How to capture the stars (for beginners)

I’ve always admired the photos I see on Instagram that have captured the stars so perfectly all across the world. And at some point I also wished I could do that too, to somehow replicate what I could see in the night sky with my eyes and transform it onto my screen to look at long after the night has passed.

So before I set off on my trip to Uluru, where I knew that there would be little light pollution and the stars would be visible, I watched a few YouTube videos on how I could take a photo of the stars on my camera.

I own a Panasonic Lumix GX85 which is a small mirrorless camera that is light to carry and fairly easy to use for a beginner. I got it last year (2018) for my trip to Europe but didn’t use it much because my phone could take the same photo and it was easier for my travel mates to take photos for me on my iPhone. So I almost forgot about the camera and also gave up on using it to take any spectacular photos. But even beginner cameras will have basic functions which you can adjust to take shots of the stars which is what the YouTube videos taught me.

Here are my top 5 tips (from a beginner to beginners):

1. Get a tripod

Having a tripod for your camera is probably the most important factor to making sure you can capture the stars. This is because what you are essentially doing when you adjust your settings is letting lots of light into the lens so it can pick up on the light from the stars even in the dark (and when our own naked eye cannot see the brightness of the stars clearly). Letting the light in means the camera needs to be still with no movement so it can take a still shot over 30-60 seconds of exposure to the light. This is where the tripod comes in to stabilise the camera.

I don’t actually own a tripod because they are quite expensive and heavy if you get the big boy ones and for someone who doesn’t take photos often I can’t justify buying one yet.

However, for beginners, I actually used a Xiaomi selfie stick (which can transform into a tripod)! It also comes with a Bluetooth remote so you can set up the tripod and have walking away shots or take pictures of yourself when no one else is around (see my Hiking the Basin Trail blog for pictures I took like this and on the footage from my vlog).

You can find it online here. I got mine from Hong Kong. As it is meant to hold a phone, it won’t be able to hold bigger cameras that aren’t rectangular in shape. Luckily my Lumix was and fit perfectly between the clasps.

Also because it is quite short, if you can find stable surfaces with more height you can also put the tripod there (which is how I captured Uluru from a post for more height otherwise it would have been too close to the ground).

2. Adjust your camera settings

The holy trinity of camera settings involves adjusting the aperture, shutter speed and exposure. I’ll be describing these settings basically from my understanding so hopefully you can understand too if this is your first time coming across these terms. There are definitely more advanced blogs out there if you want more details.

A. Aperture (f/1.7)

Aperture is how big the lens opens up to let light in. The smaller the aperture number which is indicated by an f-stop, the more light that is let in for stars or for nice portrait photos where there is a clear separation between the subject and the background (think portrait mode on the iPhone).

My camera came with a “kit lens” which is what most beginner cameras come with and is a lens that you can zoom in and out with. However the aperture on this lens only goes down to f/4 which does not take the best photos for stars. You want something that is f/2 or less.

I had bought an extra “prime”/”pancake” lens which is named that because it cannot zoom in and looks flatter like a pancake. However, it is meant more for portraits because it can go down to an aperture of f/1.7.

For my star photos, I set my aperture to the lowest possible setting which was f/1.7. You should also set your aperture to the lowest possible setting.

B. Shutter Speed (20-60 seconds)

The shutter speed is how long the shutter stays open for to let in more light. Your phones take photos in 1 fraction of a second, so the shutter doesn’t stay open for long and your photos are taken and processed quickly. The higher the fraction, the less light is needed so you will usually find that this setting is used in broad daylight situations.

So in comparison, when you’re taking photos at night when there is no light, you want to leave your shutter open for longer. The higher the number of seconds, the longer the shutter is open to let more light in to take one photo.

I would recommend starting with 20 seconds and seeing how the image turns out. If it needs more light to capture more details, increase the seconds.

In my uluru photo above that was 20 seconds because there was quite a bit of natural light from the full moon.

The below star photo took 40 seconds because it was at a darker camp site.

And this star photo (which is a bit blurry because I knocked the camera while it was still taking the photo) was 60 seconds.

C. Exposure (ISO 200)

ISO is an indication of how sensitive the camera is to light (in other words, a form of exposure that you can control).

I originally started at an ISO of 1600 but found that the images were super bright. To fix this I brought it down with the next few shots to test the outcome (it goes down by half so 800, 400, 200).

I finally got to an exposure setting that I liked at ISO 200 which means the photo may be underexposed but this is something you can always bring up in post processing (editing).

I’ve found it’s always better to underexpose than overexpose because it is easier to adjust later.

Test what works well for you and your tastes but I would recommend a low ISO for stars.

3. Turn off auto-focus

Another important setting outside of the holy trinity is to turn off auto-focus on your camera. I’m not too sure of the specifics of this setting, but you want your camera on manual focus to be able to pick up all the stars rather than focusing on one point.

4. Stay warm and have patience

Taking photos at night during winter will mean it gets cold and when you’re waiting for your camera to do it’s thing with the shutter speed, you’ll want to stay warm. So bring thermals, coats and anything that will keep you cosy.

Bring a friend who doesn’t mind waiting with you too! And before you know it you’ll have some awesome shots.

5. Editing

You’ll see that I’ve posted the before and after photos of my shots. So what you see on the camera will differ from your end product after editing.

I edit on the Lightroom on my phone because I find that it gives me the most flexibility to adjust exposure, white balance and colours.

If you want to know how I edit my photos as well leave a comment below and I’ll make another post on it!