Every year as Milky Way season ends, I feel a little tinge of sadness. It’s such a fun subject to photograph, and it’s a little hard to wait until next season to photograph it again! In my part of the world, the season runs from roughly February through October, which leaves around four months where the core isn’t visible. What to do then?
If you are as passionate about Milky Way photography as I am, or if you are new and want to learn, I look at the off-season as a great opportunity. It’s actually the perfect time to either learn the basics or practice your craft so that when the season starts up again, you are ready to hit the ground running.
Let’s explore some ways to learn or improve your Milky Way photography even when the core isn’t visible.
Practice the basics
You don’t need the Milky Way core to be visible in order to learn or master the basics. In fact, learning or practicing these basics when the core isn’t visible takes away any pressure you might feel about coming back with a result during the season. You are free to try and fail, refine your process, and experiment to get better at your craft.
Look at the list below – how are you at all of them? Can you:
Operate your camera in the dark without looking at it?
Focus perfectly on the stars on a dark, moonless night?
Make a well-exposed image of the stars?
Be efficient in the field with the organization of your gear?
If these are totally new to you, or if you are rusty on any of them, get out and practice them now. All of these skills are necessary to make great Milky Way images and will directly translate there.
Even if you have these skills mastered, getting out to practice them won’t hurt, and will ensure they don’t get rusty again.
Learn new skills
If you have the basics down, why not use the off-season to learn a new skill? Much like practicing the basics, taking the time to learn something new without feeling obligated to create something is a great approach.
Here are some skills you could learn in the off-season:
Image stacking. Take 15-20 high ISO, short exposure images, and stack them for noise reduction.
Tracking. Pick up a tracking mount and learn how to use it. If you have a tracking mount, practice your polar alignment skills.
People. Learn how to add people into your night sky compositions, including what poses work well and which don’t work so well.
Artificial light. Try adding artificial light, either flash/strobe or continuous, and see if you can create a look you like.
Work on post-processing
The off-season is the perfect time to perfect your post-processing skills, or learn them in the first place. Spending time to hone in a post-processing workflow will pay dividends later on. You’ll be more efficient and you’ll like the results much better.
If you are experienced at post-processing Milky Way, why not try something new? Take an old image that you’ve already worked on and start fresh with a new technique or an entirely different workflow. Experiment with different software to see if you get results you like better. Try eliminating steps to speed up your workflow and see if you still like the result. Try new ways to reduce noise. The sky’s the limit.
Make something different
Just because the Milky Way core isn’t visible doesn’t mean you can’t be making new, creative images. There is still lots to shoot that is fun and exciting, and helps you practice or refine your skills. Here are a few ideas for subjects to shoot:
The Northern part of the Milky Way. Although not as colorful as the core, this area has some interesting features including the Andromeda Galaxy. It can also neatly accentuate snowy winter scenes.
Orion. Everyone’s favorite constellation has a wealth of interesting subjects, including lots of colorful nebula, some of which cover a broad area of the sky. Orion is an interesting subject by itself, but is an excellent subject to practice stacking and tracking with, as some of the nebula require a lot more data than a single exposure can provide.
Aurora. If you are lucky enough to live in a place where you can see the Northern Lights, you can’t really do better than getting out to shoot the aurora. It’s fun and hectic and creative and a real joy to shoot.
Moonlit snowy scenes. If you’ve spent the summer avoiding the full moon, try going out during the full moon in the winter instead. The moon lights up the scene with a beautiful soft light but the stars are still visible, which makes for some magical images.
Or, shoot something completely unrelated to Milky Way. Just get out and shoot and have fun!
Read and study
Finally, the off-season is a great chance to read and study Milky Way-related topics. There are lots of excellent resources you can use, including of course my own book on the subject.
Enjoy the off-season!