CANON PRO TIPS
SHOOTING STARS
Clear winter nights are perfect for getting creative with the sky at night
DREW BUCKLEY
Capture the Milky Way
The Milky Way shows up more strongly in photos than with the naked eye
All images Drew Buckley
06 SHOOTING NIGHT skies 06 never ceases to amaze me, and that especially rings true with the Milky Way. For the Milky Way you want stars to be rendered as sharp dots of light. This is where the ‘500 rule’ comes in. To apply the 500 rule, divide 500 by the focal length you’re using. This will give you a ballpark shutter speed that you can use to combat any star trailing and give you pin-points of light. So, a 16mm focal length on a full-frame will need a shutter speed of about 30 secs or faster as we’re dividing 500 by 16, but zooming in to 50mm, we’ll need a faster shutter speed of 10 secs, as the more you zoom in the more apparent any trailing will be.