Photographing people under a Milky Way sky (Patreon)

Adding humans to your Milky Way nightscapes always adds another difficulty factor to your astro landscape photography, especially when they are friends or family. Paid models are one thing. They expect to be told what to do; but how do you get a friend, spouse or child to hold still for a time exposure?

Guest Artist, Mihail Minkov, has found that preparation is the key. He decides first on a solid composition, takes a few rehearsal shots, and when he is confident that is what he wants, then he starts shooting.

Single nightscape exposures require your models to hold still longer, so he often does the foreground exposures (with his humans), in the early twilight period (which allow for much shorter exposures), and then blends these with a tracked image of the sky.

Both techniques have their advantages and disadvantages. Singles are more simple and very real. Tracked-blends allow more freedom of movement and for higher quality night sky captures.

MORE on this subject: You might want to also check out two video replays on this subject from one of our past Nightscaper Conferences:

• Humans in Night Photos - Yourself or Others by Ben Canales
• Introduction to Making Milky Way Portraits by Ken Childress

PDF: Be sure to download (below) and view my latest Version 2.0 eBook update about taking photos of people under the night sky.

NOTE: My patrons can expect to see many more posts over the next few months, as I continue to "serialize" updates to my original, version 1.1 "Milky Way NightScapes" eBook. These advance updates will become available exclusively to my patrons, page-by-page, until my new version 2.0 eBook is completed and published in late March 2024.

All "Milky Way NightScapes" eBook Version 2.0 updates are protected by copyright: © Royce Bair 2023