Until a few years ago, the author always carried heavy cameras to climb mountains.
However, recently, SLRs have been using less and less. The main reasons are that smartphones have improved performance and the evolution of small cameras such as action cameras is incredible.
The world is in the social media era. Rather than developing photos, photos are uploaded to social media or saved as data, and it is understandable that more and more people are switching to lightweight, compact, and easy-to-operate 360-degree cameras and action cameras, rather than carrying cameras that require bulky techniques like SLRs.
I tried to photograph the starry sky using the latest 360-degree camera, the Insta360 X4 To be honest, I was amazed at how much I was able to take a picture of the Insta360 X4 Not only is it good image quality, but it's also fun to take photos with, the Insta360 X4 is a camera that you'll want to take in a variety of activities, across genres!
table of contents
- Challenge your starry sky photography with the Insta360 X4!
- What you need
- Find a suitable location for starry sky photography
- Manually setting to photograph the starry sky
- Settings when shooting at the starry sky and photos that were taken
- Once you have set it, simply take a photo of your choice while fine-tuning the ISO sensitivity and shutter speed!
- Advanced: I want to take a dynamic night sky with video and time lapse!
- Summary: With the Insta360 X4, the hurdles for starry sky photography will be significantly lower! An extremely portable outdoor action camera
Challenge your starry sky photography with the Insta360 X4!
What you need
There are things you need to prepare to avoid making mistakes in taking photos of the starry sky. Assuming you are going to bring the Insta360 with you, the following four items will make shooting starry sky much easier.
- tripod
- Smartphone (Insta360 free app)
- Headlamp
- Spare battery
tripod
Like cameras such as SLRs, tripods are a must-have item for shooting starry sky with the Insta360. To photograph the starry sky in pitch black, slow the shutter speed, but to prevent blur, make sure to have a tripod in place to keep the camera stationary for a long time.
If you want to avoid wind and other factors, a sturdy tripod would be better, but for those who want to keep costs down, it's lighter and compact, so you can use a compact type (I also use SILK's compact tripod with an emphasis on portability).
Smartphone
When taking a photo, the vibration of the shutter button will move the camera and cause it to shake. For SLRs, there is an equipment called a release shutter that allows you to take photos without touching the camera, but with the Insta360 X4, you can operate the shutter on your smartphone. There is also a GPS action remote control sold separately, but when shooting starry sky, you can take a picture with your smartphone in your hand, so it's economical to download the app.
The Insta360 app also allows you to quickly check the images you have taken, which is useful for changing the composition you like and settings. It is highly recommended as you can easily edit the images and videos you have taken using the app! In fact, if you're using Insta360, it's a must!
Headlamp
Lights are required when traveling to the shooting point or preparing to shoot. Both hands are used for work, so use headlights instead of hand lights.
Also, choose a headlight with "red mode". When photographing starry sky, you need to get used to the darkness. Red mode is less likely to feel glare, making it easier for your eyes to get used to in the dark, and it is also less likely to cause trouble for those around you, so when going out to popular photo spots, use a headlamp with a red mode as a manners.
Spare battery
When shooting at starry sky, the shutter speed is increased, and since shooting is taken, batteries are consumed more easily than normal photography. Make sure to keep a spare battery to avoid filming even after you've come to the darkness and the battery runs out and you'll have to force the filming to stop.
Similarly, if the battery runs out, remote control will become impossible, so it's better to bring a mobile battery with you.
Find a suitable location for starry sky photography
Once you have everything you need, all you need is to go to the field! You just have to go to a place where you can see the starry sky and take a picture, but of course, in order to photograph the starry sky you have to go to a place where you can see a lot of stars.
Even in the city center, stars can be seen with the naked eye, but the light emitted by the stars is very small, and if you try to take a photo in a place where there is a streetlight, the light from the streetlight will win, making it difficult to photograph the stars.
To avoid making mistakes in taking photos of the starry sky, the key is to take photos in a place as dark as possible and less affected by city lights. To find a place that is not exposed to city lights (light pollution and light pollution), use a "light pollution map" or something similar to find a place that is as unaffected by light as possible.
Looking at a light pollution map, the red the color becomes more susceptible to light, and blue the color makes it less susceptible to light.
This is a place that is relatively unaffected by mountainous areas and coastal areas.
Source: Japan Hikari Map
Even on high mountains that are less susceptible to light pollution, if the lights of the city at the foot of the mountain are affected, it becomes difficult to see stars, so when choosing a photo spot, it is important not only to where you go, but also to the surroundings and directions.
Photo taken from the tent site at the Northern Alps, "Tsunso." The lights are coming in at the foot of the mountain, making it difficult to see the stars
Once you have decided on the points to take a photo, you can go check out the photos in the middle of the day to make shooting even smoother. Even if you have a headlamp, your activities will be restricted in the dark, so if you decide to "take a photo here" while it's still bright, you can move on to filming smoothly.
