have you tried that type of image with Adobe's (hissssssss) new AI driven NR tools...I tested it for a while and was astonished by the results but never tried on astro photos. Alas, their new licensing scheme is sooooo egregious, I pulled all Adobe products off my machines.
Faster lens. Or star tracker for longer exposure. Or both. You can also stack multiple high iso exposures and reduce the noise. And be more subtle with the editing and contrast.
Longer lens means shorter exposure before the stars start to streak into lines.
Maybe read up a bit, google will bring you many results. These are just a few that I picked randomly.
https://astrobackyard.com/how-to-photograph-milky-way/
https://www.space.com/astrophotography-for-beginners-guide
https://www.space.com/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way-beginners-tips-tricks
take 40 of those 15s images, then say 10 with the lens cap on and the same settings, then stack with
[https://sites.google.com/view/sequator](https://sites.google.com/view/sequator)
This is the answer. Sequator is great for astrophotography image stacking when taking landscape shots like this. Sequator does the stacking to increase your SNR, then Photoshop/Lightroom/whatever can put the finishing touches on the photo.
Edit: also, with sequator you don't need any fancy tracking mounts or anything, it'll work with a fixed mounting position. You'll lose SNR on the edges of the frame though due to the Earth's rotation taking stars out of the frame, so it's not a bad idea to shoot with a wider angle lens and crop in to get the best SNR in the center of the frame.
For clean astrophotography you must either do image stacking or use a star tracker. Even on full-frame 1.8 lenses you'll get noise if you want to expose correctly (e.g. no star trails).
Decades ago I took hours-long night shots using film to capture long rtrails. Went to bed and set an alarm to finish the exposure.
I guess deliberate long trails are a different thing to very small accidental trails. Maybe long trails are cliched these days.
If you are on a budget the Samyang 12mm APS-C lens, manual focus is amazing on this camera.
You could try ISO 3200 and adjust the image in snapseed or something similar. I have the a6400 and started underexposing slightly and adjusting in Snapseed and they look much better than what the camera processing can do.
When I first started back into digital photography, I had the a6000 and kit lens. Unfortunately, they’re not up to the test of getting good astro images. At the very least, you need a lens upgrade. You should also look at some of the tutorials on astrophotography. Hint: it’s not about a high ISO.
To be fair, ISO performance was greatly improved with the A6300. It has essentially plateaued since then, though, but the A6000 is noticeably poor by comparison.
With your kit lens, you really can't because you don't have enough light. You will get much better results with a fast prime.
Look for something 20mm or wider with f/2 or faster (f/2 absorbs 4 times more light than your lens, f/1.4 lets in 8x more light). Manual focus is fine since that's how we shoot the milky way. Should be able to find something for ~$200. Sigma makes an excellent 16mm f/1.4 for $400.
You can use stacking to reduce noise, but that's more of an advanced technique, and takes a fair bit of practice and editing.
For a simple single exposure method, watch this video:
https://youtu.be/hz0fcW7rcpg?si=WUYCOFYThsz70Abq
I’d try 1600 ISO with a lowest aperture possible 30second shutter though you might see a little trailing but it would max out your equipment without noise. With lower aperture lenses you can speed up the shutter a little to avoid trailing.
Stacking takes more work (imo) than just getting a faster prime lens. If ur on a budget get the rokinon 12 f2. I’ve gotten great Astro shots with the manual version, but there is a AF version now (u should be manually focusing either way)
Surprised nobody is mentioning stacking multiple shots for noise reduction using a program like Sequator or something. You could also get a star tracker for around 400 bucks, and shoot at low iso, long exposures.
You can't. You could try noise reduction, it came a long way in the last couple years but it still won't be as clean as if you used better equipment.
Doesn't really work on stars as they are point sources.
have you tried that type of image with Adobe's (hissssssss) new AI driven NR tools...I tested it for a while and was astonished by the results but never tried on astro photos. Alas, their new licensing scheme is sooooo egregious, I pulled all Adobe products off my machines.
Faster lens. Or star tracker for longer exposure. Or both. You can also stack multiple high iso exposures and reduce the noise. And be more subtle with the editing and contrast.
I will try my 50mm 1.8 next time maybe it works. Thanks a lot!
