Milky Way

Trying some star shots last night any hints and tip most welcome

Pentax K5IIs 18- 135mm@18mm f/3.5 25secs ISO6400 Tweaked in Topaz Clarity.

Hi Stan

I'm far from qualified to give advice on post-processing (I'm a tiny step above novice) - but the overall look is a bit "over-done" for my taste. You've clearly captured a good portion of the MilkyWay, with plenty of "cloudiness" and a lot of distinct stars, and you've amplified the colouring far better than I've achieved.

I suspect that the focusing may be very slightly out too, I get the same issue quite often, the stars are a bit larger and "disc-like" rather than "pin-points" - it's very difficult to spot at the time of taking (particularly if you have less than perfect eyesight).

Sorry to criticise, but it's a far better start on star photography than many others

You might want to investigate Deep Sky Stacker - this allows you to take several images of the same patch of sky then align them and bring out more detail. It's not the most intuitive program to begin with but the potential results make it well worth while!

All the best
John

Thanks for the comments John. Think the focussing was a bit of a problem and there was a good breeze blowing plus it was very cold too but it was a good spot with very little light pollution so will be going back there to try again and experiment with a couple of different lenses. I'll look into that software you mentioned and see how I get on.

Hi Stan,

Like Lenny, I am far from calling myself anything but a novice at this. But a few things to try would be a faster lens. I have been using a fast 50, and stitching several images together. Using live view instead of the viewfinder to achieve correct focus. Also, using manual focus instead of autofocus.

You could also make a barn door tracker. I made one, but really did not get on that well with it. I always seemed to get egged shaped stars, I guess that is more due to poor polar alignment on my behalf. Or of course, a O-GPS unit, but I have no experience with one these.

Good luck

Gary

Thanks for the helpful comments, John and Gary. Have only had the chance of one night shoot since and it was rubbish, run through the shots twice and deleted them Hasn't put me off completely though. The difficult bit is finding somewhere really dark. If at first etc etc.