One thing to know about Milky Way images is that these are long exposure shots that last anywhere from 20-30 seconds. With the Panasonic S1R mounted on a sturdy tripod this allows the camera to collect as much light information as possible with minimal motion blur. Our model will need to stay as still as possible which can be hard to do for 30 seconds. Even the slightest movement can be noticed. A great trick to handle this and ensure our model comes out sharp and bright is to add a pop of flash at the end of the exposure.
We connected our Panasonic S1R to trigger two speedlights and set it on Rear Curtain Sync mode. This makes it so the flash goes off at the end of the exposure when the rear shutter curtain sets down. That pop of light will freeze the details in anything it touches which will make sure our subject comes out sharp and not blurry in the end. In this image we added one speedlight behind her with a CTO gel and small diffuser to spread out our light. In front we added another diffused speedlight.
Next we’ll need to take our shot but before we do that I’ll talk about settings and how to know which ones to use. I always like to use a good starting point. For shutter speed a general rule of thumb to follow is the “500” Rule.
Take 500 and divide it by your lens’s full-frame focal length.
The answer is around the maximum amount of time you want to have your shutter open. Any longer and our camera will begin to pick up the stars’ movement across the sky caused by the Earth’s rotation. With the Panasonic 16-35mm f/4 we are going to shoot at widest focal length. Alright boys and girls I hope you remember how to do long division. Or you can use a calculator…we’ll just use a calculator:
500 divided by 16 gives us a maximum shutter speed of 31