor: raise contrast and clarity a little, use dehaze carefully to bring out the dust lanes, lower highlights, add a touch of vibrance, and reduce noise. Small changes look better than heavy ones.
Once that works, two upgrades make the biggest difference: stacking several exposures to lower noise, and a star tracker, a small motorised mount that follows the sky's rotation so you can expose for minutes.