Filters (on camera) can often save an image but more than that, filters will improve a shot dramatically.

The next two  ND graduated filters are basically versions of the same idea.  Graduated neutral density filters control the brightness of the sky and bring your exposure under control when the sky is brighter than the foreground beneath it.

The next two images will give you an example of the 3 stop ND filter..the first one was taken without the filter, the second one with a filter..the clouds and sky become more prominent and visible. The exposure is more controlled.

Another filter which can be used creatively is the solid ND filter.  I have a 3 stop, 5 stop and a 10 stop.  I use the 5 stop much more frequently than the 10 stop, although in the middle of a bright day, with fast moving clouds, a 10 stop can create a fascinating image when converted to black and white…the images below were taken in three different ways:  the first one is at 1/300 second with only a polarizer; the second one is a little slower at 1/2 second with a 3 stop solid ND, the last was taken with the 5 stop ND and needed 36 seconds exposure. You can see how the color shifts as you use a neutral density filter..it usually has a little blue shift, even in bright daylight…there are some cheap filters that are known for magenta shifts; avoid those..the shift is hard to remove.  I speak from experience with them. I am aware of the passage of time in each of these images; the last one being later in the afternoon, but they are examples of what long exposure can do to water movement.

And do not get screw on graduated ND filters!  On a wide angle they will vignette and even worse, you cannot control the horizon: it has to be in the middle of an image. You will need to purchase a filter holder for the filters. This is what they look like but require adapters to fit on your specific lens…with a filter holder the filters can be raised or lowered and even twisted sideways. I have flipped them 180 degrees when the ground is brighter than the sky.

That was a quick refresher; now get the filters and practice or do it the lazy way using Photoshop or Lightroom grads.  But I like to see results in camera; it helps me visualize what my final image will look like.   

  Since I am primarily a landscape photographer, the light is critical to my images.  In the wrong light or bad light, images can really fall flat…I speak from experience.

  There is a learning curve to photography, it takes time to develop an eye for good composition and a feel for lighting…it has taken me years of practice (and looking at photographs and paintings by masters of photography and art) to get somewhat proficient. But there are many days when my images fall flat and must be deleted: don’t be afraid to delete the junk! Some people never delete images until they see them on the computer, however, I will delete in camera if the composition fails when I review them on the LCD. You must be cutthroat about your images, because as good as you may be in Photoshop or Lightroom, if your shots are bad, admit it..why waste time editing something that should be deleted. Some people don’t like to shoot at the same places; that’s ridiculous…I keep going back to Beavertail or other areas on the coast because weather is always changing; even my attitude changes day to day..I might be cranky one night, but in a good mood the next: it will have an impact on how I photograph.

   Here are a few examples of what I am discussing.  The first one is taken at Ponagansett Falls in Scituate. Be patient!  This night the sky looked like a dud, but as the sun set some clouds appeared on the horizon and things began to change..These three images were all taken within a half hour of each other.

The next image is a wide angle taken at Castle Hill in Newport. I was moving around on the rocks looking for a good composition about an hour before sunset. Always try to get to your location at least an hour prior to sunset; it gives you time to scout for the best spot and do test shots. The second shot was taken as the sun was setting and the clouds and rocks formed diagonals leading to the lighthouse.

The next image was taken in the Canadian Rockies…the first mountain shot was taken without sun. It was cloudy and foggy but it was worth waiting for the sun to break through the clouds, because it burned off a lot of the cloud cover revealing the mountains in the background.

The last one is the combined use of twilight and slow shutter speed. The first ferris wheel shot was taken when it was not moving just before twilight. The second image was taken during the twilight hour when the wheel was turning.  It is obviously much more interesting. Any rides at a carnival are fascinating when photographed at night when they are in motion.

