P#13: An Amazing Shot of the Milky Way

The Magnificence of the Milky Way

Jennifer Wu: I was actually at the scene of this shot for a week, and there was only one day that I was able to photograph the stars. The rest of the time the pollution was too heavy and I couldn't even see sunrise or sunset. It was just like an orange glow deep into the sky.

One night, there was a wind that came through. It blew out all the pollution and allowed me to get these shots.

The Milky Way is visible all the time, but a lot of times we don't see it in the city. We have to get out where there's not a lot of pollution to be able to see it. (click the image for a larger version)

The Milky Way looks like a white, milky band going across the sky. When I was looking at it with my eye, it looked like a milky band. However, the camera could see more than our eye could see. With the long exposure, it picked up these variations in color and formality as well as some additional stars.

I tried photographing an area with the telephoto lens with just two stars where I saw nothing between them, and when I looked at the photograph on the back of the camera, wow. There were so many stars I couldn't even count how many stars there were between those two.

With the long exposure, the camera really picked up a lot more stars. This shot hasn't been Photoshopped at all -- it's just straight from the camera. The camera was able to pick up all of these colors -- the stars, and the points of light.

Audri Lanford: It's just so sharp. I'm curious, do you remember approximately how long this exposure was?

Jennifer Wu: When you're photographing stars you usually want an exposure of 30 seconds. That works really well because if we go over 30 seconds, the stars start to blur. It's also important to use a wide angle lens.

When I took that shot I was wide open for 30 seconds with the wide angle lens. Also you have to go somewhere where you can actually see the stars pretty well, so up at a high elevation or where there isn't a lot of light.

In Closing

According to Jennifer Wu, the magic combination for great nighttime sky photos is 30-second exposure, a wide open setting and a wide angle lens. That's how she was able to capture this beautiful shot of the Milky Way.