Astro - wide field/landscape foregrounds

gad-westy

gad-westy

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Graham
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Wondering how others work with this.

I'm pretty comofrtable with my approach and technique to capturing stars in the landscape but foregrounds can be a pain.

I sometimes do a little light painting but I often don't love the slightly unnatural look it can give though admit it can look great.

I also have tried to do a (very) long exposure for the foreground at low ISO to blend later in PS. Trouble is, this can literally take a half hour exposure. When I'm stood in the cold in the dark with only weird noises for company, I rarely have the will power to wait that long.

I've heard a few people talk about how they grab a foreground exposure in twilight which I guess could work quite well but must be a serious time commitment to then stay on without moving the tripod and wait for the dark skies.

Just curious to hear how others approach this. .
 
I know the problem! I’ve tried all the options you mention, although I’ve never needed half an hour for the foreground. Also tried shorter exposure at high iso.

For shots where the foreground lighting is a major issue, my best results have come from setting up early and taking the foreground shot in blue hour. As you say you need a lot of patience for that, basically need to camp out for the night.

With any of the composite methods blending is a pain if there is any movement in the scene like trees etc in a breeze. I generally try and avoid composites for this reason.
 
PS I didn’t try multiple speed lights, maybe that could also work to add some soft light?
 
I've used torches and a speed light. The issue I had is getting even light. It's ok if it's not too big or it's a solid lump. say a house or a standing stone but if it's a large irregular thing then it is much more difficult. I read an article and watched a youtube clip where a guy was using very low power led panels and longish exposures but haven't tried it. The link is below.

http://www.lowlevellighting.org
 
Wayne Els said:
I've used torches and a speed light. The issue I had is getting even light. It's ok if it's not too big or it's a solid lump. say a house or a standing stone but if it's a large irregular thing then it is much more difficult. I read an article and watched a youtube clip where a guy was using very low power led panels and longish exposures but haven't tried it. The link is below.

http://www.lowlevellighting.org
Click to expand...

Interesting article Wayne and confirms my own thoughts that lower power lights look more natural, might have to give LED panels a go.
My preferred tool to date is a cheap halogen torch with a zoom beam (£3 from ebay) which for the most part has worked well zoomed out to give a feathered beam and keeping it moving for the duration of the exposure.

I guess a couple of experiments to illustrate the plus and minus of this technique could be useful.

First up a well known landmark the lighthouse at Burnham on Sea which without the lightpainting would have resulted in the structure being just a silhouette in this scene:

Battle With The Clouds by Steve Bennett, on Flickr

Now the not so effective aspects of lighting a bigger area. This is Foggintor Quarry on Dartmoor and there were two of us trying to illuminate the scene. I was lighting the foreground with my cheap little torch, while my mate with a much more powerful (B&Q Worklight I think) was working with a zoomed in beam and trying to reach the far reaches of the quarry. As can be seen this is nowhere near as natural looking (Still fun though) :

Quarry Under The Stars by Steve Bennett, on Flickr

Hope this is of some use.
 
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Steve B said:
Interesting article Wayne and confirms my own thoughts that lower power lights look more natural, might have to give LED panels a go.

Now the not so effective aspects of lighting a bigger area. This is Foggintor Quarry on Dartmoor and there were two of us trying to illuminate the scene. I was lighting the foreground with my cheap little torch, while my mate with a much more powerful (B&Q Worklight I think) was working with a zoomed in beam and trying to reach the far reaches of the quarry. As can be seen this is nowhere near as natural looking (Still fun though) :

Quarry Under The Stars by Steve Bennett, on Flickr

Hope this is of some use.
Click to expand...

That pretty much mirrors my experience. Nun's Cross painted with a relatively low power torch.

Noisy Nun's Cross

One of my first goes at the MW on Great Staple Tor. This one is without any painting. I did the same shot with a speed light and a torch to light up the tor but it didn't work at all well given the size and varying distance from the light sources.

Milky Way over Great Staple Tor
 
Wayne Els said:
That pretty much mirrors my experience. Nun's Cross painted with a relatively low power torch.

Noisy Nun's Cross

One of my first goes at the MW on Great Staple Tor. This one is without any painting. I did the same shot with a speed light and a torch to light up the tor but it didn't work at all well given the size and varying distance from the light sources.

Milky Way over Great Staple Tor
Click to expand...
The lighting on that building is lovely, looks natural. How low a powered torch was it? How long did you flash it onto the building?
 
MCP84 said:
The lighting on that building is lovely, looks natural. How low a powered torch was it? How long did you flash it onto the building?
Click to expand...
I think it was my mini maglite with a led replacement bulb. It wasn't long, the shot was 25 seconds, the light was just quickly painted over the roof and front trying to avoid the grass.
 
Here are two composites with foreground taken in blue hour

IMG_0294.jpgIMG_0293.jpg
 
Thanks all for the replies. Just arrived back in civilisation after 2 days 'off-the-grid so not been able to read this yet'. Looks like some great info, I'll read and comment later.
 
LeeRatters said:
I'm very new to night sky photography. I even find finding a decent foreground a pain let alone lighting one.......
Click to expand...

This is true! I tend to a bit of scouting either in daylight or online so have a reasonable idea before I set out but actually composing in the dark is a right pain!
 
Wayne Els said:
I've used torches and a speed light. The issue I had is getting even light. It's ok if it's not too big or it's a solid lump. say a house or a standing stone but if it's a large irregular thing then it is much more difficult. I read an article and watched a youtube clip where a guy was using very low power led panels and longish exposures but haven't tried it. The link is below.

http://www.lowlevellighting.org
Click to expand...

Interesting.

One interesting technique I've tried recently with some degree of success is HDR with light painting. The idea is that you shoot several identical exposures wafting your torch around in each and then blend them as an HDR image later to smooth it all out. It does seem to work quite well.
 
It's a challenge whichever way you go about it, im finding I prefer 1st and 3rd quarter moon light to illuminate the foreground, whilst not washing out the sky.
Couple of examples...


Before The Hour by Geoff Moore, on Flickr

----


Moon Stones by Geoff Moore, on Flickr
 
Some nice examples here of how to work the foreground. I admit I struggle with this and need to put the effort into trying longer, lower iso foreground shots. I haven’t taken 30 minutes but have tried 4 or 5 minutes without success.

With my older 70D I did try this but the noise was horrendous, that camera doesn’t do well with heat!

I’m heading out for a night shoot tonight, so need to make a commitment to try this!!
 
When I shoot the foreground as long as it's not too complicated I shoot it at F4 iso 1600 around 4-6 mins. I like the natural look it gives as I cant stand light painting. I agree it's the last thing you want to do after a cold night. A good dollop of NR and its fine.
 

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