 I know a lot of photographers will tell you they shoot only at F8, the sweet spot on their lenses..that is nonsense. I shoot at F16, 18, 22…the diffraction is minimal with the newer lenses; I need to shoot at those apertures to allow light to hit the sensor a long time to get the effect I am seeking; F8 doesn’t work for me unless there is wind, then I will use it on the foreground to stop movement..also, I use every filter imaginable on my lenses: soft edge grads, hard edge grads, NDs, polarizers, reverse NDs: whatever it takes to give me what I want…

To me, the most important thing about getting an image with impact is looking at the world with awe. Nothing is jaded to me. Think of everything you see as if it were for the first time.

This is a photograph with a diagram of the Rule of Thirds superimposed. The rule is often overused but if you are a newbie photographer it can help a lot to achieve a better composition. When I began photographing digitally quite a few years ago, it helped me to superimpose the grid on my live view image, so try it and see if it helps with composition.

The two images below demonstrate the use of time (with a 5 stop ND filter) to improve or change an image.  The top one is taken at f18, 24mm and 15 sec.

This image was taken with the same aperture and focal length, but with the 5 stop ND: the time was 150 seconds.

The feeling is totally different when an ND is used on an image..in the second image the clouds show more movement as they streak across the sky and the ocean is a lot softer.  So it is important to remember that time can change the whole look of an image. Also, any people moving will disappear from the image at 150 seconds.

Who says you can’t use bulls eye images, and have to keep things out of the center? If a subject is round, it works well.

and remember that a spiral can really draw the eye into an image:

Curving shapes are also leading lines into an image; look for them everywhere: the curve of a beach or a stream. In this image of Mistaya canyon, the river leads the eye to the mountain in the distance:

Remember that while it is a good idea to keep the horizon out of the center of an image, sometimes with reflections it is best to keep the horizon dead center.

Balance is very important to an image: light and dark must balance and act as counterpoint to each other. Look at Rembrandt’s images, he is the master of chiaroscuro…he placed light where it was important, yet maintained dark to balance the image. This image has light behind a seastack from the sun, but the dark, larger shapes on the left help to balance it.

Try to incorporate some of these ideas in your images, or not if you choose…but work to improve composition every day; be creative and use your imagination.. be your worst critic…I delete hundreds of images if they are not successful..don’t keep everything you shoot…what’s the point?

Admit it!  A lot of you are afraid to shoot the stars at night: afraid of mistakes, blurring, messing up the images somehow. Well, I am here to help you succeed with a few simple tips that will get you on the right track: good images right from the start. It isn’t hard at all but you must follow my formula at first, then you can feel free to try other options after you get some experience.

First, there are some important things to remember about night photography: cameras and lenses.

1. A full frame DSLR will give the best results. Why? Because the pixels are larger, therefore more photons are absorbed and less noise is visible.  If you have a mirrorless or APS-C sensor, try it and see if the noise can be controlled.
2. A fast wide angle lens.  Glass is god at night…if you have a cheap lens forget night photography, so invest in one good quality wide-angle lens if you are serious about night photography.  I usually use a Canon 15mm F2.8 fisheye because it can give 180 degrees of view: more sky is better in night photography; my other lens is the Canon F 2.8 24-70mm.     You can use an F4 lens: I have used the Canon 17-40mm.  All these images were taken with one or the other of the first two lenses.  Fisheyes can be amazing at night; I correct the perspective in PS and noise in ACR (adobe camera raw).
3. Sturdy tripod with ballhead:  I have a Gitzo that is over 10 years old with a reallyrightstuff ballhead. This stuff is kind of expensive but there are loads of other options out there.
4. To shoot star points you don’t need a cable release unless you think it looks cool.

