Throwdown – Night Skies.

[David Chesterfield]

Show us your night sky images.

Moogerah Dam, taken on the night of the new moon (23/7/2017).

[Tobie]

Beautiful David!

[Tobie]

This is something I need to explore more as I get to proper dark areas but the opportunities are far and inbetween. Here I was in a reserve at a spot our guides took us to with a lot of hesitance and resistance – and begging & bribing from our side (it was in big 5 country)! Sorry for the link but my tablet does not give me an option to copy the embed script. I’ll fix it up on my laptop at the 1st opportunity:

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Love this image Tobie, the red colour against the dark sky is brilliant 🙂

[Tobie]

Thanks Dahlia! 🙂

 

[David Chesterfield]

Nice image @Tobie. I love the night sky!

[Tobie]

Thanks David!

[Frogdaily]

These are both stunning images David and Tobie! I plan to do some night photography as soon as the sky clears up where I can see some stars …

[David Chesterfield]

Thank you @ Frogdaily! I look forward to seeing the results!

 

[Frogdaily]

I’m so jealous of all the photos here … marine layers and fires in the area not creating best of night photography conditions… waiting for that clear night …

[Tobie]

Thanks Frogs!

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Second attempt at the Milky Way because I got lucky to be in a place with less light pollution. Not sure if the exposure was too long as the star trails show up in the image. Also not sure if the focus is right.

[David Chesterfield]

Thanks Dahlia – great image.

There is a rule known as the 500 rule in Astrophotography Dahlia. Whereby 500 divided by the focal length of the lens (adjusted to 35mm equivalent if necessary) will give you the theoretical maximum exposure time to avoid star trails.

As an example:

• In your image you have a full frame sensor, so no need to make adjustments to the focal length. 500 / 24 = 20.8 seconds. So start with 20 seconds – you may still see minor star trails in the corners – The wider the lens, the more likely that is.
• In my image I was using a 7mm lens on a micro four thirds body, with a crop factor of 2. So 500 / (7 * 2) = 35 Seconds.

Don’t be afraid to bump up the ISO to get the exposure right.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you so much David for the tips. That’s great. Will keep this calculation in mind next time. I should have bumped up the ISO and reduced the shutter speed.

Love your image. With the 7 mm, you have a huge part of the galaxy in frame. Can even see a small red cluster towards the bottom. 🙂

 

[ElinL]

Wonderful image Dahlia. I like the foreground – it gives a perspective !

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you Elin 🙂

[Tobie]

Lovely shot, Dahlia! The trails appear on different sides of the stars, depending where you look. My guess is thus that the shutter speed was not the issue – it’s rather the lens showing a little diffraction at f/2.8. If you get another chance, perhaps try it at f/4 which will be a little closer to its sweet spot. Don’t be afraid to push your ISO’s to compensate – that body can handle it.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you so much Tobie. I will definitely give it a try when I get a chance next. With that lens, I have found that it is sharp at f3.2, f4 and not always sharp at f2.8. Thank you so much again 🙂

[Frogdaily]

Stunning photo @dahlia!

 

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you Frogdaily 🙂

[Dahlia Ambrose]

That’s a beautiful image David 🙂

[chris pook]

These are all wow images, thank you for sharing.  I love coming here to see what people are posting, and am consistently blown away by what I see, despite only commenting once in a blue moon.

[chris pook]

Saw this, thought of you;  https://www.dpreview.com/news/2190830820/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year-2017-shortlist-announced?ref_=pe_1822230_248784300_dpr_nl_271_13

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Awesome images. Thank you for sharing that Chris 🙂

[ElinL]

I had a period of hunting the Milky way, freezing my b… off on top of the mountains of Western Norway but gave it up – too much sacrifice for lousy images. A bit difficult during summertime when the light is like this

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Hi Elin, you may be having very long days and no nights for a few days I guess during this time of the year. Lovely image here.

Please don’t give up shooting the milky way if it is something that you would love to shoot. I use the app “Sky Guide” now, so that I know when (time and location) the Milky way is out there and if the skies are clear and the light pollution is very less, you are sure to get a decent image.

[Tobie]

Well Elin, the topic is ‘Night Skies’ and this is your night sky! A little different from ours but beautiful regardless! 🙂

[ElinL]

Thank you Tobie. Actually I planned to give it a try while in Tenerife last year, but Mt Teide was covered in evening mist the whole week – so maybe some other time – meanwhile I´ll have the pleasure of enjoying yours and others beautiful Milky Way images.

