In the morning hours between August 12th and 13th, we can look forward to another cosmic spectacle in the sky. Two weeks ago, there was a blood moon eclipse, and now we can look forward to a meteor shower, the so-called Perseids. Up to 75 meteors per hour should flash in the sky in the morning hours. So let's take a look at how iPhonem to capture the Perseids as best as possible – both through photographs and time-lapse (so-called time-lapse).
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What are the Perseids?
The Perseids are a cometary meteor shower that formed from the remains of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The shower can be observed in the sky every year from July 17 to August 24, with the Perseids at their peak between August 11 and 13. In 1991-1993, we could observe up to 300 meteors per hour in the sky, but this number is decreasing every year. This year, we can look forward to a quarter, i.e. around 75 meteors per hour.
This is what the Perseids might look like:
Head out of town
First, you need to make sure you are in the location you want to take photos from. The right place is outside the city, where there is as much darkness as possible and the least light traffic. For example, a meadow far from the city or an elevated place will work best. Once you've found the perfect spot that suits you, you can sit back and pull out your indispensable tripod/tripod.
Do not be disturbed
Photographing the Perseid is very similar to photographing lightning. You simply cannot predict when a meteor will appear in the sky and you have to pray that luck will be on your side. So make sure no one disturbs you - turn off Wi-Fi and data and just focus on taking pictures.
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Don't forget to bring headphones
Since it is not allowed to hold your phone in your hand while taking photos, you will need to use a tripod. However, on a tripod, iPhone It is difficult to control and, moreover, if you decide to take a photo by pressing the shutter button on the screen, you will most likely move the device. But you can use EarPods for exactly this case. You simply connect them to your phone when taking a photo, and then you just need to press the button on the headphone cable to take a photo. If you have enough space on your iPhone, I recommend that you take photos in so-called sequences. All you have to do is hold the button on the headphones - this way, your iPhone will take photos "in a row". Then, using a simple interface, you can choose the most ideal photo in which you managed to capture the Perseids.
Flipper, camera, action
For the best Perseid photos possible, I recommend using the built-in Camera app. Of course, you can also use other applications that specialize in taking photos in the dark, but in our case, the native Camera will also work well. Also, I don't have a very good experience with third-party apps - sometimes they don't work as expected and they're not always free.
First of all, you need to turn off AE/AF. We do this in the same way as if we wanted to focus on an object - in this case, we don't just click on the display, but hold our finger on it for 3 seconds, until the text AE/AF OFF appears in the upper part of the application. After that, it is necessary to reduce the exposure in the camera. We do this by swiping the screen from top to bottom with AE/AF off. We can notice that the whole screen goes dark. We will darken until we get rid of all light noise. If you managed to find a place without light noise, you do not need to reduce the exposure.
Gallery
Try a new level – time-lapse shot
You can also use Time-lapse mode to photograph the Perseids. time-lapse), which is found in the native camera application. But here it is really necessary that you have iPhone attached to a tripod. I also recommend that you take an external power bank with you, to which iPhone connect it – it could be damaged when spinning time-lapse simply state that you run out of battery and iPhone se turns off. Shooting time-lapse is similar to taking photos. Again, you have to adjust the exposure, as we showed in the paragraph above - everything is really very similar, only more difficult. I recommend that you stand a few meters from the phone when shooting, so that the shakes do not spoil the shot unnecessarily.
Time-lapse is simply a shot composed of photos that are taken after a certain period of time - a few seconds. Therefore, I recommend that you set aside at least an hour of your time for shooting a time-lapse so that the resulting recording is really worth it. You can find the time-lapse in the native Camera application - just swipe from left to right several times in it until you move to the Time-lapse mode.
Storage
As I mentioned above, one of the things that could betray you is the iPhone's storage. Before you decide to go out to photograph the Perseids, make sure you have enough storage space. I don't think you'd want to get a nasty notification when you're taking a photo telling you that you don't have room for more photos. If you are interested in how to clean the storage as efficiently as possible, be sure to check out the guide below.
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záver
Keep in mind that you are still trying to photograph or film the Perseids on iPhone. Although I have no doubt about the quality of the iPhone camera, you cannot count on the fact that the resulting photos will be the same as if you were taking photos with a professional device. Of course, I do not want to discourage you from today's space theater, quite the opposite. It is definitely worth a try, but do not forget that the best lens is your eyes. Therefore, do not forget that such a spectacle is best seen with your own eyes, not through the phone display. Finally, I will give you one more little piece of advice - do not use zoom at any cost. The quality of the resulting photo will be terrible, and what's more, you can always zoom in on the photo.
It's quite a shame that when you can set slow-motion, right Apple in the native application, it does not give the opportunity to set a delay in the frames in the time-lapse, or it does not allow you to set the length of the final video... the roughly 40 seconds are certainly sufficient, but sometimes you would like a longer shot.
Well, I don't know, the native Camera application, where I can't see what the application is setting in advance, seems unsuitable for night photos. In the dark I want him to set a low iso and a long time. How do I know he didn't do it the other way around? :-) For a night photo, I recommend manual settings to everyone, i.e. a different application.