Starry skies of Staffordshire

jpw

jpw

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John
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A few shots of the stars over Leek, Hen Cloud and The Roaches. It was a very clear night so tried to make the most of it. A full-ish moon behind and to the left of the camera helped with the landscape but not so much with the stars - will have to try again with no moon.

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ISO 200, 24mm, f2.0, 15sec

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ISO 800, 24mm, f1.8, 6sec

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ISO 800, 24mm, f1.8, 6sec
 
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Penguin said:
Great pictures, 1 has to be my fav with all the lights out in the distance and the sky is perfect :)
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Thanks, it is my fav as well. Never thought I'd make Stoke look good, but there it is aglow in the distance :LOL:

I've just realised the 3 pics could have made a nice panorama if I'd thought about it at the time as they all overlap left to right :thinking:
 
Wow,these are fantastic,i never get skys like this.:)(y)
 
I like the combination of the skies and the towns/land. You can still see colour in the land too which adds something instead of it being just a silhouette.
 
Great pics John, No 1 is my fave (y)

Always wanted to do a shoot like that but was'nt brave enough to go up there on my own!
 
Thanks chaps, we've had a few clear nights here lately and another tonight, off out for some more now!
 
If you go up towards mow cop, then off east there is a parking bay there looking west north west and offers some lovely lovely views at night.
 
Very very nice...the first one for me stands out, not only for the clarity of the stars but the fact you can clearly see the constellation Orion, centre frame, and, down to the left Sirius (the 'Dog' star) which is the brightest star in the night sky!

Fantastic capture! (y)
 
Very nice... has to be #1... Orion stood proud over the landscape (the nebula is there), the Hyades up and right, Sirius down and left.
 
Superb!, would love to know you setup and exif , if you'd care to share?
 
Excellent shots, no 1 is the best though. Would be interested in the exif
 
Wow, thanks for all the comments! I had thought I'd left the EXIF on these but possibly not, I'll have a look later when I'm home and update the OP with the info. They are all with the 24mm 1.4G on D700, I was experimenting with best combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed so they could well be all different. I'll have to try the panorama I think, might have problems with the vignetting though as never done a pano at night and with wide apertures...

If you go up towards mow cop, then off east there is a parking bay there looking west north west and offers some lovely lovely views at night.
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I actually went up to Mow Cop a couple of nights ago, before the moon had risen and got some very starry skies indeed - will update thread with results soon as I have processed them. I know the parking bay you mean and have thought about trying there, will give it a go at some point.
 
Mow Cop shots from the other night - tried a different WB setting & other alterations in LR to get a more 'dark' sky rather than tinged with blue. The moon was not up, so the light is mainly from the city (and security lights behind the castle). EXIF should be intact, if not it is listed on the 500px site at 500px.com/jpwilliams

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I am loving these shots I posted a thread yesterday same sort of idea but am struggling with the post processing to bring out the stars do you have any tips I am a complete novice when it comes to photo shop. I have read a bit about stacking dark frames but don't really understand it!!!!
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Your pic seems fine to me, I just fiddle with the controls in Lightroom until I'm happy with the results, it's a combination of white balance (most on this page are 2500K), contrast, and exposure basically. And a fair bit of dodging on the foreground details as well - you can see a faint white outline around the castle and rocks on the last one where I've not done it too neatly. On these I've also pushed the blue luminosity up to 100 and pulled the blue saturation down - when the luminosity goes up stars suddenly appear like magic.
 
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Love the lastest additions.
That last one inparticular is amazing!
Have you ever thought about doing stratrails at these locations?
 
Micky_st said:
Love the lastest additions.
That last one inparticular is amazing!
Have you ever thought about doing stratrails at these locations?
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Thanks Michael,

I have certainly thought about startrails but lack the patience to sit around waiting! It's certainly a goal but would probably be best on a clear summer night when it's not too cold and windy.
 
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