[Astaroth]

Wow, all these pictures are amazing! I like very much the picture taken by Dahlia Ambrose. ISO 640 and that Milky Way! The light pollution must be actually low in that place!!

I have not experience with astrophotography… This is an attempt I took some weeks ago:

(ISO 12800 @ 30s with 14mm lenses)

In a little town in Cuenca (Spain).

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Hi Astaroth, thank you. Yes the light pollution was very low that the milky way was visible to the eyes. Could also see a shooting star while I was in awe of the night sky!

What f value did you use to shoot this image?

[Astaroth]

Where I live the light pollution is huge. We had to drive to a very little town to take this picture.

It was taken at f/2.8 (as you, It’s the maximum aperture for my Samyang 14mm). It’s approximately focused at infinity (the focus system is a little deflected) and the diagonal composition was a little random.

Wow! I’ve noticed right now that I took the picture in 23th July (as @dchester1001, and very close to your date). All us chose the same no-moon nights :).

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you for the information Astaroth. I was asking as your ISO was very high and was thinking that you shot on a smaller aperture. Light pollution is the biggest enemy for night sky images.

I think April till September are the best months for viewing the Milky way at night 🙂

[Astaroth]

The extreme ISO is because I was testing the ISO response of my camera. Test passed OK :)! I took others at lower ISO (3200):

Here is impossible a shot as yours, at ISO 640!! Amazing! My picture was taken in one of the darkest places in Spain.

[Astaroth]

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Hi Astaroth, I like this image a lot. With some more contrast and a slight increase in exposure in post processing, this one will look brilliant and the foreground adds depth and perspective to the image. Thank you for sharing this with us 🙂

[Astaroth]

Thanks you very much @dahliaambrose :)!

[Tobie]

I think there’s enough here to make an impressive shot, @astaroth. Just lower your shadows and blacks, increase contrast, raise your highlights (and perhaps whites). Show us the result! 🙂

[Astaroth]

Thanks for your suggestions, @tobiepsg :)! I was testing several options in the post-processing. With high contrast the dramatic effect increases, but it also increases the noise. I didn’t like the result when you watch it at full resolution (it seemed over-processed).

This is other version with more contrast. At reduced size the noise effect is lower…

But at original size, you only can view noise :p…

[Tobie]

This is a very nice improvement!

[Astaroth]

Thanks :)!

[chris pook]

I’m not far from you (astrologicaly speaking) up in the Picos de Europa.  Will try some night shots while here.  🙂

[Astaroth]

Great :)! Share them with us when you take them :)!

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Wow! Look forward to seeing some of them Chris 🙂

[chris pook]

What I have found is that my children and Franco have conspired to prevent Night Sky photographs.  For 70 years Spain has been aligned with German time zones, but sits much further west.  This means sunset is 21.15 right now.  Being on holiday with 3 kids, wonderful as they are, means that PBT (Pook Beer Time) is generally around 1600.  That means that sunset is PBT+5, by which time I may be left in charge of a Pizza, but fine tuned optical instruments are out.  Hmm.  I could try the other end of the clock, but that is equally unlikely to happen right now.  Hmmm….  maybe Astro photography is best reserved for non family holidays?

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

Bloody hell. I have some work to do!

[David Chesterfield]

Out again on Saturday night.

Even caught a shooting star

Galactic core

[karenhy]

Amazing!

[chris pook]

Just wow!

[chris pook]

Actually I wrote ‘Just wow!’  🙂

[David Chesterfield]

And because I am obsessed… Astro & light painting. Single exposure.

[Astaroth]

Great shot! Beautiful hot- cold colour contrast between the milky way and the lightpainting. Very dramatic the dry tree. I have to try lightpainting with a light source as yours :)!

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Wow, these images are brilliant. Love them David! 🙂

[bucweeet]

I’m humbled by all the beautiful images… well done!!

[bucweeet]

Not quite up to the standards of the rest, but I figured I would this.  Not sure if fits in completely with the throwdown…

The Night Traveller…

 

[Dahlia Ambrose]

I really like it Paul. Looks like the galactic core has almost set beneath the horizon 🙂

If not for the lights from the vehicles, you could have captured even more details I guess. Did you try a higher exposure time? May be that will help capture more details?

