Shoot for the Edit: Milky Way

Photographing the Milky Way is a magical endeavor. Simply witnessing it is a pure joy and creating a beautiful final print is downright thrilling.

Like most night photography, however, success depends on equal parts planning, shooting and processing. In this presentation, Tim Cooper will demonstrate capture techniques that are key to bringing home the necessary photos to create your masterpiece.

Capturing the Milky Way poses some unique photographic challenges. One of the biggest hurdles is the low light required to see the galaxy at its best. These conditions force us to use wide apertures and high ISO’s, which in turn produces noisy images with very little depth of field.

Join Tim as he guides you through the process of making a plan to overcome these obstacles. He’ll cover:

• finding the Milky Way
• finding your best ISO
• previsualizing the shot
• focusing
• extending your depth of field with focus stacking
• shooting for HDR
• capturing a twilight foreground
• capturing a starlit foreground