Scattare foto alle stelle con lo smartphone, ecco qualche consiglio utile!
Last November, on a trip to Hawaii for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit, I took sky-high photos for the first time using a smartphone , and from there I started to inform myself and think about this content which, however simple, I really hope it will be useful to you. In fact, for some time now there have been smartphones that are able to take discrete photos of the moon thanks to increasingly important zoom cameras and specific optimization algorithms (such as those that glue a fake moon). However, only since Google has inserted a special mode on its Pixels, has we started to really talk about astro-photography from smartphones and to think of being able to take photos of the stars using your smartphone.
But do you necessarily need a Pixel or a special mode to take photos at the stars? What are the recommended settings? How do I find the perfect spot to take photos? What other things do you need to keep in mind to get the best results? In this content I will try to answer these and other questions by telling you about a field experience hunting for the perfect shot on the Alpine passes of our beautiful Italy.
EQUIPMENT: WHAT YOU NEED?
Well, first of all let’s see immediately what are the fundamental and absolutely necessary elements to be able to take good photos to the stars . So I’m talking about the equipment and the smartphone we chose for our shooting session … no, it doesn’t have to be a Pixel, just a smartphone with a good camera and we have chosen one of the best right now: VIVO X80 Pro. But why him?
LO SMARTPHONE
We chose Vivo X80 PRO because it offers a respectable photographic sector (we tested it carefully in our review), co-engineered with Zeiss , a well-known company in the world of photographic lens production, which has brought its know-how to this smartphone. -how in the form of a couple of technical elements that surely come in handy when taking photos of the stars. The first of these elements is the quality of the glass used to make the smartphone lenses, a high transmittance glass that guarantees excellent sharpness in all situations. The second is the Zeiss T Coating treatment which has been applied to these lenses and which allows to minimize the chances of running into an unpleasant flare effect when we have direct light sources in night shots. Theoretically, to take sky-high photos, the ideal would be to find a spot without its own light sources but, in the event that this is not possible, or in any case not completely, the lenses of the Vivo X80 Pro avoid the danger of having ugly artifacts in your photos. .
Hardware
5.8 Price
Quality
vivo X80 Pro
BEST PRICE
€ 1,092
1.092 €
vivo X80 Pro 5G Smartphone, 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM, 50MP ZEISS, Android 12 Mobile Phone, 6.78 Inch AMOLED Display 4700mAh Battery, 80W Dual SIM FlashCharge Mobile Phones
1.299 €
Lenses aside, however, we are talking about a top-of-the-range smartphone with a set of top-level cameras but, above all, with a main camera that, on paper, offers enviable features. I have already talked about the lenses engineered with Zeiss but below them we find a Samsung GNV sensor from 1 / 1.3 “and 50 megapixel resolution. The lens has an aperture of f / 1.6 and an equivalent focal length of 23 mm.
To take the sky-high photos we used this camera because it is obviously the brightest one but the photo sector of this Vivo is completed with an 8 megapixel periscopic zoom , a 48 megapixel wide-angle camera and a fourth camera dedicated to portraits and characterized by a special stabilization system that simulates the operation of a Gimbal . To close the circle and put the emphasis on the photos taken we then have the V1 + chip, a dedicated co-processor that allows the smartphone to manage very complex algorithms with the aim of obtaining the best possible shot in every situation.
So do I have to have a Vivo X80 Pro? Obviously not , but be careful, the camera of your smartphone must still be of a high standard, very bright and able to better manage the most unfavorable light conditions. Even using the recommended settings, in fact, without an excellent camera you will not have the desired results
TRIPOD
Another fundamental element to be able to take good photos to the stars is certainly a quality tripod. Since these are photos taken in the dark, it will obviously be necessary to use very high shutter speeds and it is therefore very important to keep the smartphone as still as possible. The ideal is to have a tripod with a photographic head , which can then be rotated and tilted in order to have the greatest possible flexibility in positioning and choosing the frame.