[bucweeet]

Thank you @Dahlia. I was actually taking images of the Northern Lights and an old church (which was behind me) at the time when I thought of attempting to capture the moving vehicle. If I really bring up the exposure in PP, one can see the ‘core’ just above the tree line, but the image looks ‘really bad’ (hence I decided to keep this version).

But with that said, and after reading some of the above posts, increasing the length of exposure time definitely would have helped as the shutter speed was at 6-7 seconds.

I’m hoping to make it out to the same spot in the coming years for a similar image because the core is almost ‘laying on its side’ as it descends over the trees.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

That’s great Paul. Yes, you can increase the exposure time and with the calculation David has provided here, you can go up to 30 seconds at 16mm.

And, yes worth visiting again for many more shots and would love to see them 🙂

[David Chesterfield]

One more from last weekend, this time processed using the Orton effect, blended to give a mix of soft and crunchy details. 

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Awesome David, can see that dreamy glowing effect. Just looked up the Orton effect and it looks interesting. Gonna give it a try some time 🙂

Thank you for sharing that with us.

[Kevin Drummond-Hay]

Hi Guys, I posted this the other day but it seems to have been removed from this Chat.

I have just started doing Night Skies and struggle to get more detail on the forground without creating Star trails. Can someone help.

This was taken at ISO3200, 30 sec exposure, 27mm(35) f3,5. Should I up the ISO? Noise becomes a big factor then?

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Hi Kevin,

Lovely image. I like the colours very much. I am fairly new to photographing the night skies too and not very sure what I am telling here is right. If you use the widest aperture possibly at least f2.8, you should get some details of the foreground.

I am not sure if you read David’s advise above on what settings could be used. Please have a look above.

It is the 500 rule that calculates the longest exposure time possible for Milky Way photography without capturing movement in the stars. Take the number 500 and divide it by the focal length of the lens (35mm equivalent) you’re using. You have mentioned that your 35mm equivalent is 27mm.

So, in your case, it is 500/27 = 18.5 or maybe 18 or 19 seconds should be the correct exposure without noticeable star trails. You have done 30s exposure and that should be more than enough to get all the details.

 

To get the foreground exposed correctly, you can do two shots. One exposed for the foreground (expose the landscape longer, by about 4x or 6x depending on how dark it is) and another exposed for the milky way.

For example, if you are exposing 30 seconds on the sky for the milky way, then expose 2 to 3 minutes for the landscape then blend them together while post processing.

If the foreground is closer, you can also maybe try using a flashlight to illuminate the foreground.

Will wait to see what others advise on this too 🙂

[David Chesterfield]

There are really only a couple of options here Kevin – increase the ISO or increase the exposure time. Personally, I have never been afraid of high ISO – try it, experiment & see what you get.

A second option is to expose one frame for the milky way, then a second longer exposure for the foreground and blend them in PS. Jimmy McIntyre has a great tool for this (Raya Pro) and a heap of tutorials.

[David Chesterfield]

Star Trails – using live comp mode on the Olympus OM-D Em10ii. several hundred frames @ 30 seconds each, combined into a single RAW file in camera.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Wow, that’s amazing David 🙂

It must have taken quite some time to merge all the images in camera!

[David Chesterfield]

Actually Dahlia, it takes the same time as a single frame (in this instance 30 seconds) to combine as a RAW file.

Where it is say a 3 second exposure it takes 3 seconds.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Wow! That’s super quick 🙂

[LeanneC]

Oh my…amazing images on this thread. Love it!

[Robert Apple]

Been Waiting to get the PC back up for this one.

Harvest Moon over a Frozen Jackson Reservoir in Eastern Colorado.

[LeanneC]

Wow! Spectacular. Love the gold tones.

[Tersha]

Wow again! Wonderful golden colour.

[David Chesterfield]

Superb!

 

[Robert Apple]

Thanks,  @dnave , @dchester1001 , @tersha ,  and @leannecleaveley .

It was an interesting night as the truck had broke down and this was a hundred mile trip from home, on the highway I could see the moon Rising and was racing to the campground, hoping the small town cops weren’t running radar, as they most often do, thankfully the Lake sits in a valley and when we pulled in with the camper it was just starting to rise, I had plenty of time to get the camera and the suspended filter set up , but my wife was not so pleased with my enthusiasm as she would of preferred I got the Camper set up first so she could get inside and warm up. For a late fall escape it turned out to be a pretty good trip, even though the temp never got above 5 degrees f.

[ElinL]

Beautiful ! Apocalyptic.

[Donna]

Breath Taking

[Author]

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