Having trouble capturing the milky way.

This is the closest I have gotten to anything resembling the milky way. This was taken on a pitch black moonless night using the 28-135mm at 28mm, 6400 iso, aperture at 3.5, and an exposure time of 15 seconds. I'm not quite sure what I am doing wrong. I have tried a number of different settings and this is the closest I have gotten. I know it has to be possible with this lens, I have seen really great shots using a 50mm. Any help would be much appreciated!

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here's someone else who did a milkyway shot: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1115962

according to their image exif, they shot it at 18mm, but also at f/3.5. Although their ISO was only at 3200, they had a longer exposure time of 70s.

To get the same amount of light you'd need to shoot for 35s at ISO 6400. You'd have to experiment to see how long you can get your exposures. You'll probably end up w/ some star trails unless you have some sort of tracking mount, and you may have to stack multiple shorter images if you're not far away from any light pollution.

I'm guessing you're talking about a 50mm prime lens, like the 50mm f/1.4 or 50mm f/1.8. The reason why those are used so often is because they are fast primes and they tend to be pretty cheap.

For astrophotography, fast lenses are important because it allows for shorter exposures. Besides the 50mm, you could probably use a 28mm f/1.8 or maybe the 35mm f/2 if you stick w/ canon. Sigma makes a 30mm f/1.4 you can use as well. I should note that I have no experience w/ any of those lenses, so I don't know if they're actually good for astrophotography or not, I'm just basing it on the fast aperture.

Hi, 15 seconds is a bit short and 28mm is a bit narrow. Due to my lenses at the time, my 28mm shots had the same look. A wider lense will help, because the relative movement of the stars with longer exposures are far less. Example: at 18mm a 30 second exposure looks acceptable. Also looking at the colours, I get the feeling that you haven't stretced or played with the histogram. A camera is geared to show a visible range of light during daytime. You will be amazed to see how things start to appear when you post process a photo. Search around in this forum, there are some great examples and links to tutorials on the different topics. It is like zooming into a part of the spectrum and the colours pop out.

I agree, more time and a wider FOV. Without another lens, shoot without the tree in the foreground, and stack 10 or so 20 sec images in Deep Sky Stacker (it's free). Those pics will be your "light frames" in DSS. At the same time put your lens cap on and take 5 pictures without changing any settings or focus. These will be your "dark frames" in DSS. Make sure you use RAW format.

pretty good starting tutorial on DSS
http://flintstonestarg​azing.com/?s=deepskyst​acker

If you try to stack to many pictures (covering several minutes) you will start running into problems caused by the motion on the sky.
With your location and a 28mm lens, 20 sec is max time you can get without star trailing. Make sure you use a timer to take the pictures, and as close together as possible. Try a couple of sets, one at 6400 ISO and another at 3200 ISO, maybe even one at 1600 ISO. If you are going to do the dark frames too, you will need to do a separate set to go with each of the light frame sets when you change the ISO

Thank you guys for your help. I am going to upstate Wisconsin in a week where the sky's should be brilliant providing there are no clouds. I will try your suggestions. I am hoping to rent a wider lens when I get out there. I have briefly used the 16-35mm and instantly fell in love with it. Seemed really good for night shooting. Also, thanks Toxic. I had been wondering what "dark frames" meant when stacking. One more thing, do any of you have any input in which 50mm to get? The cheaper f/1.8 or the f/1.4? The f/1.2 is a little out of my price range. Since the first two are affordable lens' and can be used for night shooting I thought I'd give it a try.

Keep in mind that the Milky Way is more impressive during different periods of time.

Thanks you for bringing that up. That was also something I was wondering about. Is there a guide of some sort as to where the milky way will be during the night?

Yeah, Summer will normally be the most impressive for the Milky Way, as that is when the Earth is more aligned with the center of the Milky Way.

I use an app on my phone that allows me to see constellations and their movement in realtime through the skies.

Have you ever stacked images? Give it a try and practice. You'll be amazed of what you can do

MrJack787 wrote in post #13496310
One more thing, do any of you have any input in which 50mm to get? The cheaper f/1.8 or the f/1.4? The f/1.2 is a little out of my price range. Since the first two are affordable lens' and can be used for night shooting I thought I'd give it a try.

Hey MrJack ... I've got the 50 mm f1.8 for its speed and partly for astro work, it's definitely good value for money, however it isn't a very wide lens. Try your 55-250mm lens and see how you go framing things, I ended up getting a second hand 20mm f2.8. I've played with the 50mm f1.4, it is a nicer lens and prefer it to the 1.8, as it feels solid. How this helps!

Where in Wisco are you going??

Fish Creek. It's about 40ish miles out of Sturgeon Bay.

Good info in here guys/gals!

Download Stellarium. It's free and will show you the night sky in real time once you have configured it for your location.

Remember the Milky Way galaxy appears all around us as our solar-system sits in-between the Orion and Sagittarius arms of our galaxy. At different times of year and in fact, times of night, you will see different parts of it - some parts less bright, colourful and impressive than other parts.

Looking outward, towards Orion, there are some interesting deep space objects to shoot through a telescope, but looking inward, towards Sagittarius and the centre of our galaxy just past it, the view is far superior with a wide-angle lens especially!

This tutorial I wrote recently may help.

Cheers,

Baz.

Low tech works also to find the milky way, having one of these is handy....no batteries needed...
I've used this countless times.