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- Name
- Jon
- Edit My Images
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I have been experimenting for a while with taking shots of the Milky Way from the aircraft. It's not easy, due to the inch of laminated glass I am shooting through, and the movement of the aircraft.
This is my best effort so far, taken on the A7rii and Vivitar 28mm f2.0, from 37000 feet. It is two exposures blended in Photoshop (after noise reduction and some processing in DXO Optics Pro 10). Further editing in Photoshop. The Milky Way was shot using a 10 second exposure, ISO 2500, f2.8. Some slight movement (I don't get many keepers shooting long exposures from a moving plane) was removed using Focus Magic. The lights of Thessaloniki are shot at ISO 3200, f2.8, 1/5 sec, which as as slow as I can shoot without blurring the lights. The camera was mounted on a Gorillapod. Considering I'm shooting through an inch of glass from a moving aircraft, I'm quite pleased with this image. Everything in the image is in the correct place. Jupiter can also be seen upper left.
I am actually getting comparable results from the A7s and A7rii. The only reasons I can think for this is that the A7s shoots compressed RAW, and the files are less resilient to processing than the A7rii, plus the A7rii is also ISO invariant, whereas the A7s isn't, so I get less noise pushing the A7rii files a few stops in processing. When the A7rii shots are downsized to around 16mp after processing, they look as good as good or better than similar shots from the A7s. I might have to get the A7siii when it comes out.
Milky Way and Jupiter over Thessaloniki (from 37000 feet) by Jon, on Flickr
This is my best effort so far, taken on the A7rii and Vivitar 28mm f2.0, from 37000 feet. It is two exposures blended in Photoshop (after noise reduction and some processing in DXO Optics Pro 10). Further editing in Photoshop. The Milky Way was shot using a 10 second exposure, ISO 2500, f2.8. Some slight movement (I don't get many keepers shooting long exposures from a moving plane) was removed using Focus Magic. The lights of Thessaloniki are shot at ISO 3200, f2.8, 1/5 sec, which as as slow as I can shoot without blurring the lights. The camera was mounted on a Gorillapod. Considering I'm shooting through an inch of glass from a moving aircraft, I'm quite pleased with this image. Everything in the image is in the correct place. Jupiter can also be seen upper left.
I am actually getting comparable results from the A7s and A7rii. The only reasons I can think for this is that the A7s shoots compressed RAW, and the files are less resilient to processing than the A7rii, plus the A7rii is also ISO invariant, whereas the A7s isn't, so I get less noise pushing the A7rii files a few stops in processing. When the A7rii shots are downsized to around 16mp after processing, they look as good as good or better than similar shots from the A7s. I might have to get the A7siii when it comes out.
Milky Way and Jupiter over Thessaloniki (from 37000 feet) by Jon, on Flickr