OUPA COETZEE

IG: @oupacoetzee Nikon D700

Nikon 14 – 24 mm lens

OUPA WRITES: I took this photo at about 10 one night. We were at Stuurmansfontein, a well-known guest farm in the Carnarvon district in the Karoo, where you can stay in a traditional corbelled house.

I used my tripod and a remote shutter release. The lens was at its widest (14 mm) and I used a shutter speed of 30 seconds at aperture f5.6 and ISO 200. The white balance was set to “cloudy”. I illuminated the corbelled house for about 10 seconds using my headlamp. I tinkered with the photo on my computer later to make the Milky Way stand out more.

TOAST SAYS: When you move away from the light pollution of cities, you see the night sky in all its glory. The Karoo is one of the best places in the world to go stargazing.

Here you realise why it’s called the Milky Way – because the stars look as white as a freshly marked line on a rugby field. Oupa’s photo captures the beauty of a Karoo night perfectly.

This kind of photo requires technique, but if you use the same settings as Oupa did, you should get a good result – even if you have to lighten or sharpen your photo using editing software later.

You can’t get this shot without a tripod, because stability is nonnegotiable with the slow shutter speed. Oupa used a remote shutter release, which helps to eliminate camera shake because you don’t actually touch the camera to trigger the shutter. If you don’t have a remote release, you can use your camera’s self-timer function to delay the shutter by about 5 seconds. That way you can press the button, walk away and let the whole rig settle before the photo is taken. Why did Oupa use an ISO of only 200, instead of 800, 1600 or even higher? A high ISO is usually synonymous with low-light photography, but it can make your photo look grainy and you end up losing the fine details.

Rather use a longer shutter speed and a lower ISO between 100 and 400. That way, enough star light will still reach the sensor and you’ll preserve as much detail as possible.

Congrats, Oupa, you win a go! camera bag!