There’s a lot of work that goes into getting a successful Milky Way image, not the least of which is planning. There are a number of factors to take into account when planning your shoot. As such, it can be a daunting task for those who are just starting out, so I figured I’d write a guide on how I go about planning these late-night shoots.

When photographing the Milky Way, we want to let as much light hit the sensor as possible. With this in mind, it’s only natural to assume that we want to use a slower shutter speed. This is certainly true, but the fact that the Earth rotates can make things a little more complicated. This guide will teach you how to determine the slowest shutter speed you can use while still getting pin-sharp stars.

You’ve spent countless hours planning and obsessively checking the weather to go out and capture what you hope will be an epic Milky Way shot. You’ve got a great location, a killer composition, and took the time to carefully dial in your focus and camera settings. You get them home and realize that there is just too much noise for there to be a good image. What went wrong? How do people get these epic, low-noise Milky Way shots?