Milky Way Panorama over Sandwich, NH

[jsecordphoto]

11 shot panorama of the milky way arching over Kesumpe Pond in Sandwich, New Hampshire. ISO3200, f2.8, 30 seconds each. This was early Tuesday morning, and it was such a beautiful night/morning. I went out with a friend who had never shot photos at night, and it was a really cool experience to see him get so excited when his first frame came up on his camera. I just started shooting the night sky about 6 months ago and I remember how exciting it was the first time I went out. It was an amazing, clear night and after this long winter one of the best parts was the fact that I only had to wear a sweatshirt (it was around 40 degrees...it felt tropical at this point haha)

Thanks for looking!

 

[BillM]

That's a beautiful shot :thumbup:

 

[bc_steve]

Agreed, that is really good!

 

[agp]

Great photo. Did you stitch two photos together, or was this all shot in a single frame?

 

[NancyMoranG]

O. M. G !!
absolutely beautiful!! Please give more detail, how do you line up 11 shots in the dark? What program blends like this?
Am in the search for a great tripod, what type of he'd do you need to do this 'panorama' of 11 shots?
Such a newb, I can hope to get a shot like this 1 day.
Nancy

 

[runnah]

Nominated!

 

[jsecordphoto]

Nominated!

Thanks you!

O. M. G !!
absolutely beautiful!! Please give more detail, how do you line up 11 shots in the dark? What program blends like this?
Am in the search for a great tripod, what type of he'd do you need to do this 'panorama' of 11 shots?
Such a newb, I can hope to get a shot like this 1 day.
Nancy

It's not too hard to line something like this up. I have the Vanguard Alta pro 263 tripod with the SBH100 ballhead, it has a scale on the head so I just rotate 15 degrees or so for each photo. I used the photomerge function in photoshop cs6 to stitch everything together.

Great photo. Did you stitch two photos together, or was this all shot in a single frame?

11 shot vertical panorama stitched in photoshop

 

[Ec1981]

That is so beautiful!! Great shot

 

[leeroix]

When using such high ISO with a naturally grainy backdrop like stars, do you even use any noise reduction at all? or would that obliterate some of the star detail that you were after in the first place. Also, why f2.8? Wouldn't it be slightly sharper at a higher f stop? -I also understand that the stars begin to leave trails after about 25 seconds so maybe I just answered my own question...

 

[BrickHouse]

That's incredible!

 

[jsecordphoto]

When using such high ISO with a naturally grainy backdrop like stars, do you even use any noise reduction at all? or would that obliterate some of the star detail that you were after in the first place. Also, why f2.8? Wouldn't it be slightly sharper at a higher f stop? -I also understand that the stars begin to leave trails after about 25 seconds so maybe I just answered my own question...

I absolutely do some noise reduction. I'm using the canon 60D which really doesn't do well with high iso/low light, so I apply some noise reduction in lightroom and then a little more with topaz denoise usually. A good friend of mine has the 6D which is amazing in low light and he barely needs to do any noise reduction though. Yeah, like you said I shoot at 2.8 because I need to let in as much light as possible and anything past 25/30 seconds I'll get trailing. The Tokina 11-16 is pretty sharp wide open though

Thanks everyone for your comments! I completely fell in love with shooting at night when I first tried it about 6 months ago. Going up to Acadia National Park in Maine at the end of this month for around 5 days and can't wait to see how the milky way will look with basically 0 light pollution

 

[ReInvented2012]

This is awesome work man. I have a Canon T3i and would love to get something like this but I dont use photoshop (yet). I have been looking into a new lens (I have an 18/55mm kit lens now). I have also been looking into a tripod and/or telescope. Keep at it, were enjoying the view. Peace.

 

[yo13dawg]

Awesome scene