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- Name
- Andy
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Here’s a shot of the Quirang on Skye.
Thick cloud eventually moved away at about 1am revealing a stonking sky full of stars and a risen Milky Way. I've had this shot in mind for about 8 years now and finally everything came together after many failed attempts. Milky Way position, no moon, clear skies, no people around etc. Helps to live on Skye!
There aren't ANY cars about at 1am, let alone any driving up the Quirang road. To make this picture I had to set the camera on interval shooting mode on a tripod, and shoot a frame every 30 seconds while I went and got my car and drove up and down the road. Due to the problems composing anything in the darkness, it took about 5 attempts to get a composition that worked and about 10 drives up and down the hill to get decent light trails. All while leaving several £1000s of camera gear at the top clicking away
A 120 sec exposure for the landscape was needed to get some texture and detail in it. Then a 15 sec exposure of the sky to get the stars decently pinpoint with the camera tilted further up to get more sky in. Bring together as layers and mask in Photoshop and I'm delighted with the end result. No stacking (I haven’t figured that out yet), but the Sony A7III I’m using seems very good, and the Lightroom AI noise reduction is pretty slick. I also tried this shot with my Leica Q3 but the lens isn’t wide enough. I could have done more stitching but I prefer being out and about than sitting behind the computer.
Keen to get the opinions from the experienced astrophotographers out there. I’m still quite new at this star stuff.
More Skye night time pics at www.skyeatnight.com
Thick cloud eventually moved away at about 1am revealing a stonking sky full of stars and a risen Milky Way. I've had this shot in mind for about 8 years now and finally everything came together after many failed attempts. Milky Way position, no moon, clear skies, no people around etc. Helps to live on Skye!
There aren't ANY cars about at 1am, let alone any driving up the Quirang road. To make this picture I had to set the camera on interval shooting mode on a tripod, and shoot a frame every 30 seconds while I went and got my car and drove up and down the road. Due to the problems composing anything in the darkness, it took about 5 attempts to get a composition that worked and about 10 drives up and down the hill to get decent light trails. All while leaving several £1000s of camera gear at the top clicking away
A 120 sec exposure for the landscape was needed to get some texture and detail in it. Then a 15 sec exposure of the sky to get the stars decently pinpoint with the camera tilted further up to get more sky in. Bring together as layers and mask in Photoshop and I'm delighted with the end result. No stacking (I haven’t figured that out yet), but the Sony A7III I’m using seems very good, and the Lightroom AI noise reduction is pretty slick. I also tried this shot with my Leica Q3 but the lens isn’t wide enough. I could have done more stitching but I prefer being out and about than sitting behind the computer.
Keen to get the opinions from the experienced astrophotographers out there. I’m still quite new at this star stuff.
More Skye night time pics at www.skyeatnight.com
