Spent a year trying to shoot the Milky Way with my camera on auto

I was out near Sedona last month, and this guy next to me with a similar camera was getting these insane, sharp shots while mine were just a grainy mess. He asked what my ISO was set to, and I had to admit I just let the camera pick everything. He showed me his settings: manual mode, 20 second exposure, f/2.8, ISO 3200. I'd been letting the camera try to 'see' in the dark for a whole year, and it was basically guessing. My shots from that night before he helped me are just embarrassing blobs. Has anyone else wasted a ton of time trusting auto mode for deep sky stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason3616d ago

Honestly, it's not that big of a deal. Auto mode is fine for learning the basics, and a year of practice probably taught you about composition and location scouting. The real waste would be if you never tried manual at all.

mason2836d ago

Ever feel stuck because you're scared to mess up the settings? I mean, just pick one thing like shutter speed and play with only that for a week. You'll figure it out way faster than you think.