The Other Night Photography

Lately, I have been really interested in night photography. Star Photography, Milky Way, and Star Trails. I’m really having fun with them. But…… this type of photography is not always available. Cloudy nights, time of year (for Milky Way) and direction are all factors. Plus, when the moon is up, the dimmer stars are not visible.

While there are always exceptions, Star Trails are usually shot pointing North, and the Milky Way is usually to the South-ish.

But wait! Why not use the moon as a light source? Granted, you need a stronger subject to make up for the lack of the Milky Way or star trails, but lighting with the moon can give some great effects not available with images lit by flashlights or other lighting methods.

I’m not going to give settings because they vary so much. But generally, lowish ISO fairly wide aperture. Shutter speed is determined by the phase of the moon. One way to sneak up on it is to use 30 seconds as a shutter speed, wide open and Auto ISO. This should get you into the ballpark except it will be grainy. Then you can lengthen the time (in bulb mode) and lower ISO until your image is clean. If your foreground interest is too close, wide open may not work and you will have to close the aperture some to get the correct depth of field.

With wide angle lenses and shutter speed of less than 30 sec you can get pinpoint stars (just not as many as a moonless night) plus a beautiful foreground. If you don’t mine stars appearing as dashes, you can use extremely long shutter speeds (solid tripod required) for some really interesting looks. If you have some clouds, the 2 to 4 minute time frames will give some great motion to them.

And of course, there is nothing to prevent you from combining moonlight with light painting for other effects.

All this is fine, but like other forms of photography, the style alone won’t make a compelling image. But subject and composition, along with some technique, can make for images with impact, which is what we are looking for, right?