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Robert Watcher

Well-known member
A field of photography that I have never ventured into, is photographing the stars and skies at night. After spending hours and hours sitting and waiting on a couple of star trails a few nights ago to see if I could do it - and to figure out exposure timing, camera placement related to the skies, and where I want to go in the future with composition —— the skies were clear tonight and I headed out into the back of the property where we are staying, aimed my camera at the Milky Way and snapped three shots. The nice thing with this compared to startrails, is that the exposures only last about 20 seconds.

This is my beginner result from tonight, that should help me recognize how and where I can improve and get more dramatic results in the future.


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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This is a very impressive beginners first step!

Kudos Robert!

Can you simply describe your set up? How did you know where to aim?

What are these trucks in your location?

Did Anne stay at home?

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
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Any use of filters this time and what if any post processing?

Do you know enough yet to recognize what is still achievable that would be an i
Provement?

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Searching under “Milk Way Photogrqphy Editing” gives lots of interesting Lightroom and Photoshop processing options that bring out beautiful structure that can be hidden in one’s image. This is just one example! But I am not advocating any need for altering your picture.

Just you have whetted my appetite for how these images might be processed....or not!

Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Anne’s family owns a water well drilling company. When home we stay at her brother’s home. The equipment in deep in the backyard. Nice and dark and knowing that the Milky Way is visible roughly in the south, I walked back and used the trucks to add interest. I set up the tripod with the aperture wide open at f2.8 and picked the ISO so that I would have a proper exposure in around 20 seconds. Using Olympus’ Live Time feature (different from Live Composite), I was able to watch the exposure build on the screen and stop the exposure when the frame was fully exposed. I shot in Tungsten white balance for a bluer look.I processed the pic in Snapseed using the typical Tools that I use on images to intensify the sky. No filters or presets.


these are two others that I took at the same time. Not sure what kind of satellite or plane shot across my frame, but it is cool too. For the startrails I gave up after an hour and a half because clouds came in an obscured the stars. For this shot I used Live Composite and light painting with my iPhone flashlight to lift the trucks out of the darkness.


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Robert Watcher

Well-known member
This was my first startrails a couple of nights ago, when I was facing more north - providing the circular rings. I tried lighting the trees with my iPhone but the light only reached so high And so the tops are dark. This was around 3-1/2 hours long exposure. My battery died a few minutes before I got outside to check. Fortunately the image was saved at whatever state it was at, but didn’t benefit from the long black exposure for noise reduction that follows the completion when the shutter stops the exposure. Olympus Live Composite mode. I can understand how this type of photography can get addictive.

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