You wouldn’t know that I’m coming from Sedona, Arizona, because it’s dark outside, because it’s 9 p.m, but that’s for good reason, because you clicked on this video to learn how to take dope photos of stars, so we’re talking about astrophotography. We’re talking camera settings, we’re talking gear, so you can get some dope pics of the galaxies. So let’s jump into this week’s tutorial, woo! (calm, upbeat music) Okay, so in full transparency, I don’t really know a ton about astrophotography, or shooting stars. I learned a lot on this trip that we’re on right now, but I do know somebody that knows a ton, and his name is Stan Moniz. Stan, introduce yourself. – What’s up, guys, Stan Moniz, astrophotographer. I’ve been shooting the stars for probably eight years now. – [Chris] So you know your stuff. – Yeah, a little bit, yeah. (laughs) – [Chris] He knows a thing or two, okay. – Just a little bit. – [Chris] Yeah, just a little bit, okay, let’s jump into some gear right now.
– Got it, got it. Gear, basic gear, tripod, head lamp, you need this to be safe out there, and camera bodies, you can use any camera body, or pretty much any wide-angle lens. I prefer, this is just my opinion, I use an A7S, and today I am using the G Master 24/1.4. But you can use any wide-angle lens that’s fast, anything available. – Okay, guys, so if you wanna get dope photos like this (snaps), or this (snaps), or this (snaps), you’re gonna follow Stan’s rules, ’cause he actually taught me all this a couple nights ago, and the photos that you just saw were a combination of mine and Stan’s. He knows his stuff, so listen up. It’s a little complicated, so try to follow along. We’ll try to break it down in its simplest form, so you guys can walk away with some great tips and camera settings, but let’s jump into like the fundamentals right now.
Stan, explain the 500 Rule to us right now. – Alright, easy. If anything, this is the one thing you guys are gonna take away. It’s called the 500 Rule. So basically, all you do is, you take your calculator, your iPhone, or your Android, and you divide 500 by your focal lens, so let’s just use the 24, right. So we’re gonna divide 500 by 24, which gives a number of 20.833333333333. (laughs) Well, there is no 20.833 on your shutter dial, right, so you’re gonna always round down, so that’s gonna give you a max exposure time of 20 seconds. Alright, guys, we’re just gonna go over some basic settings, very easy, it’s not rocket science. Once you figure out the basic settings, you guys are gonna be professionals in no time. So everything needs to be set in manual. We switch to manual, you’re gonna be in also manual focus. You don’t wanna be in single, continuous focus because it’s gonna hunt for the stars, you know? So you’re gonna find the brightest star in the sky. That’s gonna help you a ton, and you focus on that star. Take a few shots, with the 500 Rule.
See if it’s sharp, and if it’s sharp, a really cool tip is just take painter’s tape, and you lock it down right on your lens. That way you don’t have to worry about it through the night. ISO, I like to start at 800, between 800 and 6400. White balance, I love incandescent. If you’re shooting raw, like I said earlier, you can always change the white balance, it’s totally cool. Always make sure you have your two-second delay on, because a lot of people will have a single shot. This is just the newbie kind of mistake that you make, because you’re so excited to capture the sky, right, night sky. Relax, you know, you’re in nature, so just take your time and kinda go through your settings.
So what happens is, with the two-second delay, it avoids camera shake, because if you hit this, you know, without a two-second delay, you might have some shake. What’s gonna happen? You’re not gonna get pinpoint in stars, you’re gonna get blurry stars, and that’s the way it goes. So basically, always manual, manual focus. Start your ISO between 800 to 6400. I prefer white balance of incandescent. I like the more cool look. Find certain stars like Orion that are really bright in the sky.
That’ll help you to adjust for precise focus. So let’s check this out, we’re gonna take our first photo. (calm, upbeat music) – Okay, I’m gonna quick insert on that tutorial, ’cause Stan is just killin’ it right now, but always make sure you guys are shooting raw. It gives you the most latitude and flexibility in post-production, and especially when you’re changing temperature and tint, you can really get a specific sky color that you really like. That’s what I like to do in Lightroom is start moving things around to really get the stars to pop, and the sky to look good, so yes, shoot raw. Alright, I think it’s been about 20 seconds. Let’s check out this image right now. – That is looking dope! So what I’m gonna do next is import the image into Lightroom.
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Few things I like to do, dehaze, clarity, there you go, easy money, amazing photo. – Stan! – What’s up? – [Chris] Dude, thanks so much for teaching everybody. – Yeah, and I also have a little gift for you. – You have a little gift for us? Actually, I know what it is. We were talking about it earlier. Stan is giving us a cheat sheet on astrophotography. He gave me one earlier, it was a little print-out, but I’ve made the pdf available on my Sellfy store, so if you guys wanna go to the links below, download it, print it out, bring it with you, and also, go head over to Stan’s channel, give him a sub, follow him along, he has a whole bunch of other tutorials.
He’s just a genuinely dope guy. We got along like right away. We met three days ago, here in Sedona. We’ve just been hangin’ out and chilling. He’s a dope dude, so I highly recommend, go show him some love, and on that note, guys, if you liked this video, please press Like. It actually makes a difference. Subscribe, would love for you to join along, and Stan, do you wanna sign off this video? – ‘Til next time. Shit. (both laughing) – I always mess up. – No, I love it, man. Peace out, everybody, thanks so much for watching. Here’s a little astro montage from Stan. He’s so dope, peace, guys. (laughs) (calm, upbeat music).