How to Take Great Photos of a Lyrid (or Any Other) Meteor Shower
Watching meteors flying across the night sky is witnessing a humiliating but fleeting natural phenomenon. And without photographs to capture the ephemeral miracle of burning stones screaming through the ether, what should you remember from your experience of this sporadic incident? Who would believe you when you tell them that all have seen Meteora Lyrids ? Space photos or it didn’t happen.
But photographing the stars takes more than just pointing your phone at the sky. Here’s what you need to know about photographing meteor showers, shooting stars, comets, and other celestial wonders that keep us awake and outdoors when we would otherwise be in bed.
You need a tripod
When you want to capture something as fleeting as a shooting star, you cannot trust the stability of your hands. Meteors fly overhead at incredible speed, which means you’ll need a tripod to take high-quality photos.
“You will need [a tripod] for long exposure photography,” says Icia Marotta , a photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. “Take it to a secluded place, away from any light pollution that could ruin your pictures,” she says.
Use a wide angle lens
If you’re shooting with a camera rather than a smartphone, Marotta describes the basic things needed to capture as much of the sky as possible:
“You will need to work with a wide-angle lens, so any distance from 8mm to 16mm allows you to capture as much of the sky as possible. Stop F is also important. Try taking an f / 2.8 lens with you to avoid overcompensating the ISO increase. “
If you are not good at speaking the language of photography, you can turn to Marotta’s Photos, which showcase the great shots you can get if you nail the basics:
Use infinite focus
Another pointer that Marotta recommends is to set focus to infinity, which will expand your camera’s depth of field to the maximum possible value. The sky is large and empty, which means you want to capture as much as possible.
Money Maker Photography explains how infinity focus works:
Infinite focusing is like having an extremely deep depth of field. When your lens is at infinity, then everything in your frame will be in focus, no matter how far from your lens. However, there are a few caveats here.
Know your surroundings
Another useful reference is to understand how meteor showers and related phenomena work. Chris Westphal , an amateur photographer from Florida who trades in his stunning night sky photography, recommends positioning yourself under a “dark sky with good transparency, which means no clouds, fog, smog and haze.”
Westphal notes that meteors usually “come from a radiant close to the constellation named for the meteor shower, so it is good to shoot around these areas.” The Lyrids get their name from the constellation Lyra, which stands out in the northern sky, especially during the summer. In this situation, the “shining” Westphal refers to the star Vega, which provides the lighting needed to catch the Lyrids as they explode across the sky. Vega is usually fairly easy to find, as it is usually “directly overhead in mid-northern latitudes on summer nights,” according to Space.com .
What about smartphone photography?
If you don’t have a camera, but still want to try your hand at capturing heavenly treats, don’t worry: there are tons of ways to get the most out of your smartphone, be it iPhone or Android.
Tom Peet, manager of Repair Outlet , a camera repair company in the United Kingdom, echoes Marotta’s advice when it comes to the need for tripods and wide-angle lenses, but recommends some smartphone accessories to help you find great meteor photos.
While your phone’s camera is a technology marvel in itself, it’s probably not as good for night photography as your standard DSLR. To take your phone’s pictures a little better, he recommends downloading a long exposure app, telling Lifehacker:
A slow shutter speed allows your camera to take multiple shots over a period of time, which is necessary for capturing fleeting meteors. Some free examples include Easy Long Exposure Camera (iPhone) and Long Exposure Camera 2 (Android). Good quality paid apps include Slow Shutter Cam (iPhone) and Night Camera (Android).
Turning off flash and high dynamic range (HDR) are also important steps. While your flash negates the target of shooting in the dark, your HDR creates other problems.
Pete says:
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. This option allows the camera to take multiple shots in a row and combine them to include more light in one shot than the lens sees. This can be useful for capturing the sky, but it tends to slow down the camera, which can cause meteors to miss in the short time they are visible in the sky.
And whether you’re using a camera or phone, be sure to take as many photos as possible. Also, never zoom in – you want to capture as much of the sky as possible.