Milky Way on an evening walk

GooGaBu

GooGaBu

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Not the line of photography that i have ever tried before - and these were just quick 'snaps' on an evening walk last night (ok, I did have a tripod with me).
Would be nice to hear from more experienced photographers of the night sky, how to go about improving this kind of photography.

Think maybe the foreground items (be it a house/tree) would be good.. just to give the night sky some sense of scale??
The tree branches in the first image just seem to get lost in the night sky... so maybe should try to include more of the tree to make more of a silhouette of it?

Critique and comments are more than welcome... and this sure was a change from the usual photography of fast moving sports :)

For settings :

14mm f2.8 Samyang lens - shutter speeds between 20 seconds-25seconds - ISO 2500-3200 - aperture f2.8

Plenty to learn... but that's all part of the fun!

Stars01.jpg Stars02.jpg
 
tHe first shot is a bit lost,but that second shot is a stunner, the colours and the foreground. Id be proud of it
 
Overexposed said:
tHe first shot is a bit lost,but that second shot is a stunner, the colours and the foreground. Id be proud of it
Click to expand...
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I am totally of a different view…
The first shot IS where I would like to be lost… though I know
it's cold and lonely out there!
The second, the way it is, does not offer the same pleasure
because of the burnt areas

In any case, I would suggest you these settings:
shutter speeds between… let it run as necessary - ISO 100~800 - aperture ƒ8
 
Kodiak Qc said:
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In any case, I would suggest you these settings:
shutter speeds between… let it run as necessary - ISO 100~800 - aperture ƒ8
Click to expand...

But surely that would give long star trails, which is opposed to the effect here?
I quite like the trail effect, but also am a fan of pinpoint stars with a foreground subject.
Alas, for me, living in London, light pollution means opportunities for this type of image is rare .
 
GHP said:
But surely that would give long star trails, which is opposed to the effect here?
Click to expand...
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Yes Gary, you are right… my response was not complete, thank you!
My purpose was ONLY to resolve some sharpness and diffraction issues
visible here and as such was incomplete. I hope this will not happen too often.
Thanks again!
 
Thanks for all the replies/comments/critique - all very welcome!
I think I remember seeing somewhere that shooting at 25 seconds is about the max you can have a shutter speed.. if you don't want the stars to start 'stretching'.
So that was why the f2.8 and ISO/Shutter speed I used...
Will hopefully get a chance to experiment with other exposures/apertures in the future...
As always, it is a bit of trial and error... and learning from advice and what I see myself ... let's see if the end results improve as time goes on.
(think next step is to learn to post process these correctly... as that seems to have a big impact on the final image)
 
It's my aim to have a go at some of these images next time I am somewhere other than London (home) with nice dark skies.
From my research, I have read about the "500 rule"
This states take 500, and divide by the focal length of your lens. This gives you the max exposure without stars trailing.
That would make it around 35 seconds for a 14mm lens.

And I also agree with you about the post processing. It makes a huge difference, especially if taking multiple exposures and adding them all together in layers.
Looking forward to having a go myself !

If my first attempts are as good as yours, I'll be very pleased.
 
Thanks Gary - need to have a read about the 500 rule... would be nice to lower the ISO just a little.
Hoping to see your pictures - once you manage to get outside London :)
 
GooGaBu said:
Thanks Gary - need to have a read about the 500 rule... would be nice to lower the ISO just a little.
Hoping to see your pictures - once you manage to get outside London :)
Click to expand...

If you're on a crop body, Nikon has a crop factor of 1.5, you'll need to divide the focal length by 350. The '500 rule' applies to full frame :)

I would say, if you are on a crop body, 14mm = 25 seconds, f2.8, ISO 2500 is about right, you have plenty of detail in the milky way, but as you say, a lot of the 'enhancement' is done in PP, which isn't my strong point either :D


Edit- Just thought I'd add, I've only made one attempt on the Milky Way, so I'm no expert, this was my effort which is far from perfect

https://flic.kr/p/zEoTwb
 
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Many thanks for the info in this thread. I'm a newbie to this genre of photography - let's just say any of my attempts to date don't even come close to the cracking images here.
 
Once again - thanks for the links Gary, not sure I came across those sites on my trawl through the net before venturing out.
Need to spend some time reading through them :)

Thanks Phil-D - working on a full frame camera, but sure the info about the crop sensor is useful to have here as well (not something we all would think automatically).

And Rod - thanks for the kind comments - just like yourself, total newbie into this genre of photography... and I am sure the location where I photographed helps a bit (dark night sky isn't always readily available outside everyones front door).

Hope you all enjoy some chilly winter nights capturing the Milky Way :)
 
Brilliant shot of The Milkyway. :)
 
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