A random Reddit comment told me I was framing my Milky Way shots all wrong

Honestly, I used to always center the Milky Way right in the middle of my frame. Thought that was the whole point, you know, get it dead center. Then some guy on a forum three months ago said 'try putting it in the top third with some landscape below' and I figured why not. I live near a dark spot outside Phoenix so I gave it a shot last new moon. The result was way more interesting, like the sky had room to breathe and the ground gave it scale. Now I never center the core anymore, it always goes off to one side. Has anyone else had a tiny piece of advice that totally changed how you shoot?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_fiona24d agoTop Commenter

Yeah that's a good one. Getting the core off center lets the dust lanes curve through the frame instead of just being a blob. I started doing that last year and it made my foregrounds way more important too, now I scout spots for rocks or trees first before even looking up.

joseph_hart24d ago

My spot out in Tonopah has this one dead mesquite tree I've shot maybe forty times. Last month I tried putting the core rising right behind it instead of off to the side. Turned out looking like the tree was holding up the galaxy or something. Sometimes breaking your own rule by accident gives you a new favorite shot.