To capture the highest quality of images, adjust your camera settings depending on the objects you're trying to take pictures of. Here some popular sky-gazing objects and the recommended camera settings.
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| Moon taken July 2019 |
Moon
Now for the hard part. Remember that your eyes are able to adjust to changes in light and space easily, but digital cameras have a harder time unless you tell them exactly what they’re seeing. That said, the moon looks much brighter to your camera than it looks to you: so, generally, you’ll want to start by exposing your photo as if it were a bright and sunny day. For photos with little to no foreground imagery (just a shot of the moon):
- Start with an aperture of f/8,
- an ISO of 100-200,
- and a shutter speed of 1/125.
- An aperture of f/5.6,
- a shutter speed of about 15 seconds,
- and an ISO of 100-400. Start at 100 and work your way up as needed to minimize noise.
If your photo looks blurry, adjust your shutter speed. If it looks underexposed (not enough light), go down a stop in aperture from f/8 to f/5.6 or so.
Manual mode will also be your friend for close-ups of celestial bodies, as you’ll need to make very slight adjustments to get everything just right.
Stars and Skylines
If you’re after a star-centric photo with little to no landscape (or if you want your landscape to be dark), start with the following settings:
Shutter speed in particular is crucial for star shots, as the earth is always moving. For photos without a foreground landscape element, you’ll only be able to get away with about a 20 second shutter speed before your stars start blurring.