Manually setting to photograph the starry sky
Now, here's how to put it into practice. I set up the Insta360 X4 and take a picture of the starry sky.
With the Insta360 X4, you can manually configure the settings. If you leave it in Auto mode, you will not be able to capture the faint light of stars, so you will need to set it in Manual mode.
I've made an embarrassing mistake in going to the field for the real thing and only taking pitch black photos. If you have read this article, be sure to get used to the operation before you go out to avoid this.
Operate in manual mode
We will set up settings for shooting starry sky with still images.
Set it in the following order
- RAW mode settings
- ISO sensitivity setting
- Shutter speed setting
- WB (white balance) setting (optional)
First, set it to "INSP+RAW" so that you can shoot in RAW mode. RAW images are recordable image formats, and while digital cameras generally generate JPEG images as "photos", RAW images are the raw image data that is the source of JPEG images. This is one of the features offered by the manufacturer in response to the requests that users should correct and process exposure, contrast, white balance, color balance, brightness, saturation, and remove noise and distortion on a computer as they wish.
Next is to adjust the "ISO sensitivity". ISO sensitivity is a value that represents the ability of a digital camera to capture light. By increasing this value, you will be able to capture light and take photos of weak stars. However, there are weaknesses. If you increase the ISO sensitivity too much, "noise" will easily enter, resulting in rough images, so you can adjust the shutter speed and ISO sensitivity as a set, and try and error repeat so that you can take the best shot.
Reducing the ISO sensitivity to prevent noise from entering will reduce the ability to capture light, so the shutter speed is adjustable. By slowing the shutter speed, you will be able to capture more light and take pictures of dark starry sky.
WB (About white balance)
WB (white balance) is a function that corrects the color of light during shooting and captures it according to the image. By changing the numbers, you can create a color that matches your image.
The WB changes are not absolute. It's fine to leave it as automatic, but once you get used to it, try changing it and enjoy the difference in finish!
Settings when shooting at the starry sky and photos that were taken
Here are some of the authors who actually climbed the Northern Alps and photographed the starry sky.
To make it easier to understand, no editing of the images is done.
Example: ISO640, shutter speed is shot in 60 seconds
The first photo captured the ISO sensitivity in 640 and the shutter speed in 60 seconds. The large stars are reflected clearly, but we were unable to capture the Milky Way or anything.
Example: ISO1000, shutter speed in 50 seconds
Next, I increased the ISO sensitivity to 1000 and took a picture of the shutter speed in 50 seconds. By increasing the ISO sensitivity, it captures more light and shows more stars, but there is some noise and the image quality becomes rough. The Milky Way is faintly visible in the middle of the photo.
ISO3200, shutter speed is shot in 30 seconds
Here is the photo taken with the ISO sensitivity increased to 3200. The sky is brighter than at night, and the stars appear to be shining, but the image quality is rough. Adjust the ISO sensitivity and shutter speed to minimize this noise and maximize the image of the stars (adjust it takes time, but it's quite interesting to try).
What I introduced was a photo taken and taken (as it was taken). If you want to record a more beautiful starry sky, you can retouch it to create a photo that emphasizes the starry sky (I will skip it in this article as it will be quite long if I explain how to retouch it).
Once you have set it, simply take a photo of your choice while fine-tuning the ISO sensitivity and shutter speed!
The shooting settings are roughly the same for both SLR and Insta360, but for SLRs, focusing is required. I adjusted the focus little by little to the starry sky, but this is extremely difficult! The great thing about the Insta360 is that it doesn't require focus adjustment (this was really easy).
Simply adjust the ISO sensitivity and shutter speed while taking photos. Change your composition and take a photo in search of the best photo!
I reframed the raw data from the photos I took with Insta360 and finally retouched them in Lightroom. I feel like if you try a little more and get used to it, you will get the best balance between the optimal ISO and shutter speed.
Advanced: I want to take a dynamic night sky with video and time lapse!
The biggest feature of the Insta360 X4 is that it has a 360-degree camera. The stills you take can be moved later.
By using the app, you can easily edit it by working in conjunction with your smartphone.
You can also use the time lapse or star lapse functions to capture videos of stars moving. It's my first time trying it, and it's really fun to see the dynamic activities of the Earth directly. Although I was so lucky to be able to photograph the shooting stars, it was also deep and requires a little more practice before it can work well. I'd like to report back on this once I get a little more familiar with it!
Summary: With the Insta360 X4, the hurdles for starry sky photography will be significantly lower! An extremely portable outdoor action camera
We introduced the steps to photograph the starry sky using the Insta360 X4.
The Insta360 X4 is lighter and easier to take out than a SLR camera. The starry sky photography introduced this time is just a small part of what you can do. The diverse shooting modes, including video, time lapse, and time shift functions, are not just for outdoor scenes, but are sure to be your companion for keeping the best records for all activities. Make sure you have some great memories with this new camera.