Ideas
While it can seem impenetrable if you’ve never done it before, astrophotography is surprisingly easy to get started with. All you really need is a camera, tripod and a clear night sky. Clouds are one of astrophotography’s greatest foes, which is why the summer months are such a busy period for committed stargazers. With the best part of the year for astrophotography coming up, what could be a better time to give it a try? A core tenet of astrophotography is making the most of what little light is hitting your camera’s sensor. A lens with a wide aperture makes for a good start – an F1.4 or F2.8 setting will maximise the starlight that makes it through your optic. Shutter speed and ISO are a little more complicated. For shutter speed, there’s a sweet spot to be found. You want a setting long enough to give you a high exposure value, but not so long that the stars in your images blur due to the rotation of the earth. Astrophotographers have a calculation for this called the ‘500 rule’. Divide 500 by the full-frame equivalent focal length of your lens to find a starting point for your shutter speed. For example, a 16mm X Series lens (24mm full-frame equivalent) would be 500÷24=20.8 – so a 20-second shutter speed. Due to the varying speeds of star movement in the night sky, this is just a rule of thumb – do a test exposure and adjust accordingly. ISO is another balancing act. A higher setting will give a brighter exposure but also introduces noise. The latest X Series and GFX System cameras offer excellent noise performance at high ISOs, but this is ultimately a matter of taste, so some experimentation is recommended. ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY Explore the Night Sky Get starstruck by astrophotography this summer
Discover star trails
What seems like an advanced technique is actually a great starting point for budding astrophotographers. Using the rotation of the Earth, a star trail is a multiple-exposure technique that doesn’t require advanced equipment like a star-
tracking tripod head. Scan the QR code to read a FUJIFILM Learning Centre article that will take you through the entire process.
04 FUJIFILM Focus Magazine
May/June 2026
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