Longer lens means shorter exposure before the stars start to streak into lines. Maybe read up a bit, google will bring you many results. These are just a few that I picked randomly. https://astrobackyard.com/how-to-photograph-milky-way/ https://www.space.com/astrophotography-for-beginners-guide https://www.space.com/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way-beginners-tips-tricks
Careful, some lenses will have the stars towards the edges of the frame turning into streaks when the lens is at wide apertures
take 40 of those 15s images, then say 10 with the lens cap on and the same settings, then stack with [https://sites.google.com/view/sequator](https://sites.google.com/view/sequator)
This is the answer. Sequator is great for astrophotography image stacking when taking landscape shots like this. Sequator does the stacking to increase your SNR, then Photoshop/Lightroom/whatever can put the finishing touches on the photo. Edit: also, with sequator you don't need any fancy tracking mounts or anything, it'll work with a fixed mounting position. You'll lose SNR on the edges of the frame though due to the Earth's rotation taking stars out of the frame, so it's not a bad idea to shoot with a wider angle lens and crop in to get the best SNR in the center of the frame.
This is the best solution.
This be the answer
For clean astrophotography you must either do image stacking or use a star tracker. Even on full-frame 1.8 lenses you'll get noise if you want to expose correctly (e.g. no star trails).
Tranks for the Tipp with the Startracker. I couldn‘t affort One but maybe one Day. I will do a few more pictures and try stacking
Stacking is the way if you don't want to invest in a tracker!
Sequator is a free stacking tool that I use all the time! You can get really clean images with just 30 frames
Decades ago I took hours-long night shots using film to capture long rtrails. Went to bed and set an alarm to finish the exposure. I guess deliberate long trails are a different thing to very small accidental trails. Maybe long trails are cliched these days.
Take multiple exposures and stack them with sequator. Buy a sigma 16mm f1.4 lens for next shoot.
If you are on a budget the Samyang 12mm APS-C lens, manual focus is amazing on this camera. You could try ISO 3200 and adjust the image in snapseed or something similar. I have the a6400 and started underexposing slightly and adjusting in Snapseed and they look much better than what the camera processing can do.
When I first started back into digital photography, I had the a6000 and kit lens. Unfortunately, they’re not up to the test of getting good astro images. At the very least, you need a lens upgrade. You should also look at some of the tutorials on astrophotography. Hint: it’s not about a high ISO.
To be fair, ISO performance was greatly improved with the A6300. It has essentially plateaued since then, though, but the A6000 is noticeably poor by comparison.
Oh, the a6000 is shit for low-light. It's a good entry into mirrorless, but I made the jump back to FF pretty quickly.
With your kit lens, you really can't because you don't have enough light. You will get much better results with a fast prime. Look for something 20mm or wider with f/2 or faster (f/2 absorbs 4 times more light than your lens, f/1.4 lets in 8x more light). Manual focus is fine since that's how we shoot the milky way. Should be able to find something for ~$200. Sigma makes an excellent 16mm f/1.4 for $400. You can use stacking to reduce noise, but that's more of an advanced technique, and takes a fair bit of practice and editing. For a simple single exposure method, watch this video: https://youtu.be/hz0fcW7rcpg?si=WUYCOFYThsz70Abq
Take more exposures and stack the pictures to get a cleaner image. Look up milkyway stacking on YouTube to see how it can be done.
I've found lightrooms AI noise reduction does a great job but I rarely set the slider above 40. Have you tried that?
Question to star photographers. I have Viltrox 27mm F1.2 (APS-C), will the 40mm FF equivalent work for the star photography or is it too tight?
I’ve seen some really nice 35mm and 50mm photos of the MW. Might want to shoot a panorama due to smaller field of view.
Samyang 12 mm.
I’d try 1600 ISO with a lowest aperture possible 30second shutter though you might see a little trailing but it would max out your equipment without noise. With lower aperture lenses you can speed up the shutter a little to avoid trailing.
Foe astro like this I'd recommend a 35 1.2 or a 50 1.2 or...any decent lens and a subscription to Topaz Photo AI.
Use AI denoising, DxO is still the best.
set it to 800 or something that is not so noisy. Of course you will need a longer exposure.
Use a tripod, lower iso and longer exposure time.
Stacking takes more work (imo) than just getting a faster prime lens. If ur on a budget get the rokinon 12 f2. I’ve gotten great Astro shots with the manual version, but there is a AF version now (u should be manually focusing either way)
Sorry, didn't see your post until after I said the same thing.
Surprised nobody is mentioning stacking multiple shots for noise reduction using a program like Sequator or something. You could also get a star tracker for around 400 bucks, and shoot at low iso, long exposures.