Night Sky

PixelRabbit · May 7, 2013

Ok so it's 3:29am and I just finished shooting and editing some shots of the night sky. They didn't turn out exactly how I was hoping, I think my exposures were a smidge too long and I ended up getting a bit of star movement, I did the calculation and I should have had almost 33sec with 18mm but I think I may up the ISO a little (it was at 800 I believe) and bring the shutter down by a few seconds next time around.

The first one was facing south over the pond and the second is almost right behind me from the first shot facing due north. On the second I used an led flashlight and lightly painted the tree, I really like the look but wish the composition was stronger, I will definitely be looking for a tree with nothing around it to try this again with the same light.

I'm going to TRY to overcome the overdose of caffeine coursing through my veins right now and get some sleep, would love to hear your thoughts for next time! Thanks for taking a look

PixelRabbit · May 7, 2013

Yikes, these softened up quite a bit after upload, I'll check that in the AM.

PixelRabbit · May 7, 2013

Note to self, don't post pictures @3:30am, judgement may be caffeine impaired, wait till morning! Ugh!

manaheim · May 7, 2013

PixelRabbit · May 7, 2013

manaheim said:

Mmm popcorn for brekkie

I even re read your guide C! And still ended up with meh *sigh* must try again.

HughGuessWho · May 7, 2013

I like these. But I think if you had opened up one stop, you would probably gotten a little more detail out of the sky. Good job, regardless.
Just for fun sometime, paint that tree on the right side of the first one with a flashlight real light. Makes for an awesome picture.

manaheim · May 7, 2013

PixelRabbit said:
manaheim said:

Click to expand...

Mmm popcorn for brekkie I even re read your guide C! And still ended up with meh *sigh* must try again.

ummm... I dunno. First, keep in mind my guide is really targeted more at urban scenes... I've never honestly tried what you tried here. And I like your results, but I think it missed by JUST a little.

SOME of your issues I think are in PP... I'd love to play with a RAW if you have one you can put up. Using the JPEG the best I could do is this...

A little curves, a bit of sharpening.

I suspect you have a lot more in that RAW than what we're seeing here.

Rick50 · May 7, 2013

I've never tried this either. I'm usually asleep at 3:30 AM....
I think they are a tad dark. I would even try a longer exposure.
Now light painting with a sky like that may be interesting.
And I'm pretty sure caffeine beats alcohol at 3:30 AM......

manaheim · May 7, 2013

Ok I played with Judi's file a bit...

My original rendition wound up being more broad-base on the color because I couldn't quite get the blue she had without muddying up the image.

Then it occurred to me to convert to B/W and THEN swing it blue, and I got this, which I'm quite happy with.

Overall, I think the image is a bit underexposed and that's generally a big problem with night shots, but she was at ISO 800 for 45 seconds... so she's on that threshold of getting potentially even more noise ... and longer star trails, which I think would be unfortunate. I would push it and try MAYBE ISO1200 and 60 seconds, but I wouldn't dare go much further.

Also I think a better quality lens would help here, but you have to use what you have.

PixelRabbit · May 7, 2013

Thanks Hugh and Rick, I'm definitely going to redo this one and tinker with the settings a bit

I used to have insomnia something awful and spend many nights up way too late, too bad I wasn't into photography then no caffeine required lol!

Bunny! Thanks so much for having a go at it ! You definitely pulled out more than I did and didn't lose the sharpness. I'm going to give this another go on a moonless night with the higher ISO and a more careful composition

As for the lens, le sigh, yes she aint perfect but I think with a little close attention to all the details she just might give me the shot I want

(I just might have to get you to edit it for me lmao!!)

manaheim · May 7, 2013

My pleasure. That was fun!

btw, doing a bit of a flashlight over that tree while you're shooting might also render you some very cool results...

And try stitching. Take the 50mm 1.8 and do a few exposures at 30seconds each. Go portrait and go from top to bottom. It MIGHT work.

PixelRabbit · May 7, 2013

So I'm curious, do you feel like you are talking to yourself with everyone wearing your avatar? lol I read my post there and had a hard time convincing myself it was my own post lmao!

I actually did lightly paint the tree with an led flashlight (very blue light hence the blue choice) I may paint it a little heavier next time around.