How to Calculate the Milky Way Photography Exposure Time

In this video I show you how to use the Spot Stars calculator in PhotoPills to easily calculate the exposure time you need to use in your Milky Way photos to get pinpoint stars (avoid Star Trails).

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- Milky Way Photography guide:
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MILKY WAY PHOTOGRAPHY
- Milky Way Photography Planning | Step by Step Tutorial
- Learn Milky Way Photography | From Idea to Photo
- Milky Way Photography Masterclass with Alyn Wallace
- How to Post Process the Milky Way with Nick Page
- How to Calculate the Milky Way Photography Exposure Time
- Photographing the Milky Way with a Natural Arch

INSPIRATION
- What to Photograph in 2021
- The 36 Best Photos in 2020

PHOTOGRAPHY FUNDAMENTALS
- Understanding Natural Light: Golden Hour, Blue Hour and Twilights
- Understanding Depth of Field (DoF) and How to Calculate it
- Understanding the Hyperfocal Distance (and How to Calculate it)
- Learn How To Focus at the Hyperfocal Distance in 1 Minute!

MOON PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Plan a Photo of the Next Full Moon with a Building
- How to Photograph the Moon with Foreground
- Moon Photography Masterclass with Jennifer Khordi
- Photographing a Full Moon Silhouette from Another Galaxy

SUNSET & SUNRISE PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Plan a Powerful Sunset Photo | When You Know the Date
- How to Plan Any Sunset Photo You Imagine
- How to Plan a Sunset Photo in a Valley | Or a Sunrise
- Photographing the Sun setting through the natural arch of Es Pont d’En Gil

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
- Landscape Photography with Nigel Danson
- Landscape Photography Post Processing with Albert Dros
- How to Edit Your Landscape Photography in Photoshop with Sean Bagshaw

LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY WITH LENS FILTERS
- Calculating Long Exposure Times Using ND Filters

SEASCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
- Seascape Photography Masterclass with Francesco Gola

METEOR SHOWER PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Plan Any Meteor Shower Photo You Imagine
- How to Plan a Photo of the Perseids Meteor Shower 2021
- How to Plan a Photo of the Geminids 2020
- Perseids Meteor Shower Photography Masterclass with Ian Norman
- Photographing the Perseids Meteor Shower with an Ancient Oak Tree

SOLAR ECLIPSE PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Plan a Photo of the 2020 Total Solar Eclipse in Chile and Argentina
- Annular Solar Eclipse Photography Masterclass with Joshua Cripps

LUNAR ECLIPSE PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Plan the Total lunar eclipse with the Giza pyramids, Cairo (Egypt)

STAR TRAILS PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Plan Any Star Trails Photo You Imagine
- How to Photograph Star Trails

CONJUNCTIONS
- How to Photograph the 2020 Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

TIMELAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Calculate Timelapse Settings

LEARN PHOTOPILLS
- Photography Planning Masterclass with PhotoPills app
- How to Enable and Use the PhotoPills Widgets
- How to move the Red Pin of the Planner
- How to Save, Share and Import Plans and Locations with PhotoPills
- Mastering the Load button of the Planner
- Calibrating the Augmented Reality Views (AR)
- Understanding the Map Buttons of the Planner

[PhotoPills]

Need help planning and photographing the Milky Way? Comment below!
👉 And check our super Milky Way Photography guide:

[southernexposure]

Thanks for the video. No one else I found explains about declination like you did with the phone connected to the PC screen. Now I understand the difference declination makes.

[shafiquejanmohamed]

What an absolutely wonderful app PhotoPills is and what great instructional videos! Thank you!!

[jcaff]

Thx, I got star trails on our last astro event. Now I'll use photopills to determine exposure settings and not rely on other formulas.

[photorectoby]

Nicely explained! I am a huge fan of Photopills!

[martinesarret-talvela]

Thanks Rafael. Always clearly explained!

[rickhill]

Excellent video. Explains everything in clear detail. All I need now is a cloud busting machine. 😀

[skykingimagery]

Short and quick. But excellent overview. Now with a polar mount star tracker you can optimize much better captures. But trying to create an optimal time lapse is very tricky.

[Mackymcd]

excellent short info video, I'm sure everyone loves these type of tutorial thanks.

[capt.gregrahe]

Your videos and app rock! Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[pete-c]

Many thanks again for a great video, easy to understand very well explained.

[The_Druid]

Thanks for an excellent video. Recently did an A3 sized print of one of my images and the result was shocking. Now I know why. Cheers Rafael!

[billtaylor]

NPF Rule is quite valuable great information.

[pbnana]

I watched this AFTER a special opportunity to shoot the Milky Way at the Grand Canyon North Rim. Thank goodness my guesswork was right! I’ll be more confident next time! BTW, this video was very good. Your presentation was better than when you are participating with another expert. Next time you invite an expert, let him/her talk.

[meribaldi]

Excellent very helpful Thank you Grazie Mille 🙏

[jeg]

Thank you for the video, great information, been wearing my yellow Gandalf T shirt 👍

[scottnarus]

I always use PhotoPills to calculate the NPF setting for exposure time, but I usually go a little less than the recommendation because I want pinpoint stars (even though I'm typically not printing). If I use what the NPF rule gives me, I often see star trails on the edges of the image, probably because these points are closer to the celestial equator and the stars are moving relatively faster there.

[nusaceh]

Very nice explanation. I have a question regarding Spot stars, at what ISO is it meant that you set aperture and shutter speed? Thanks.

[L.Nyquist]

Love this app!! The only thing I miss is the Northenlight index with dates and time.

Thank you

[jmfoty]

Thank you for another great video. You are an excellent teacher.
Is it better to increase ISO and stack several images to reduce noise or use a lower ISO and push exposure in post-processing.