First attempt at a Milky Way shot

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This is my first ever go at night photography, inspired by some of the work on this very forum. I spent some time reading up online to prep myself so that I would at least have some idea, so armed with some information from lonely speck and the photopills app, I planned to try this out on my holiday in the Outer Banks, NC a couple of weeks back.

I figured I had a much better chance of a dark sky than I would do living in between Baltimore and DC and with no need to get up for work for a week it seemed like a good idea to give it a go. I tried over two different nights. The first attempt wasn't great in terms of images, but I did learn from the experience and the second night went better. The light on the horizon is the (excellently named) town of Nag's Head, to my eyes it wasn't that bright - but the impact it makes on the image is striking. I also know that the compositions isn't brilliant in terms of additional interest - but I have a good excuse for that one. Unfortunately, on day one of my holiday, I managed to sprain my ankle so badly that I was on crutches, so my original plan to drive 30 mins or so south and thus remove Nag's Head from the equation didn't happen and I was limited to where I could hobble to at 0130 in the morning. I thought it worth cracking on just for the practice/experience though.

This is made up of 8 shots stitched together in LR, its not a perfect stitch but I am certainly no expert and haven't yet explored any other software which may do a better job.

milky Way Pano by k_hellis, on Flickr

Things I learned:
  1. Basketball is dangerous. I should stick to UK sports.
  2. It needs to be REALLY dark. Even the light from a small town, in the distance can have a dramatic effect on a long exposure at night.
  3. I can't use the Sony PlayMemories app on my iPhone if I want a RAW file (or so it seems, all of my night stuff where I used my phone as a remote only captured JPEGs)
  4. I need to explore better software for creating panoramic images.
  5. This is much harder than some of you make it look. I have no idea how to capture images that are the equal of some I see here. I need more practice.
  6. My wife doesn't think that being outside for an hour taking photos in the middle of the night is a legit excuse for making her get up with the kids in the morning.
I am heading to California in a couple of weeks and should hopefully have some more darker skies to work with, so I would be grateful for any thoughts, hints, tips or other feedback that might help me do better.

Thanks for looking.

K.
 
I like this, nicely done for your first attempt. It is amazing the light even small towns can generate on a 30 second exposure. Look for how you can use it, maybe to silhouette trees or other objects.

It really is all about planning, practise and getting to know how to get the beat out of your camera list and PP. The more you shoot the better you will get.

I suggest using Microsoft ICE for panorama's. I have found it recently and it knocks the socks off lightroom for pano stitching, only available for windows. I still use lightroom for everything else.
 
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