Milky Way over Maui + second image added

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Richard Peters

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EDIT: Added a new image, one with less water as some found it distracting. Also, sky had better exposure in second shot.

Taken on my week on the Hawaiian island of Maui last week. I spent the whole week trying to get a decent shot of this but cloud cover kept me at bay right up until the final night, when I managed to get the kind of shot I was after, which was one including some foreground interest. In this instance it was the shoreline with the waves crashing on the rocks, which I painted over with a torch during the exposure.

I also did a write up on my blog about my efforts to photograph the Milky Way, along with more images, including one taken in total darkness with the D3s, hand held for 2 seconds at ISO 102,400 - crazy stuff. Check it out here.



New image:


D3, 14-24, F2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds
 
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That's amazing, i don't really like the rocks & water though; i think it would look better with that bit cropped out.
 
Thanks all :)

c4rv3r, there are a few shots with just the sky and thin line on the horizon in the link to my blog article. I find those ones a little bit boring though personally. To each his own though - thanks for the comment, appreciated :)
 
Fantastic! I checked out the ones at ISO 102,400 aswell, pretty damn decent for such a high setting in pitch black!
 
I like the whole picture. The rocks n water emphasise it was taken from the Earth.

Excellent work :)
 
Liking it as well including rocks - my only only only crit is .....


Could you clone out the 3 white spots though.... 2 at the bottom right on the rocks (just after your watermark signature) & the one on the horizon....

To me it spoils the picture... Sorry....

But an awsome shot and well done (y)(y)(y)
 
An absolute stunner of a night sky shot. Patrick Moore would be in paroxysms of delights over that one if he ever came across it.
 
Thank you all, very much appreciate the kind comments.
Trig's said:
Liking it as well including rocks - my only only only crit is .....


Could you clone out the 3 white spots though.... 2 at the bottom right on the rocks (just after your watermark signature) & the one on the horizon....

To me it spoils the picture... Sorry....

But an awsome shot and well done (y)(y)(y)
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No need to apologies buddy! The spot on the horizon is a light house. I thought about cloning out but kept it there to help give some idea of scale on the horizon. At high res it works better than web size though I must admit! Didn't even notice those two spots in the rocks until you just mentioned them lol
 
Great photo I want to be able to go somewhere like that to do the same one day, very impressive.
 
amazing stuff.. i love doing night/stary shots.. im not sure if we can see that sort of detail in the UK though!!

Lovely...
 
Richard Peters said:
Thank you all, very much appreciate the kind comments.
No need to apologies buddy! The spot on the horizon is a light house. I thought about cloning out but kept it there to help give some idea of scale on the horizon. At high res it works better than web size though I must admit! Didn't even notice those two spots in the rocks until you just mentioned them lol
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I thought it might have been & waswondering if it worked at either a larger scale or better rez....

Sorry for mentioning the 2 spots but my eyes keep being drawn to them when I see it:bang:

Cracking picture thou .....
 
Dare I say it....that is just perfect! :) And not just the wonderful sky, the foreground is superb too. (y)

How the devil do you know how long to paint the light on the rocks for.. and if it will be overexposed?
 
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I'm not going to add anything new, just repeat how stunning I think the image is, and well worth the effort you put in
 
This is an awesome shot Richard (y) We don't get t' see sky much in Blackburn so I don't think I could get a shot like this one here :LOL:
 
Thanks all :)

simmo said:
Great work one of the best images I have seen this year:clap:
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VERY nice of you to say!

buckas said:
Lovely shot, think it needs some more foreground but very nice :)

drew
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Cheers buddy. I wanted as much sky as I could get, but with 'some' foreground interest but not too much :)

New image added too in original post with less waves on rocks.
 
2nd picture makes it (y)
 
Wonderful captures... And only single frames, no stacking. Stunning detail along the lanes of dust :clap:

One day I will get somewhere with a proper dark sky.
 
What's the key elements in taking a photograph like this? can I do it with a 40D + moderate lens?

High ISO? Location?

I simply love this. Would I be able to get a shot like this up the mountains in wales?
 
Thanks all :)

absolute said:
What's the key elements in taking a photograph like this? can I do it with a 40D + moderate lens?

High ISO? Location?

I simply love this. Would I be able to get a shot like this up the mountains in wales?
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You need to get as much light on to the sensor in a short enough time to capture the stars without any movement. That length of time is determined by your focal length. The wider the lens the more time you can expose, but it's a very small window. Even at 14mm, 30 seconds was the maximum exposure before the stars would begin to blur from movement. At f4, ISO 6400 you would need an exposure time of 1 minute, which would give you very blurred stars.

This is why you need a fast lens and high ISO camera. A lower ISO and/or smaller aperture would not allow enough light to be captured in the time frame required so you would not get as much detail.

Wide field astrophotography is one type where you really NEED the right equipment to do it properly. You can stack multiple images at lower ISO, but if you wan't to include foreground elements I'm not sure how well stacking would work - I think stacking is designed more for shots that only include the sky, although someone with more knowledge on that may be able to answer in more detail.

Location is a big factor too and just as important. You need very very dark skies and to be far from any light sources. Even a town 20 or 30 miles away will emit light in to the sky that your camera will pick up over a long exposure. The mountains in Wales should be a good place to try it though, in fact I'm sure someone posted a Milky Way image on here recently from the Welsh coastline!

But at the end of the day, just give it a go and see how you get on. Set your highest ISO and biggest aperture, experiment with the exposure times and see what you get :)
 
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