Beginner’s Guide to Milky Way Photography: Gear, Settings, and Planning
The Milky Way over the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Outer Banks, NC
Sony a7riii + 16-35 f2.8 GM
I won't beat around the bush... shooting the Milky Way isn't easy. It involves effort, persistence, precision and planning. But with a little preparation, you can ensure your attempts are more likely to be successful.
Master your gear and plan your settings. Shooting in the dark requires you to really maximize your camera's technology.
Use your widest lens with your fastest aperture, a tripod, and a remote trigger. I use a Sony 16-35 f2.8, the Peak Design Travel Tripod or Manfrotto tripod, and for simplicity, my camera's self timer. Getting yourself a headlamp with a red light is incredibly helpful when you are working in the dark to preserve your night vision.
Program your camera's Memory recall with your base settings to quickly and easily adjust your settings in the dark. I have programmed Memory recall on my Sony a7riii's dial to have the settings ISO 6400, 10 seconds, f2.8, WB 4000. Your settings can easily be adjusted from these if you need more or less light.
Use Live View on a dSLR or your monitor on a mirrorless to achieve focus. Turn your camera to manual focus and use the monitor to find something in the distance where you are able to zoom in to determine focus. If this isn't possible, find the brightest star and turn your focus dial to infinity. From there, make small focus adjustments until the brightest star turns from oblong into a circle.
The Milky Way over the Avon Fishing Pier, Outer Banks, NC
Sony a7riii + 16-35 f2.8 GM
Plan ahead for the best conditions. Understand the science behind the Milky Way's appearance is imperative to having a successful Milky Way shot!
The Milky Way is best viewed when it is highest in the southern skies. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is generally April through September. In April and May, the Milky Way will be highest in the early morning hours from approximately 3 am until sunrise. In June through September, the Milky Way will be highest in the evening and overnight hours.
The Milky Way is best viewed when there is little to no moon. Monitor the times of the moon rise and set as well as the size of the moon before scheduling your shoot.
The Milky Way is best viewed in areas of little light pollution. Use a light pollution map to determine where your best chance of success will be.
Use planning apps to help determine when the best time to shoot the Milky Way is. I use PhotoPills, which is a robust photography planning app.
The "planner" section of PhotoPills allows me to load a location and determine the next date that I will have the most success shooting the Milky Way. The bottom info bar tells me that the next best date is Tuesday, August 18th at 9:19 pm. The blue lines on the top info bar are "full" indicating that this is prime time for the Milky Way. When you change the date, this graph will decrease as likelihood of success decreases.
The Night Augmented Reality view in PhotoPills allows me to see an AR prediction of the Milky Way. If I am able to access my location ahead of time, I can use this prediction to plan the exact time that the Milky Way will line up over my foreground subject.
It's also important to understand twilight. The image above shows the times of Civil, Nautical and Astronomical Twilight. The sky will not be fully dark until after the end of Astronomical Twilight, so the end time of that is the earliest that you will want to attempt to shoot the Milky Way.
The Milky Way over Strahlhorn from Britannia Hutte, Switzerland
Sony a7riii + 24-70 f2.8 GM
Know that you can't control the weather. In a perfect world, the weather conditions will line up perfectly for you on that ideal Milky Way date. But, in reality, this isn't always the case. I try to keep some flexibility in the days around the "ideal" date in case poor weather causes me to need to shoot on an alternate day.
The Milky Way at Upper Velma Lake, Lake Tahoe, CA
Sony a7riii + 16-35 f2.8 GM
While it takes some effort to be successful, photographing the Milky Way is fun and super rewarding. I hope you'll attempt to shoot the Milky Way, even if it's from your own backyard!
The Milky Way over Rifugio Pisciadù, Alta Badia, Italy
Sony a9 + 16-35 f4
Ready to Master Your Creative Vision?
Learning how to capture intangible things like atmosphere, light, and emotion is exactly where photography transforms from a technical hobby into a true creative practice. If you are tired of shooting flat, uninspired frames and want to learn how to inject mood and soul back into your images, I would love to work with you.
Through my Private Mentoring programs available both online and in person, we work one on one to break through your creative ruts. We look past the standard camera settings and focus deeply on how to use light and environment to build a portfolio that carries genuine emotional weight.
If you want to step away from the distractions of daily life and practice capturing beautiful atmosphere alongside a community of creative women, join me at The Saltwater Retreat on the Outer Banks. It is an immersive photography experience designed to help you slow down, watch the coastal mist roll in, and reconnect with your artistic vision in real time.