Amazon Basics – 127 cm aluminum tripod, universal, for
18.78 €
K&F Concept Lightweight Extendable Tripod TM2324L Flexible Portable Photo Tripod Head 3 Way Travel Aluminum with Smartphone Holder for Canon Nikon Sony DSLR DV and Cellphone Black 142cm
59.99 € Manfrotto MKCOMPACTADV-BK Compact Series Tripod with Three-Way Head, 5 Aluminum Sections, 44.5 – 165 cm, Black
92.22 €
On the market there are different types, with very different costs and characteristics. If you are not planning to shoot using a camera and your purchase is solely geared towards smartphone photographs, you can opt for a slightly cheaper solution. The weight of the smartphone is in fact much lower than that of a camera and therefore lower-end tripods are sufficient.
SUPPORT FOR SMARTPHONE
Obviously, in order to position the smartphone on the head of our tripod it is also necessary to be equipped with a special support with a 1/4 “screw attachment that will be positioned on the plate attached to the tripod head. In this case I recommend that you equip yourself with a support that allows you to rotate your smartphone horizontally or vertically, depending on your needs, so you will have a further adjustment for what is the positioning and angle adjustment of the frame.
Neewer 1/4 Vertical Tripod Smartphone Holder, Compatible with 13/13 Pro / 13 Pro Max / 13 Mini / 12/11 Pro Max / X / XR, Galaxy S20 + / S20, Huawei P40 Pro, etc.
15.99 €
THE CHOICE OF THE SPOT
Once you have all the necessary equipment to take your photos, you need to choose the right place. Contrary to what one might think, in fact, it is not enough that you see the stars in the sky to be able to take decent photos at the starry vault. The number one enemy of your skyrocketing shots is in fact light pollution. Capturing photos of the stars in the city, but not only, can become a problem if you are not in a sufficiently dark place. Simply put, the less light around us the better.
So how do we know if a place is suitable for taking photos of the stars? I use an application, in this case in the Android version, called Light Pollution Map . The consultation is very simple and allows you to view a map colored with different shades depending on the amount of light present in a specific area. It goes from red for the brightest areas to dark blue for the darkest ones. Let’s say that to have a sufficient situation to take photos of the stars without too many problems you must aim at at least a green area, preferably tending to blue.
Light Pollution Map
A second variable to take into consideration is then given by the position of the Moon . Although it may not seem so influential, the moon is still an important source of light and therefore it is necessary when the moon is in an advanced waning phase or with a new moon to ensure that the light emitted is null or almost. Alternatively, we can check the path of the moon and organize ourselves to shoot when the moon has not yet risen. In this case, Moon Tracker runs to our rescue , another application that, using augmented reality, allows us to check the position of the moon and its path throughout the night. A glance will suffice to understand until what time it will be possible to take undisturbed photos.
Don’t forget to always take a look at the weather forecast, basically for two reasons. First of all to avoid being caught unprepared if it gets particularly cold or a thunderstorm should arrive just while you are waiting to photograph the stars, and then because the sky must be as clear as possible. Taking photos of the stars in the mist or cloudy sky is virtually impossible.
Moon Tracker e Star Walk
Finally, you may want to take a photo of a particular constellation or the Milky Way without being an expert in astronomy and cardinal points. How then? Well, the saying “there’s an app for everything” has never been more appropriate. Star Walk is just one of the alternatives available but on the various app stores you will find so many. As for Moon Tracker, also in this case, thanks to augmented reality we can view, using the camera, the position of the stars that interest us and adjust the orientation of our smartphone accordingly before shooting.
SHOOTING SETTINGS
And here we are at the slightly more technical part. The astro-photography from Reflex, or at least from a camera, is a real science and, in addition to studying the position of the stars and planets, there are real mathematical formulas useful to better adjust the shooting settings. If you are interested online you will find a series of tables that can facilitate the calculations.
As for the smartphone , however, the situation is a little different due to the size of the sensor, which is much smaller than that of the sensor of a reflex camera, and which therefore captures less light, has a lower dynamic range and would force us. , following the rules , to shoot too long.
Vivo X80 Pro – 4080×3060 pixel, f/1.6, 30 sec., ISO 800, 23mm
Vivo X80 Pro – 3060×4080 pixel, f/1.6, 16 sec., ISO 8255, 23mm
But how? We have the right tripod to shoot with long times! That’s right, long but not too long . Going beyond a certain threshold, approximately 30 seconds, the rotational movement of the earth causes an unpleasant wake effect that we absolutely want to avoid in order to have our starry sky when as sharp and steady as possible.
