How can I photograph the Milky Way with a person or campfire in the foreground without blowing it out?
Asked 9/26/2016
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I’m shooting Milky Way photos with an 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 lens and have been stitching frames together. I’d like to add a foreground subject, such as myself, a tent, or a campfire, but I’m confused about how people get both the stars and the foreground to look clear without the foreground being overexposed. Are these images usually done with one long exposure, or are they composites made from multiple shots? What’s the usual approach for blending the sky and foreground?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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How do people capture the Milky Way/stars with themselves in it so clearly or sitting around the fire without it being over exposed.
The first one is surely a composite photo, i.e. two separate photos merged together. The fire would be so much brighter than the stars that it'd be impossible to expose the foreground reasonably while getting the stars that bright.
The second might just be a long exposure. The light in the tent looks bright, but it might actually be just a very dim glow. The long exposure required to expose the stars would cause the light in the tent to look as bright as it does. Or, it could be another composite.
Originally by user4262. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4262
9y ago
0
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Usually this is done as a composite: one exposure for the sky and another for the foreground, then blended later in Photoshop or similar software. A campfire is far brighter than the Milky Way, so exposing both well in a single frame is generally not realistic.
A dim tent light may work in one long exposure, but many examples are still composites. If the stars look sharp, the exposure for the sky was likely kept fairly short, or the photographer used a tracking mount.
Typical approach:
- Put the camera on a tripod and keep the framing unchanged.
- Take a sky exposure optimized for the stars.
- Take a separate foreground exposure optimized for the person, tent, or fire.
- Blend the two images in post.
For beginners, simple masking or even a basic “sky replacement” style workflow can help, though careful manual blending usually looks more natural. The key idea is that the sky and foreground often need very different exposures, so combining multiple frames is the normal solution.
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