My Bucket List Photo

This was not a planned bucket list photo. Honestly, it was perfect timing due to dumb luck! You see, in September of 2018, along the eastern seaboard of the United States, four planets were visible in the sky at dusk and a couple hours after. Looking in the Southeast sky, from left to right, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus. It was truly an Astrophotographer’s dream!

If you have an interest in this style of photography, here are a few things to get you started.

First thing I'll say is Glass, Glass, Glass. The wider the aperture, the better your results. On a crop body, I recommend the Sigma 18-35 f1.8. On a full frame, I'd recommend the Rokinon (Samyang) 24mm f1.4 manual. That lens of a full frame body is deadly! So, if you have a passion for this style, save up for the widest glass you can afford.

As far as taking the photo (settings), that depends greatly on the kit. But there is an acronym, ETTR, Expose To The Right. Meaning, RAW out of camera, on the histogram, most of the "information will be on the right side. In other words, the preview on the back of the camera after taking the photo will look almost "washed out".

Next is the actual settings, let's assume you have a f1.8 of better. I usually shoot at f2.0, ISO 3200, and a shutter speed no higher than 25-30sec. Any longer than 30sec, you will get star trails. As far as your specs, assuming you can go no lower than 3.5 (average kit lens), I'd try to push your ISO to 2500 or 3200 (there will always be "noise" in astrophotography, that can be mitigated in post if need be), and go up to 25sec exposure.

So, now, in post, I use Lightroom and Photoshop. In Lightroom, really all you are trying to do is pull that histogram back over to the left and fiddle with the white balance (use the eye dropper in the black void to get the sky "black"). So, for example, pull the highlight slider all the way to the left. Pull the shadow slider to the right to the mid 70's. Alt/Option the white to the 40's (that will make the stars pop). Alt/Option the blacks a little to the left, the black point will already be very strong. The Dehaze slider they recently added is a HUGE help now. I usually push that to somewhere between 35-45. Lastly, in the Tone curve module, I'll usually form a slight S-curve. But now that I do most of my tonality work in Photoshop, I don't bother too much with that module. The work I do in Photoshop is quite extensive, I don't think it's helpful to you for me to go into all that here.

Hope that helps.