Posted by Kipp Schoen on June 26, 2011 at 10:36 PM
I've been wanting to try some star photography for a while and decided to give it a try at Maroon Bells on Friday night. Thought it might give a different take on a popular icon. Planned the trip so a partial moon would illuminate the Bells during the night (moonrise about 1AM). I got lucky when the Milky Way moved over the Bells at about the right time, didn't plan that. Looking forward to trying some more of this type of photography. Taken with a 5D MkII, Sigma 15mm fisheye, f2.8, ISO 3200, 35 second exposure.
The downside of star photography is that I was up all night. Comments and feedback welcome! Kipp.
Posted by Jack Garrett on June 26, 2011 at 11:14 PM
Now that's a pretty shot!
Posted by Bill Speaks on June 26, 2011 at 11:30 PM
Kipp,
That's one way to get ahead of the guy walking around the lake wearing a yellow blazer. Seriously, that is one awesome shot! Well worth the lost sleep!
Though I like it as is, if you have a longer exposure or a shot with the moon lighting the ridge on the left, it might be worth trying a blend to bring up that area. On this image the reflection of the sky appears pretty dark at the bottom, so maybe crop it a little to accentuate the Milky Way.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on June 26, 2011 at 11:32 PM
You got the perfect amount of moonlight. Well worth the loss of sleep.
Posted by Jack Brauer on June 26, 2011 at 11:34 PM
AWESOME! That's great how the Milky Way is right over the Bells. Looks like a perfect exposure. I think there's quite a CW tilt, and your credits are a bit distracting, but other than that it's perfect! Nice to see a unique photo from there.
Posted by Russ Shugart on June 26, 2011 at 11:50 PM
I love this! You and Erik have these start shots down to an art! (pardon the pun!) Truly spectacular.
Great shot! I was surprised you could get the Milky Way right over the Bells this time of year, as I always thought this shot faced due west. But I realize now that it is facing SW.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on June 27, 2011 at 9:22 PM
Very nice take from the location with the Milky Way overhead.
Maybe try a decrease in brightness and possibly an increase in contrast to see if you like?
This is a cool shot. I'm curious as to what this one looks blown up. Did you have to do any serious ND to the image?
Posted by Paul Wegemann on June 27, 2011 at 11:15 PM
CW tilt aside, this is gorgeous! Nice one, Kipp.
Posted by Kipp Schoen on June 28, 2011 at 12:32 AM
Thanks for the suggestions and nice comments to everyone.
Kane, I assume ND refers to noise reduction? At ISO 3200 there is some noise present in the image, but it is not horrible and should look OK in a print. Probably not too much of a way around that with this type of photography. Pixel peeping at 100% you can see it. I did clean it up a bit with Neat Image noise reduction software and that helped somewhat.
Tilt was hard to see while shooting, especially with the fisheye lens and low light level.
Magnificent! I think you did everything right here, and agree that a slight brightness reduction to the mountains may help emphasize the 'night' feeling a bit more.
As an aside, I also use this lens for night photography, and I'm real pleased with the sharpness at f2.8 and the lack of distortion when you choose your composition correctly (as you did here).
Discussion
24 repliesThe downside of star photography is that I was up all night. Comments and feedback welcome! Kipp.
That's one way to get ahead of the guy walking around the lake wearing a yellow blazer. Seriously, that is one awesome shot! Well worth the lost sleep!
Though I like it as is, if you have a longer exposure or a shot with the moon lighting the ridge on the left, it might be worth trying a blend to bring up that area. On this image the reflection of the sky appears pretty dark at the bottom, so maybe crop it a little to accentuate the Milky Way.
Russ
www.AlpineGalleria.com
Bill Brennan
Maybe try a decrease in brightness and possibly an increase in contrast to see if you like?
Kane, I assume ND refers to noise reduction? At ISO 3200 there is some noise present in the image, but it is not horrible and should look OK in a print. Probably not too much of a way around that with this type of photography. Pixel peeping at 100% you can see it. I did clean it up a bit with Neat Image noise reduction software and that helped somewhat.
Tilt was hard to see while shooting, especially with the fisheye lens and low light level.
As an aside, I also use this lens for night photography, and I'm real pleased with the sharpness at f2.8 and the lack of distortion when you choose your composition correctly (as you did here).