Greek Milky Way

[benhben]

Just got back from a week away in Rhodes, Greece. Thought id make use of having clear skies for once to put the new X-T3 through its paces and try and photo the milky way. Struggled for any decent compositions and ive messed up the focus and exposure on some of the foregrounds but the milky way seems to have come out ok. I also dont fully trust the focus peaking and Samyang 12mm combination. I often seem to get soft results despite it looking in focus in camera.

I'm a newbie at astrophotography so still learning to focus and expose properly in the pitch black.

Fuji X-T3 and Samyang 12mm F2.

 

[benhben]

A lot of the sharpness and iq has been lost on the image compression and uploading. Does anyone know how to upload without destroying the photo?

 

[jfb]

What was your exif on these???

 

[benhben]

What was your exif on these???

Fuji X-T3
Samyang 12mm
ISO 3200-4000
20 Seconds Exp

They look alright on my laptop at home, but not great on here. Dont think I'm uploading them properly compared to some other images on here which still look pretty good.

 

[jfb]

Exif is fine and the sort of settings you need for Astro, so I would be expecting a lot more detail in the images. Do you optimise/downsize for posting on here? If single shots I use PS, but for batch processing I use iRfan view, as I can downsize, re-name 100’s of images very quickly for use on FB & here, size wise I normally use 1,600 pixels on the longest side as this also allows images to be used at Camera Clubs & is small enough to see but not too big

 

[GreenNinja67]

Stick 'em on Flickr and link them to here.

At least we can then click on the images and view on Flickr.

 

[Byker28i]

Fuji X-T3
Samyang 12mm
ISO 3200-4000
20 Seconds Exp

They look alright on my laptop at home, but not great on here. Dont think I'm uploading them properly compared to some other images on here which still look pretty good.

What f number?
I've a Samyung 12mm using it on a Canon 5D mk3. I tend to find sharp focus isn't at the infinite point but just back.
Good composition, items in the foreground always work well.

 

[jfb]

Further to the above just had a quick play on my phone & the image is really dark, have you calibrated your monitor recently?? This was a quick pull with Snapseed on the phone, but is possibly a better level??

 

[jfb]

What f number?
I've a Samyung 12mm using it on a Canon 5D mk3. I tend to find sharp focus isn't at the infinite point but just back.
Good composition, items in the foreground always work well.

Infinity will change slightly especially as we move into winter & it gets colder, it’s why some big lenses are white to dissipate the heat. A good trick is to use a thick wrist band to lock the lenses at infinity

 

[benhben]

Exif is fine and the sort of settings you need for Astro, so I would be expecting a lot more detail in the images. Do you optimise/downsize for posting on here? If single shots I use PS, but for batch processing I use iRfan view, as I can downsize, re-name 100’s of images very quickly for use on FB & here, size wise I normally use 1,600 pixels on the longest side as this also allows images to be used at Camera Clubs & is small enough to see but not too big

Ive not heard of this. Will have to try I simply exported from lightroom with the the max file limit set to 500kb and max pixel limit to 1024 or whatever the limit is on here.

What f number?
I've a Samyang 12mm using it on a Canon 5D mk3. I tend to find sharp focus isn't at the infinite point but just back.
Good composition, items in the foreground always work well.

Ive marked the actual infinity point on the lens in Tipex however these were shot using manual focus and the focus peaking tool in camera, with light shined on the foreground object. Ive had issues before with the focus peaking/manual focus with this lens looking sharp in camera then appearing soft when you review later. Probably issues with my technique as much as lens.

Further to the above just had a quick play on my phone & the image is really dark, have you calibrated your monitor recently?? This was a quick pull with Snapseed on the phone, but is possibly a better level??View attachment 136117

Thanks for this. My laptop isnt calibrated so it may be brighter than reality, however i'm not really a fan of overly bright astro landscape foregrounds. It isnt really what I saw at the time. Currently on a works computer and they do look darker than at home.

Looking back I think I would take an exposure for the sky at 20s F2 and then a second longer exposure for the foreground at a slightly lower aperature then blend to get some more details.

 

[jfb]

The brightness is a very personal issue & highly marmite. At the end of the day you are taking something not visible to the human eye, so it’s very personal about what works for you. I don’t mind bright but I struggle with pushed colour, so I have colleagues where their images are very garish with purple and reds - they don’t work for me

Picking up exposure using the 500 rule and your lens = 12 x 1.5 crop = 18mm full gram equiv / 500 = 27” and rounded down = 25” max. Blending is a great way to go & relatively easy, bring the iso down & really extend the shutter speed, also explore some simple LED lights (poundshop ones are good enough), I use a small Nissin i40 flash at 1/256 power can help out some detail in the shadows - one from me in Paphos - without the light the boat would have been black.