Ok, now that we have our equipment ready.  What next?  Get your night infinity setting! During the day, you are going to go into  “live view” on your camera, make sure you have the wide angle lens attached and set the widest F-stop you have: F1.4, F2.8, or F4 with the camera on Aperture Priority. ISO isn’t important for this part, whatever works for you; let the camera choose shutter speed.  Put your lens on “manual”(MF) not automatic:  this is to get the infinity setting you will need. Point the camera at an object at least thirty feet away and set the live view to 10x : there is usually a button to enlarge the live view image. While in this mode, focus with the focus ring manually until that object is absolutely sharp, then review the image for sharpness: if it is sharp, look at the setting on the distance scale, it is usually just short of the infinity mark; the infinity mark is not a good place to put the lens as it keeps searching for infinity. You will find that the sharpest point will be perhaps a quarter or half inch left of the infinity mark.  Memorize this spot!  If you can’t remember this spot on one lens, tape it with an easily removable tape.   Do this procedure in daylight or you will go crazy at night.

Now you are ready to go!

The Milky Way is pretty weak in the Northern Hemisphere between December and February.  It is more vivid in summer…the featured  image of the light painted rocks at Arches was taken in January; the Milky Way is visible but faint. The following image was taken in Rhode Island, at a beach, in the middle of summer. Notice the difference.

Ok, now you are excited to go:  grab the camera, tripod and put the lens on the camera.  Make sure you do the following things:

1. Put the camera and lens on manual. Be certain to shoot in RAW.
2. Set the distance scale on the lens to the infinity setting you figured out during the day. Recheck it when you are ready to shoot in case it has moved.
3. Set the aperture for the fastest F-stop on your lens.  It is 2.8 for me.
4. Now, this is important, so pay attention:  If your widest aperture is 1.8, use an ISO of 1600, if it is 2.8 use an ISO of 3200, if it is an F4, use 6400.  These are good starting points, and may need adjustment up or down depending on results.
5. I usually use Auto White Balance and by shooting in RAW, you can adjust the color of the image in PS.
6. What about exposure length? Now comes the math part, but you can do this!  The most important number is 500 for night photography (some people use the number 400)  OK, what is this 500 thing?

Here is how it works:  Your exposure is your focal length multiplied by seconds but less than 500.  simple isn’t it?   If your focal length multiplied by time in seconds exceeds 500, you will not have star points, but star blurs or short trails and it looks like hell.  Another important point:  don’t let your seconds ever exceed 30 since the Earth is rotating and the rotation will be obvious in stars at a greater than 30 second exposure. You want to get as close to 30 seconds to allow more light into the camera, but not exceed it. Sounds complicated but it isn’t: here are a couple of examples:   my  F 2.8 lens is 15mm and I want to get as close to or at 30 seconds but not exceed it or the 500 point:

15 x 30= 450  so that keeps my exposure under 500 and not above 30 seconds…

So my camera setting would be:   F2.8, ISO 3200, 30 seconds (lens at the preset infinity setting) with an Auto White balance.

If I had a F4 and 24mm lens:     24 x 25 seconds would give me 600, which is too high…so I reduce it to a 20 second exposure and it gives me 24 x 20=480.  There is the best setting:  F4, 20 seconds, ISO 6400, (lens on preset infinity setting), and AWB.

Look at each image and make sure it is clear:  x10 on the LCD.  If the image is too dark, go up to the next ISO..If 3200 is not giving enough light, use 6400…I personally don’t use long exposure noise reduction as it doubles the exposure while it shoots a dark frame. It is best to wait an hour or two after sunset to begin shooting the stars so there is total darkness.

Another important item:  I always bring a strong flashlight to light something of interest in the foreground…it will improve your night images if there is some foreground element of interest. This is when you can practice a little light painting.  If you don’t want to light paint, shoot the foreground before dark, then combine it with the night sky image taken much later in the same spot.  Remember that since you are shooting wide open, don’t get closer than 10 feet to the foreground or it may blur…

Shoot away from light pollution on crystal clear nights with little moisture in the air. Also, there are apps for your smartphone that can help locate the Milky Way for you:  I use Stellarium, but there are others: StarWalk and SkySafari.

Practice will make your images amazing…be sure to dress warm while shooting at night or you will get cold and cranky and as everyone knows: multiplying cold x cranky= bad images.