Posted by Todd Caudle on January 18, 2011 at 9:54 PM
Been waiting impatiently for my new bed to arrive, and since it didn't come yesterday (and since I sold my old bed on craigslist on Monday, which is when the new one was supposed to arrive -- d-oh!), I figured the front seat of my truck would be more comfy than the bedroom floor. So I headed up to Cripple Creek, then down Shelf Road to where I could see Window Rock. It snowed all the way from Divide to CC, but then petered out as I got out of town, leaving a nearly full moon overhead to light the rocks.
Posted by Todd Caudle on January 18, 2011 at 9:55 PM
Then this morning the wind whipped up and quickly scoured much of the fresh snow off of Pikes Peak. I would NOT want to be standing up on one of those ridges!
Posted by Todd Caudle on January 18, 2011 at 9:58 PM
I've been trying to stitch a 26-shot pano taken from above Cripple Creek this morning at sunrise, but I'm having some issues with peripheral illumination discrepancies. If I get it figured out, I'll post a tiny shot and link here.
WOW! Starry night is one of your best this year! Awesome image!
Posted by John Mumaw on January 18, 2011 at 11:06 PM
You did it again! Starry Night is a jaw dropper!!
Perfect lighting on the rocks, and one of the best starlit night skies I've seen. Touch up those bright areas in the lower left corner and you've got a real winner here.
Posted by Todd Caudle on January 18, 2011 at 11:40 PM
John, gimme some advice on how to deal w/the llc. What you got in mind? I thought the snow patches added a little dimensionality to the scene and explained some of the bounce light back onto the rocks, but would it be better to make them disappear?
Posted by Pam Colander on January 19, 2011 at 12:06 AM
Absolutely beautiful! Techs please.
Posted by Todd Caudle on January 19, 2011 at 1:21 AM
Okay Pam, here goes. I assume you're wanting tech specs on the night shot.
Two-shot blend, 1600 iso & f2.8 & daylight WB on both, with shot #1 (sky) being 10-sec. plus a +0.3 on exposure in Canon's DPP software, shot #2 (rocks) @ 15-sec. plus a +1 on exposure in DPP. However, that was ultimately too much discrepancy between them, so I lowered the opacity of the rocks layer, thus darkening it to look more like it actually appeared in real life. The actual exposure discrepancy between the two shots was fairly tame, so I could've done it with only one of the images, but since I already had converted both to tiff and was in the process of combining the two, I figured I might as well play that hand to its conclusion.
Posted by Todd Caudle on January 19, 2011 at 1:35 AM
Just did a little searching and confirmed that the fuzzy "stars" that make up Orion's sword just above the center of the photo are actually part of the Orion Nebula complex.
Posted by Pam Colander on January 19, 2011 at 1:55 AM
Thanks
Posted by Paul DeCesare on January 19, 2011 at 2:22 AM
Posted by John Mumaw on January 19, 2011 at 7:14 AM
Thanks for providing specs. I'm always keenly interested in how these night shots are done.
Didn't realize those areas were snow patches 'til you mentioned it. After another look and a night's sleep, I can see your point.
Posted by Paul Wegemann on January 19, 2011 at 8:30 AM
Whoa, I love that first one! Thanks for posting the specs. IMO the lighting in #2 is calling for a B&W conversion.
Posted by Jack Garrett on January 19, 2011 at 9:41 AM
Very nice capture in number 1 Todd! Thanks for the tech specs too.
Posted by Joseph Kayne on January 19, 2011 at 12:15 PM
That star shot is indescribably good, TC! The second is excellent as well, but pales next to the star one.
Posted by Stan Rose on January 19, 2011 at 3:25 PM
That starry shot is really cool, unfortunately the snow patches keep it from being totally killer. I sympathize--i just started processing 16GB worth of shots from Utah, and i found out that the shot that i thought was my best of the whole lot has some messy branches creeping in to the foreground--too much to clone out. I didnt even notice them at the time cause the sunrise was so mind-blwing, but it ends up killing my best shot. In comparison, the snow spots arent so bad...
Posted by Don Grall on January 19, 2011 at 4:23 PM
That first shot is stellar! Definitely the star of the show!
My first reaction was, whoa, Todd went to Arches NP! Very cool that such a scene is in our backyard!
Posted by Joshua Hardin on January 19, 2011 at 6:59 PM
Nicely done Todd! The star image is wonderfully blended. The slight cloud blur on it is cool too. The LLC snow doesn't bother me at all. I also dig the blowing snow of the Pikes shot.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on January 19, 2011 at 10:12 PM
It's nice that you were able to retain plenty of detail and color in the rock under the full moon.
Posted by Lynn Scott on January 20, 2011 at 2:33 AM
Did yourself proud on this one TC!! It's a killer shot! I have some places picked out to do some night shots. I'm waiting for summer!!
Posted by Kalin Wilson on January 20, 2011 at 3:17 AM
Great shot (Starry night), Todd. I'm not familiar with Window rock. Sad since it's so close to me. Thanks for the illumination!
Posted by Dottie L Lloyd on January 20, 2011 at 11:57 AM
Bee uuu tiii FULL! You rock dude!
Posted by Dan Walters on January 22, 2011 at 8:31 PM
Discussion
27 repliesPerfect lighting on the rocks, and one of the best starlit night skies I've seen. Touch up those bright areas in the lower left corner and you've got a real winner here.
Two-shot blend, 1600 iso & f2.8 & daylight WB on both, with shot #1 (sky) being 10-sec. plus a +0.3 on exposure in Canon's DPP software, shot #2 (rocks) @ 15-sec. plus a +1 on exposure in DPP. However, that was ultimately too much discrepancy between them, so I lowered the opacity of the rocks layer, thus darkening it to look more like it actually appeared in real life. The actual exposure discrepancy between the two shots was fairly tame, so I could've done it with only one of the images, but since I already had converted both to tiff and was in the process of combining the two, I figured I might as well play that hand to its conclusion.
Didn't realize those areas were snow patches 'til you mentioned it. After another look and a night's sleep, I can see your point.
My first reaction was, whoa, Todd went to Arches NP! Very cool that such a scene is in our backyard!