Can I shoot Milky Way-style astrophotography with a Nikon D7100 and 55–105mm lens?
Asked 7/2/2014
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I have a Nikon D7100 and a standard 55–105mm lens. Can I use this setup to make dramatic astrophotography images like Milky Way landscape shots, or do I need different gear? If my current lens is limiting, what equipment and techniques are typically needed for this kind of photography?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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Those two photos are heavily processed - you can't get that all in one image with one exposure. I'm not saying it's impossible, just extremely unlikely, from looking at the images. In fact, in the top one, she didn't do the reflection correctly, and the reflection doesn't match what it's reflecting - it's not obvious but there's some large errors in the reflection that don't look natural. This is a fact of photographs like this - you need to learn your lightroom or you won't realize this combination.
You can however, take some pretty amazing starlight shots with your current equipment. You will need to experiment and learn how to do it, and you'll probably spend several hours in the dark before you get one right. To replicate the example you would need a wide angle, but I've used zoom at night and liked it. The stars are so far away it's not going to change the look of the photo, only how much stuff is in it. This is one case where you can 'compose with zoom' and it's all good. Keep in mind, photos of only stars don't look so good - that's why the above examples are so striking - they have good framing.
Make sure you know how to use all the controls on your camera and you can find them in the dark - turn off the screen, it's too bright! I agree this is a really general question and it's hard to give a complete answer. So, your best bet is going to be the web...
Google can find a ton of articles about this - it's pretty popular: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+photograph+the+stars
Here's a pretty good article I just found too, which has a good discussion of how to process a single image, and it shows the original and what it looks like after each step, so you can really see the difference.
http://www.lonelyspeck.com/how-to-make-an-amazing-photo-of-the-milky-way-galaxy/
Originally by user15934. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15934
12y ago
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You can start astrophotography with a D7100, but a 55–105mm lens is not ideal for Milky Way landscape shots. For that style, a wider and faster lens is usually needed—roughly 21mm or wider—so you can use longer exposures before stars start to trail.
At 55mm on a crop-sensor body, your maximum exposure is short (about 8 seconds using the rule mentioned in the answers), which usually isn’t enough to capture the Milky Way well. Astrophotography also often requires high ISO, and image noise becomes a factor.
The example images are likely heavily processed and may also involve combining multiple exposures. In practice, success depends as much on technique as on gear.
Typical needs for this kind of work:
- a sturdy tripod or, better, a star-tracking mount
- a wide, fast lens
- multiple exposures combined/stacked in post-processing
- patience and practice in the field and in editing
So: yes, you can make star photos with your current camera, but to get polished Milky Way landscape results like the example, a wide fast lens, careful processing, and possibly a tracking mount are the usual path.
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