How Do You Photograph A Rocket Launch?

Photographing a rocket launch may sound relatively simple, that is because it is. But to get really professional looking video and pictures, you just need to follow these few rules.

Daytime Launches

A rocket launch during the day will be a lot easier to photograph, as the sun is already up. That means that the rocket cannot light up the sky much more, so the camera is already descently exposed when the rocket leaves the pad. However, there is alot more to set your camera to.

Firstly, I will talk about gear. The gear is a relatively important part of the photography, as if you do not have a long enough lens, your shot will not be tight enough on the rocket. You might be asking, why can't you just crop in? And you can! Most photographers shoot a little bit zoomed out, so that in editing, they can zoom in a little bit, and stabalize the video! But if you are just cropping so that you get a closer view of the rocket, I would recommend getting a longer lens. The lens should be atleast 200mm, the crop factor doesn't really matter. No matter if you are shooting video or photos, I would recommend bringing a tripod. If you are shooting video is it practically mandatory, but if you are shooting photos, I would just use it to mark your spot to view the launch from.

Second, lets talk about the settings you will need on the camera. Since it is a day time launch, it will not wash out your shot with the brightness of the exhaust plume. But below are the settings that I would set for my cameras during the launch.

ISO = 100 - 400 The lower the ISO the better, this is because ISO can cause grain in your photos and videos, and you do not want grain, it is the worst thing. Trust me.

Exposure = 0 I don't change my exposure partly because it can also cause grain, but also because if the exposure isn't good I can just change it in editing.

F-Stop + Shutter Speed = Anything really The reason I say anything is because it depends on what your ISO is, you will set your shutter speed and F-Stop accordingly. Some lenses will restrict you on the amount of stops that you can go, but besides from that, it can all be customized.

Nighttime Launches

A nighttime launch is extremely bright. If you are not careful about your settings, it could ruin your shot. I am not going to talk about gear, because I talked about it in the Daytime launches section. So I will just talk about the settings you will want on your camera.

ISO = AS LOW AS POSSIBLE The reason that you want it as low as possible is because the lower the number the darker the picture it'll be.

Exposure = -1 to -2 Do not go lower than -2 because if you do, you will experience major grain in your video.

F-Stop = F11 - F22 I wouldn't say to bring this number as far down as you can, but remember the higher the number, the darker the photo gets. So I would recommend going down to around F-18 or so. Just play with it, and make sure the rocket is dark on the pad, because it will light up.

Shutter Speed = AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE This is the opposite of the as low as possible, this is because the 1/ the higher number means the darker the image will go. The reason that we are setting all of our settings so low, is so that we can get as much detail in the plume as we can.

The reason that we are setting our settings so low to make the image dark is so that we can get as much detail of the plume as possible. The rocket won't be visible because it is night time and there is no other light besides the light that is coming from the engines. That is why you will need to focus on the exhaust plume.

That is it for this article though, if this helped you learn new things on how to photograph launches, please become a member for Onkla. You can also subcribe to us on youtube if you haven't already. Our channel name is "Onkla" however you will need to search up either "Onkla Studios" or "Onkla Rockets" for us to appear. Thanks!

Have you ever seen a launch in person?

Change Image

• Yes, Daytime
• Yes, Nighttime
• No, but will hopefully see one in the next year
• No, and hopefully it stays that way

*Photo used in this poll was taken by Josh for Onkla with a Nikon P1000 at the Antares NG-17 Launch*