So we said, shutter at about 30 seconds, ISO 800 or maximum 1200, besides we risk finding too much noise in the shots, and focusing on infinity to make sure you have everything in focus . These are the settings I used to take the photos you see here. Obviously we can then vary the times and ISO sensitivity depending on the situation and the smartphone we are using. In general, however, take some time to make several attempts, taking the perfect photo by guessing the settings on the first try is very difficult.
Vivo X80 Pro – 4080×3060 pixel, f/1.6, 32 sec., ISO 800, 23mm
Vivo X80 Pro – 4080×3060 pixel, f/1.6, 28 sec., ISO 800, 23mm
Then there are some smartphones, like this Vivo X80 Pro that offer a shooting mode designed specifically for taking photos at the stars. If the device recognizes that it is positioned on the tripod, in this mode the capture times can lengthen up to over a minute and a half. And the wake effect? In this case there is not because the shooting mode provides that the algorithm prevents the problem by repositioning the image and making sure that the stars remain sharp and well-defined dots.
Starry sky mode
Too good to find the baby food ready? Yes, it’s true, these shooting modes take away a bit of the fun and don’t always return a realistic effect, but let’s say that if you are a beginner and don’t want to put in too much effort the results are truly amazing, as were the ones we have . obtained by shooting in manual.
POST PRODUCTION
Well, we are at the last chapter of this short guide, I’ll tell you about post production for a moment. First of all I would say that if your smartphone gives you the possibility, it is always better to shoot in RAW, in order to have a little more leeway when we go to edit the shots in post production. In fact, not all shots are successful with the hole and in some cases it may be necessary to act on some parameter to be able to make our photos even more attractive.
If you have a PC at your disposal, obviously you can use one of the thousands of photo editing programs available, Photoshop and Lightroom are just some of those that I could recommend. But if you want to do everything from a smartphone, I would rely on Snapseed, which may not be the best app ever but certainly has very few rivals in the ease of use / performance ratio.
Ok, but what are the operations to be performed? If you shot wisely, there really won’t be much to do. I usually act on three / four parameters: shadows, highlights, blacks and, if desired, sharpness. In detail, I often open the shadows a little to bring out some more details of the sky and then work on the highlights to avoid creating too much halo around the stars or the most illuminated areas. Then shooting in particularly dark places, with a subject that cuts the photo horizontally (in our case the mountains) it could be nice to make sure that only the silhouette of that subject is seen,completely black. In that case it will be enough to work on the depth of black to make sure that the details disappear. If you can always work with selective changes, going to act first on the sky and then on the rest of the components of the photo. To do this you can use masks or, less precise, a brush.
As you can also see from the image above, in most cases the changes are minimal, especially if you have already managed to get a good photo during the shooting. If your software allows it then, you can also go to act a little on the reduction of background noise; while being careful not to overdo it by blurting out the details.
CONSIDERATIONS
There would not actually be much to say, you have seen the results and, considering that we have taken with a smartphone, I would say that we can be absolutely satisfied. But I want to leave you with a couple of reflections, which are actually thoughts that have passed in my head these days after having thought and realized this content. I started testing smartphones in 2010 and now I no longer count how many have passed through my hands for some time; in short, I can really say that I have seen every one of them, especially as regards the cameras. And if in recent years these products now all seem the same to me, I must say that one of the few factors that still leads me to have a little curiosity is precisely the development of cameras., which have reached levels unimaginable until recently.
vivo X80 Pro 5G Smartphone, 12 GB RAM + 256 GB ROM, 50 MP ZEISS, Android 12 Mobile Phone, 6.78 Inch AMOLED Display 4700 mAh Battery, 80 W Dual SIM FlashCharge Mobile Phones
Amazon
1299 € Check Offer
Especially with regard to computational photography , we now find products capable of developing the data collected by the sensors in a truly incredible way and of leading us to results that if we think only of the technical data sheet of these cameras, seem absolutely impossible. And in this sense the work done by Vivo, in collaboration with Zeiss, was decisive in being able to take home photos like the ones you see above.
I really hope this guide will be useful for you to start experimenting in the boundless world of astro-photography. Have fun and good photos to everyone!
vivo X80 Pro is available online from ds-market for € 1,092 or from Amazon for € 1,299 . To see the other 3 offers click here. (update of 07 August 2022, 5:12 pm)
