Reveling Under the Light of a Million Stars

In A Technical Focus, photographers offer technical and compositional insights into creating quality images that tell the story of a moment and place.

Do you remember the first time you successfully captured a beautiful nighttime image? How about the giddy excitement you felt the very first time you captured the stars in focus? Back in April of 2015, I selected Mono Lake in California’s eastern Sierra as the setting for my very first astrophotography outing. Walking amongst the other worldly tufas at the lake’s edge under the light of a million stars was nothing short of awe-inspiring. I remember fumbling with focus and settings that night. Now, looking back on those images, they’re certainly not portfolio-worthy. But even so, it was a worthwhile and quasi-successful attempt at photographing the night skies. The experience of eerie quiet punctuated by the occasional hoot of an owl, the brackish smell of the water, the crunch of gravel under my feet as I moved from composition to composition, and the sight of a vivid Milky Way overhead was well worth the loss of sleep, and not an experience I will soon forget. The experience among the tufas that night ignited a passion in me for astrophotography that would last for years to come.

Milky Way and Great Basin Bristlecone Pines / Beth Young

Many a landscape photographer prefers quiet solitude in nature over standing tripod to tripod in a crowd, and astrophotography usually offers the opportunity to be out creating when most folks are fast asleep. It’s rare to arrive at a location to find a crowd of photographers in the dark of night, though it can happen in iconic locations such as Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills, or the ancient Methuselah tree in the Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains. Even in these few instances, however, I’ve noticed a sense of community around the experience, the sharing of ideas and techniques, and even made some lasting friendships.

“In the northern hemisphere, the months of August and September provide a more vertical orientation of the Milky Way, with its galactic core visible much earlier after sunset. ”

During summer, when long days and harsh light create challenges for landscape photographers, astrophotography offers additional opportunities for creative expression. Because good principles of composition apply equally to astrophotography, I explore new places and seek out interesting foregrounds during the day, then return to them at night to capture the image under the stars. Once I find a location, I use the PhotoPills app to determine at what time of year the Milky Way’s galactic core would be in alignment with a particular foreground element.

In the northern hemisphere, the months of August and September provide a more vertical orientation of the Milky Way, with its galactic core visible much earlier after sunset. This allows ample astrophotography opportunities before midnight, potentially salvaging a decent night’s sleep. Since I own a pop-up camp trailer, I tend to plan my weekend camping trips around the new moon, when the skies are darkest. Sleeping on location is magical, and means that I avoid the fatigue from driving home late at night.

The September weekend my husband and I got married in Yosemite National Park was smoky from California wildfires, but it didn’t stop us from an astrophotography excursion to Olmstead Point. It’s a fantastic place for night compositions: Half Dome on one side, and gnarled pine trees growing out of the granite on the other. These offer interesting foreground elements to Milky Way and star trail photos, especially with a little light painting. While I hopped around the boulders with my primary camera, capturing different compositions of the Milky Way, I set up my secondary camera on a tripod with an external intervalometer, taking a series of star trail shots. I used one exposure for the foreground tree, and 30 four-minute exposures at ISO 400 and f/4 aperture (also known as the rule of fours) for the stars. Blending the images in Photoshop, I left the orange glow at the horizon from one of the earlier exposures, adding a little contrast and interest to the final image.

Alabama Hills Boot Arch and Milky Way / Beth Young

Light painting offers even more creative opportunities in night time photography. My image of Lady Boot Arch, captured during a camping trip in the Alabama Hills, is a composite of several light painting sequences blended together in Photoshop. I captured several exposures of the same scene with my camera firmly mounted on my tripod: one for the Milky Way, one to light the inside of the arch, one to subtly illuminate the front side of the arch, and one with my flashlight pointed up at the sky standing behind the arch.

“The light and colors that the camera picks up, which the human eye can barely detect, never cease to amaze me.”

