Astrophotography for beginners: Video tutorial covers helpful websites, good gear, editing and more

 

 

Astrophotography is a lot of fun and it ultimately is an accessible genre of photography for many photographers, but it can seem daunting at first. It is a lot different than any other type of photography and possesses its own unique set of challenges. Photographer Josh Katz has made a great video tutorial aimed at beginner astrophotographers which discusses an overview of the equipment you need, how to set your camera up out in the field and how to edit your astro images in Adobe Lightroom.

As Katz points out, a wide angle lens is a great choice. The faster, the better, but don’t worry about autofocus as you should manually focus your night shots anyway. Not needing autofocus opens up a lot of possibilities for lenses that don’t necessarily break the bank, such as Rokinon’s 14mm f/2.8 lens, a $320 lens which has proven to be a hit with many night sky shooters.

As Katz mentions, light pollution is the bane of the astrophotographer’s existence. If you want to avoid light pollution, check out this interactive map. If you want to photograph the Milky Way, you need to know when it’ll be visible in the sky, which you can learn more about here, and you need to consider the moon, which you can track the phase of here. The less visible the moon, the more visible the stars. Of course, you can use the moon to your advantage to light certain elements in your shot.

To see more tutorials from Josh Katz, visit his website. Another great resource for night sky photographers of all levels is Lonely Speck.

(Via Fstoppers)