The annual Geminid meteor shower over Needle's Eye in Custer State Park, South Dakota. To create this image I photographed throughout the night while catching occasional Zzzs beneath this impressive show with David Kingham and Mike Berenson . This image is a composite of 23 meteors captured during the shower combined with light painting of the rock formation.
Posted by Nathan Apodaca on December 15, 2012 at 5:37 PM
Really nice capture, and great comp. Too bad I missed the show, but at least I get to enjoy it here! TFS...
Posted by Peter Coskun on December 15, 2012 at 6:44 PM
What a great image and glad some of us got out there to shoot it. We had crappy weather to ruin it down here, but I am hoping to catch it next year.
Posted by John Mumaw on December 15, 2012 at 7:43 PM
Excellent capture, Jason!! The foregrond is lit perfectly and the meteor shower is magnificent. A winner all the way around!
I so wanted to get out there, but I'll trade the much needed snow we received for that opportunity anytime.
Any tech. tips you can spare for us wannabe nightscape photographers would be very appreciated!
Posted by Grant Collier on December 16, 2012 at 1:57 AM
Very nice capture! The processing looks very good. I too photographed the shower and it was the most impressive one I've seen.
Posted by Glenn Sackett on December 16, 2012 at 11:37 AM
I shot for a couple hours at Daniels Park. I got one very good meteorite which shows color change as it heated to different temperatures going through the atmosphere, and several other faint ones. I need to learn how you process these, because all I have are very noisy skies. Don't know how to combine multiple images, either. Any good instruction sites on this?
I like your shot very much, combining an interesting landscape element with the sky. I'm wondering if you changed the orientation of any of the meteorite trails? When I was shooting they went in more random directions.
Posted by Morris McClung on December 18, 2012 at 9:24 PM
@Glenn & John: I don't really have detailed instructions for the creation of this image at the moment. I shot ISO 200/400 for the light painting and blended in a different image of the stars shot at ISO 3200. f/2.8 for both images. Each meteor was blended in using layer masking in photoshop and then rotated for a common point of origin. No special noise reduction was used on the image, just processed for black skys and bright stars. Overall it took about 3.5 hours to make the image.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on December 20, 2012 at 10:43 AM
The Needle makes a nice foreground for this night shot. I also like that a meteor is seen through the eye. The shadow along the rocks' edges is the only nit. Well done.
Discussion
8 repliesI so wanted to get out there, but I'll trade the much needed snow we received for that opportunity anytime.
Any tech. tips you can spare for us wannabe nightscape photographers would be very appreciated!
I like your shot very much, combining an interesting landscape element with the sky. I'm wondering if you changed the orientation of any of the meteorite trails? When I was shooting they went in more random directions.