How to shoot

astrophotography

Capture moments of space with your camera or phone!

by Gejnemin Huskic • August 23, 2026

Taking pictures of the sky seems fairly straight forward in concept. You have a camera hat you point upwards to the sky and snap a photo. Its a fairly straightforward process, that is, if you're taking the photo while the sun is out. Astrophotography is this process only with a bit more improvisation to reach a desired outcome. When photons are scarce, the lens of your camera has to adjust to compensate for that. The lack of light is actually a benefit and certainly a requirement for this style of shooting.

The definition of astrophotography is "the use of photography in astronomy; the photographing of celestial objects and phenomena." Lets discover how we can utilize what we currently have to achieve this goal. This guide does over how to capture the night sky with your smartphone.

Shooting with: Smartphone

Pros

Your smartphone is with you at all times
Low barrier to entry
Little tweaking and intervention for good results

Cons

Limiting in terms of functionality and tweaking
Photo quality and results are limited to the confines of a smartphone

Requirements

Tripod
iPhone or Android smartphone

side note

Phones with larger apertures are better suited for this style of photography. While it is not necessarily required, it is best that the main camera has at least f/1.8 or lower. Recent flagship smartphones from 2020 and beyond should be capable enough for this.

Walk through

Step 1 - Chose the correct app

Using a smartphone to achieve this shooting method can vary in technique depending on which phone you can have. If you have an iPhone, you should download a camera app that has a 'pro' or 'manual' functionality to it. Some good options for iOS are:

If you have an android, you should also download a camera app of similar functionality. Here are some good apps for android:

Alternatively, the default camera app on your android phone might already come with a pro mode. On many Samsung Galaxy devices this is actually the case. Be sure to check what you have already to potentially save yourself some app storage space! The default camera app on the iPhone can produce some decent results as well. The built in "night mode" feature can do a decent job at capturing a long exposure.

Step 2 - Find a location

Stay away from areas that have a lot of light pollution. This can cause your camera to pick up light form its surroundings rather than the stars in the night sky. Light pollution can be caused by street lights, lighting from homes, motion lights, and more. You can use this website to locate where the darkest points in your area are: https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

Step 4 - Pick a good day

This is probably the easiest step. Make sure you pick a night where there are little to no clouds! Ensure there is no perspiration so that your camera does not pay the price.

Step 5 - Mounting your phone

Make sure that your phone is mounted on a tripod, as this ensures that there is absolutely zero shaking of the camera. You want astro shots to be as still as possible so that the camera lens has an easier time capturing the distant stars.

Step 6 - Setting up your lens

Load your app of choice; whether that is the default camera app or a 3rd party one (see first step). Make sure that the flash is disabled.. If you are able to, utilize the "Raw" photo feature to get a raw photo straight form the camera's lens.

Step 7 - Shooting your images

Click the shutter and let the camera do its thing!

Shooting with: DSLR

...This section is a work in progress!

Google Sites

Report abuse