Night photography is humbling

[SquarePeg]

There is a ton I don’t know about astrophotography! This was my first attempt at photographing the stars/milky way. It was a practice run for a workshop I’m going to this weekend. Unfortunately there’s a ton of light pollution around here, and anywhere close to me. A friend of mine just bought a house across the street from the beach so when I was over there the other night and there was not a cloud in the sky, I thought why not give it a try. Using the PhotoPills app and a Creative Live primer, I attempted to photograph the Milky Way.

My results were OK, nothing great. I had to crop off quite a bit at the bottom due to all the light pollution and the fact that the Milky Way was not over the ocean like I had hoped but over the shore where there is a beach club that was having some type of function.

C&C always welcome. This was with my Fuji XT two and Samyang 12 mm

A thousand stars in the sky... by SharonCat..., on Flickr

 

[mountainjunkie]

Being your first attempt and dealing with light pollution, not bad! (But with your experience in photography I suspect you’ll pick it up quickly!)

Where are you doing the workshop?

 

[SquarePeg]

Being your first attempt and dealing with light pollution, not bad! (But with your experience in photography I suspect you’ll pick it up quickly!)

Where are you doing the workshop?

Thanks for the feedback The workshop is on the Cape (Cod). It’s a sunset into night workshop hopefully ending with a lighthouse Milky Way location if skies are clear enough. There is a bit less light pollution on the lower Cape/National Seashore area than here just outside Boston. Cross your fingers for good weather!

 

[mountainjunkie]

Being your first attempt and dealing with light pollution, not bad! (But with your experience in photography I suspect you’ll pick it up quickly!)

Where are you doing the workshop?

Thanks for the feedback The workshop is on the Cape (Cod). It’s a sunset into night workshop hopefully ending with a lighthouse Milky Way location if skies are clear enough. There is a bit less light pollution on the lower Cape/National Seashore area than here just outside Boston. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Good luck! I’m headed back to Moab for my second trip this year. Night photography is addicting. Lol

 

[SquarePeg]

Being your first attempt and dealing with light pollution, not bad! (But with your experience in photography I suspect you’ll pick it up quickly!)

Where are you doing the workshop?

Thanks for the feedback The workshop is on the Cape (Cod). It’s a sunset into night workshop hopefully ending with a lighthouse Milky Way location if skies are clear enough. There is a bit less light pollution on the lower Cape/National Seashore area than here just outside Boston. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Good luck! I’m headed back to Moab for my second trip this year. Night photography is addicting. Lol

Thanks. Good luck to you as well. Looking forward to seeing your photos from there. Here’s hoping for fluffy clouds during the day and clear skies at night!

 

[K9Kirk]

Nice pics for a first try, keep plugging away. I thought someone told me once there is some software or something that deals with light pollution but I don't remember what it was. Does anyone know? I'll try and research it.

 

[Jeff15]

Due to light pollution where I live this would be impossible for me. Nice one.....

 

[SquarePeg]

Nice pics for a first try, keep plugging away. I thought someone told me once there is some software or something that deals with light pollution but I don't remember what it was. Does anyone know? I'll try and research it.

Thanks I will look into that. I know there are a lot of programs that stack the star photos. One that was recommended in a tutorial I watched was Starry Landscape Stacker. I haven't attempted that yet. But hopefully soon!

Due to light pollution where I live this would be impossible for me. Nice one.....

I'm only 2 miles from Boston so can't do anything from home but these were taken about half an hour away in Gloucester at the beach. The issue I had was that the Milky Way wasn't totally out over the water so I had to point my camera inland a bit toward the beach club and coastal drive. There were cars driving by and something going on at the club so it wasn't dark by any means and also behind me on the beach was an Inn that had some lights on lighting up the foreground. In this one, you can see all of that as I didn't crop it out - just did my best to tone down and/or clone out the lights. Still, even though conditions were not ideal, I learned a lot and have a lot of do's and don't's for next time.

Good Harbor Milky Way by SharonCat..., on Flickr

 

[Original katomi]

Nice images, have fun now the evenings are cooling when you are not taking pic outside at night hang a cloth over
Hand a glitch over the camera to keep damp/dew off until you are ready to take next pic

 

[K9Kirk]

I just ran across this, I hope it helps.
a simple and effective way to remove light pollution: Astrophotography Talk Forum Forum: Digital Photography Review

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

This is one niche I haven't tried. We have an abundant amount of forest land that should provide sites with little or no light pollution. Just have to take some bear repellant.

I think you did well, and as you said, you've learned a lot from this outing. Looking forward to your next trips.

 

[K9Kirk]

This is one niche I haven't tried. We have an abundant amount of forest land that should provide sites with little or no light pollution. Just have to take some bear repellant.

I think you did well, and as you said, you've learned a lot from this outing. Looking forward to your next trips.

What an eye opener! I could simply walk out to the middle of the Florida Everglades with a can of BatGator repellent.

 

[PJM]

Very nice. I like the uncropped one. I look forward to seeing more.