LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you?  If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by.  In this blog we are going to talk about how to shoot the Milky Way on a budget.  When it comes to shooting the Milky Way we all think about those epic shots with a huge vista in front of you with the stars in the sky.  The core is the most popular thing to learn how to shoot and one of the most fun to shoot at the same time.  The thing that you hear online and throughout the photography community is that you need the best of the best equipment in order to get the results that the others are getting.  In this blog I am going to show you and prove that you don’t need the newest and shiniest gear to accomplish this task.  

The three things that you are going to need is time, a good lens, and a good camera body.  The body and lens don’t have to be brand new in order to get a great image of the Milky Way core.  You just need a lens that is fast enough like f3.5 or better.  If you don’t have the money to get the faster lens then you kit lens that goes down to f3.5 will work just fine for getting the core.  The only reason that you would want a faster lens is if you want more detail in the skies and that is something that we all want.  With all that being said the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 is a ultra wide angle lens that you can get for around $250 dollars and is in my opinion the best path to shooting the core on the cheap.  The results that you will achieve with this lens are going to be out of this world yes pun intended.  

For one the corners on the lens are sharp for shooting the night skies and there is little to no coma in them so that makes it perfect for getting the results that you want.  Now if you are more on a budget then I can say there is one more lens that will get the job done but it has more coma in the corners so the images will not be as clean but it gives you the f2.8 for shooting at night so that is a good thing.  The Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non VC is the best lens to buy because of how sharp it is even when not shooting the night skies.  This lens is so good that I replaced a Canon 17-40 f4 which is one of the best lenses that you could buy on the cheap.  

The Tamron is great for being able to just get out and shoot the night skies at different focal lengths.  You can get a details in the core that you would not be able to get with a wider lens.  The only reason that you would want to use this lens for shooting the core would be because it is so cheap.  I mean as of the writing of this blog you can find it for around $115 dollars. So if you were to have bought both of the lenses you would have paid $365 dollars for both of them.  

The last thing that you are going to need is a camera body and for that you have two choices you can go cheap or very expensive.  The best body that you can get on the cheap is the Canon 60d which is great for shooting the night skies. At 18MP you will have just enough resolution to get the stars just right.  I have to say that for the most part the 60d is perfect for getting the night skies on the cheap.  The best part about shooting with this body is you can get a body for around $150 dollars right now.  The thing is you are getting a body that will allow you to shoot so many things.  

The best part is in today’s world there is great denoise programs that will clean up the images really well.  The best iso performance is at 800 so for shooting the night skies that is going to be rather hard to do.  I have shot images at iso 3200 and they are usable to get good images for a single shot.  Now with all that being said if you take the time to learn how to stack the images in programs like Sequtor or Starry Landscape stacker.  They will clean up the images to the point that they look like they were shot with a better camera.  The true trick to using the older gear is post processing your images.  You have to work the images in post to really get better IQ.  The issue that people have is they don’t want to post process their images because there is a huge learning curve that comes with it. 

I can tell you this that if you actually take the time to learn how to do the little things for your images you will see there is so much more that you can do with an older body and older lenses.  The cost of shooting the night skies has never been so cheap and the fact that you can get the gear for less than $300 bucks which is mind blowing to me.  I have been shooting for five years and man I love the fact that if you are new you can get gear that was top of the line a few years ago for dirt cheap.  In the day and age of mirrorless shooting with older gear has never been better for you that are just starting out.  I have always been a person that will work with the gear that I have to accomplish the same as someone that has the newest gear.  The only thing that really makes you a better photographer is practice.  Enjoy from St Johns AZ y’all