Milky Way Over Broad Haven South

Gaz J

Gaz J

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Gary
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A very long session from 2300 hrs on Wednesday night to 0430 hrs Thursday morning.

Usually I take and process single images but for this one I tried a new (to me) method.

It's a stack of 7 images for the sky taken at ISO6400 and a stack of 7 images for the foreground taken at ISO 6400 and then the 2 stacks blended together.
The idea is, instead of using noise reduction to reduce noise, to use the random nature of the noise in each image to reduce it. There is a very noticeable difference between the noise in a single image and the noise in the stack of 7.

The 2 points of light to the right of the Milky Way are Mars and Saturn

Anyway, enough of that. Comments good, bad or indifferent welcome and thanks for looking.

Cheers

Gaz

Milky Way Over Broad Haven South
 
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Excellent image Gary. When you say 'blended', what method do you use to blend them? Also can I ask what f number you were shooting at and length of each exposure.

I've had a go at star photography but never got anything as good as this.

Thanks.

Pete.
 
Nice image, I've just aquired a Samyang 12mm from another forum member so very tempted to try something similar! Thanks for sharing!
 
Excellent, very well done (y)
 
Thanks all. Waiting for the next clear night now. Can only do one of these a week, not as young as I used to be. Need my sleep.
 
Very nice image. I need to try something like this myself. I wouldn't have thought of stacking several images
 
Superb! When I 'liked' this Gary I was only looking on mi lappy, looks even better on mi monitor, love the colour and detail you've managed to get out of the Milky Way (y)

Just one thing for me though, I would have cloned out the reflection of the two planet/stars? in the bottom right :)
 
Geoff Moore said:
Hey Gaz, how did you find the noise reduction in the stacked method against your normal process?

Regards
Geoff
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Hi Geoff

I shot the images at ISO 6400. I would say there was approx one and a half stops improvement by stacking. Of course in theory the more you stack the better the noise but there must be a point at which the returns aren't worth the effort.

Stacking for the foreground was easy, I just let PS do it. Stacking the milky way was a bit more time consuming as I stacked them by hand. Getting the main part of the Milky Way aligned was easy but out in the corners was a bit more of a chew.

I also made a correction brush to get rid of some of the coma in the corners and round them up a bit. All stuff I've never bothered with before but It's definitely the best result I've had.
 
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That is a stunning image Gaz, I'm surprised you managed to capture it all like that in the middle of summer, I didn't think the sky was "dark" enough.

The foreground really complements the sky and leads my eye into the milk way. It looks like you've managed to capture amazing detail in the sky and very little noise due to your processing style. I'd love to see what one processed image looked like against this image.

Do you use the Samyang on a FX or DX body? I was considering buying it for my D7100 but I read it's not great on DX bodies.

Stunning image, I can't wait to give it go myself again.
 
Steven001 said:
That is a stunning image Gaz, I'm surprised you managed to capture it all like that in the middle of summer, I didn't think the sky was "dark" enough.

The foreground really complements the sky and leads my eye into the milk way. It looks like you've managed to capture amazing detail in the sky and very little noise due to your processing style. I'd love to see what one processed image looked like against this image.

Do you use the Samyang on a FX or DX body? I was considering buying it for my D7100 but I read it's not great on DX bodies.

Stunning image, I can't wait to give it go myself again.
Click to expand...

Thank you Steven.

The Samyang was used on a FF Canon 6D which I bought specifically for night photography. It's a great lens for the money. Has a heavy distortion but LR has a correction for it. Compared to Canons 14mm it's a no brainer. I will dig out one of the single images before I stacked them and put it on here.

Its the time you need to be out to get it at this time of year that's the problem. I did a star trail of a local harbour recently and the sky still had colour in it at 11.30 pm. Then a cloud rolled in and ruined the hours shots so I gave up and then went back the next night even later to coincide with the low tide. So after 2 nights running getting home around 2am the novelty starts to wear off a bit.
 
Excellent astrophotography Gaz - expertly executed and topped off by a super composition. I would strongly suggest you enter this image in next years Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition when it opens again early in 2017.
In addition, I would also enter this on the NASA Spaceship Asterisk site - images that appear on there and show the universe from a different perspective are often picked for APOD.
James
 
Steven001 said:
That is a stunning image Gaz, I'm surprised you managed to capture it all like that in the middle of summer, I didn't think the sky was "dark" enough.

The foreground really complements the sky and leads my eye into the milk way. It looks like you've managed to capture amazing detail in the sky and very little noise due to your processing style. I'd love to see what one processed image looked like against this image.

Do you use the Samyang on a FX or DX body? I was considering buying it for my D7100 but I read it's not great on DX bodies.

Stunning image, I can't wait to give it go myself again.
Click to expand...

Hi Steven. Here is a single converted RAW file. Its uncropped and the final stacked version has been cropped and tweaked but has no further noise reduction applied.

1. SIngle converted RAW
Broad-haven-south

2. Stack of 7 images.
Milky Way Over Broad Haven South
 
jbw said:
Excellent astrophotography Gaz - expertly executed and topped off by a super composition. I would strongly suggest you enter this image in next years Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition when it opens again early in 2017.
In addition, I would also enter this on the NASA Spaceship Asterisk site - images that appear on there and show the universe from a different perspective are often picked for APOD.
James
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind words James. I very rarely enter my images in any competitions now but will certainly consider it.

Thanks again
 
Very nice shot - certainly gives you a perspective on how small you are in the Grand Scheme.
 
Great composition and nice detail
 
wow! I really love the detail and colours you've got, and you've composed it beautifully - the water and that tiny peak in the background make this shot work :)
 
Thanks all for taking the time to look and comment.
 
potential silly question here, could you achieve the same effect by using a lower iso? 7 subsequent shots vs one prolonged shutter opening. the fact that you can stack them however is a great idea though
 
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You're quite resourceful and surprising Gary, bravo!
 
123paradox321 said:
potential silly question here, could you achieve the same effect by using a lower iso? 7 subsequent shots vs one prolonged shutter opening. the fact that you can stack them however is a great idea though
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You can but then you would need to increase the exposure time which would result in trailing. I do have a tracking astro mount that would do it but you would still have to take foreground images as they would be blurred with the mounts rotation.

Its all experimenting to find what works best and what choices there are to get improved images.

Its not a quick process stacking them. The foreground was easy because I just used Photoshop to stack them as a smart object. The Milky way however took me quite a while as I hand stacked them using one layer as a master layer and aligning the other 6 individually to the master layer.
 
Kodiak Qc said:
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You're quite resourceful and surprising Gary, bravo!
Click to expand...

Thank you very much but I'm very much in a learning curve where this type of imaging is concerned.
 
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