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alan72

alan72

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Alan
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Took myself off to stonehenge last Thursday night. Caught the crescent moon setting over the stones before shootng the milkyway. I was surprised just how easy it actually was to get there, park and walk along the path to just set up and shoot. I'd have done it a long time ago if I had known!!!! Thanks to everyone who commented on the other thread.

The moon was shot with the canon 70-200 at 100 and 120 mm. The milkyway shot with the tamron 24-70, f4, ISO 1000, 2 minutes tracked for stars and the same untracked for foreground. I didn't take any unracked shots. I learned a lot setting up, i think i actually under exposed a bit so need to get my head around longer exposures settings, but I am quite pleased with the sharpness of the set up and how easy it was to actually align. I've just purchased a lens heater, another kearning! it was great watching the mist roll through until i realised my lens was fogged up!!!

There were quite a few other photographers, ideally i would have focussed on the stones for the foreground shots but i didn't want to annoy anyone else by lighting them up with my torch.

The shot with the moon overhead is a blend of 2 exposures, one for the foreground and one for the moon.

I see a lot of tracked shots where the foreground seems very bright, I admit I personally think it's a balance, you want foreground detail but also these are night photo's so it should reflect that to some degree.

Once we get past the full moon hopefully we will have some clear skies again at the start of August when we get back into darkness.

BI4A2788-Edit by Alan, on Flickr

BI4A2836-Instagram-2 by Alan, on Flickr

BI4A2924-Edit by Alan, on Flickr

BI4A2913-Edit by Alan, on Flickr
 
No. 3 & 4 are the picks for me although No.1 is the better of the 1st 2 shots but I would personally get rid of that info table/bench whatever it is shinning away in the foreground.
 
#4 for me :)
I am glad you managed to get there and set up :)
on a day with good weather you should find some company going by the past experience posted on this forum.
I went on a day with a less than idea weather forecast, but the risk paid off for me. Clearly no one else was willing to take the same risk as me.

Edit:
just realised you have a f/2.8 lens. why not use it wide open?
 
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Nice shots. I do like the exposure levels & details of the last image over the others I think. Not to say the others aren't good also mind you!!

We also picked a busy night when we went - I think it was a Friday! I also didn't focus on the Stones for the foreground but they came out okay.
 
LeeRatters said:
Nice shots. I do like the exposure levels & details of the last image over the others I think. Not to say the others aren't good also mind you!!

We also picked a busy night when we went - I think it was a Friday! I also didn't focus on the Stones for the foreground but they came out okay.
Click to expand...

even on the 35mm f1.4 the stones were in focus at f1.4. don't really need to focus for them as they are far enough for wide angles to keep them sharp.
 
nandbytes said:
#4 for me :)
I am glad you managed to get there and set up :)
on a day with good weather you should find some company going by the past experience posted on this forum.
I went on a day with a less than idea weather forecast, but the risk paid off for me. Clearly no one else was willing to take the same risk as me.

Edit:
just realised you have a f/2.8 lens. why not use it wide open?
Click to expand...
I went back on Saturday night aiming to improve, the forecast was promising and after I drove through an hour of clear skies towards the moon, the clouds appeared in the last 10 minutes!!! The only cloud in the south of England was over me at stone henge!!!!
 
alan72 said:
I went back on Saturday night aiming to improve, the forecast was promising and after I drove through an hour of clear skies towards the moon, the clouds appeared in the last 10 minutes!!! The only cloud in the south of England was over me at stone henge!!!!
Click to expand...

Awwwww. Crap!! Did you not wait it out?
 
3 & 4 are superb.

Re that cloud. I recall being at Newton Meadows, near Bath, waiting for a steam loco to pass by. I was quite a way off in a field overlooking the track so I had a good overview and would get the bright yellow rape seed flower field in and I arrived an hour before it was due and the sky was blue..not a cloud in sight ....until... :D. It was just that one cloud too but it large enough to take the light down appreciably and it took 10 minutes to pass over during which time the train went through :rolleyes:
 
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