Many resources review the best light painting gear to use, but one of my favorites is a small multi-colored pocket flashlight, which has a warm white light as well as red and purple settings. When I want diffuse (rather than direct) light, covering the beam with a tissue tends to work well, sweeping the diffuse light over the foreground subject for even illumination. If I want strong, directional, and controlled lighting, I will fashion a cone out of a dark piece of construction paper and tape to the end of my light- a simple and compact solution I can easily throw in my gear bag, along with my red headlamp (a red light helps to preserve my night vision). Recently, I purchased a compact LED light with an amber colored filter that can be distantly placed to illuminate a foreground element for the full length of the exposure; this takes some of the trial and error out of using a pocket flashlight, which can lead to uneven illumination.

Milky Way Over Bodie Main Street / Beth Young

In addition to light painting, blending composites is another tool available to the astrophotographer. My photo of the old western buildings of Bodie State Historic Park consists of seven exposures, light painted at various locations of the scene over the course of nearly an hour. A separate exposure was taken for the Milky Way, and the images were blended in Photoshop to create this composite that showcases the historic Dechambeau Hotel on the left and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows hall on the right.

“You don’t have to wait for the perfect conditions of a new moon and clear skies for astrophotography. ”

The cover image, a composite of two exposures, is one of my favorite views in the eastern Sierra, at Hot Creek Geological Site, in the Owens River valley. It was thoroughly enjoyable to capture the Milky Way while listening to crickets and owls in this beautiful, geologically active location. I snacked on a tailgate dinner of wine and cheese in my dusty Subaru, with my camera firmly mounted on my tripod nearby. I took an exposure at nautical twilight for the foreground (30 seconds at ISO 100 and f/2), and blended it with another exposure in the dark of night for the sky. For night sky exposures I use shutter speeds in the 15 to 20 second range, which keeps the stars tack sharp using a wide-angle focal length, an ISO of 2400 – 3200, depending on moon illumination, and nearly the widest aperture my lens will allow. Using live view, I zoom in on the brightest star in the sky, and manually focus.

McGown Peak Cloudy Milky Way / Beth Young

You don’t have to wait for the perfect conditions of a new moon and clear skies for astrophotography. Some moonlight on foreground elements, and even some clouds in the sky, can provide interesting compositional opportunities. My camping trip to Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest did not align with the new moon, but that didn’t stop me from setting the alarm at 2am to return to a spot I had scouted earlier in the day: beautiful Stanley Lake. The Milky Way positioned nicely over McGown Peak, and increasing cloud cover added a pattern to the image that I quite liked. So bright was the last quarter moon, that I dialed down my ISO significantly to compensate, using an ISO of 1600, with a 15 second exposure and an f/2 aperture on my 24mm prime lens. The shooting star photo-bomb in the upper left was a nice, unexpected surprise when I viewed on my monitor at home.

Jökulsárlón Aurora and Distant Clouds / Beth Young

If you are fortunate enough to witness and photograph the aurora borealis, settings can depend on the movement of the aurora: too long of an exposure and you lose definition of the northern lights, too fast, and your exposure is too dark. The auroras in this image, dancing across the sky over Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon in Iceland, were not particularly strong. In fact, to the naked eye, they appeared almost as a greyish mist. For this shot, I used a 20 second exposure at f/2.8 with an ISO of 2000 at 16mm. On other nights, when the aurora had greater geomagnetic activity, I reduced my shutter speed by half, keeping all other settings the same.

The light and colors that the camera picks up, which the human eye can barely detect, never cease to amaze me. I usually don’t come away from these astrophotography excursions with many images. In fact, I only capture one or two on any particular night. But nevertheless, the experiences are strongly imprinted in my memory. Shooting at night takes me far outside of my comfort zone and provides unique and interesting challenges. The lack of sleep, the concentration on technique, the jumping at strange noises in the dark, all contribute to a powerful experience – one that I never regret. Reveling under the light of a million stars is far too meaningful, and makes me feel invigorated.