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Archive 2014 · Insomnia due to Milky Way

  
 
mauriceramirez
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


While camping in Kauai woke up about 2 am to a perfectly moonless, cloudless night.

In 40 years... Surprised by such vast, unpolluted depth. I hike past dunes eerily lit only by starlight, to ocean touching the sky. Back at camp I can't sleep--why waste this newfound and temporary level of night vision?

With no biting bugs or breeze, I set up my D800 + 24mm at f1.4-f2 and make a few exposures around eight seconds; I know my primitive tools and meager skills won't come close to capturing this unexpected gift of time and place.

I lay back into warm sand, eyes swimming in a field of stars, listening to waves and thoughts until dawn.




Insomnia due to Milky Way, Kauai



Edited on May 12, 2014 at 03:22 PM · View previous versions



May 12, 2014 at 02:59 PM
lionking
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


WOW!
What a great capture!

i wish i had you insomnia...

Andrey



May 12, 2014 at 03:02 PM
dgdg
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


I enjoy this insomnia as well. Just have to make sure you seem energetic during the family daytime outings!

Nice shot of the core you have there.

Curious why you only exposed the sky for around 8 secs? At that focal length, you could go about 20-25 secs, then choose the required iso for proper exposure. In other words, you could double your exposure time and reduce your iso noise by a full stop. You can always shoot the tent in another image and slap them together later.

David



May 12, 2014 at 03:28 PM
mauriceramirez
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


Andrey and David, appreciate it! David, that's a good idea, wish I'd known D800 was already so dirty at iso 1600 and to have done that.

I haven't done much landscape, even less dark sky stuff so figured 20 secs would introduce noticeable star trails.



May 12, 2014 at 08:28 PM
Evan Baines
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


Neat image!


May 12, 2014 at 09:01 PM
mauriceramirez
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


Thanks David, wow that's pretty good. You really brought out the colors, and I especially like the blues. The outer parts of the core seems more a nebulous cloud than a cluster, but I like the simplification.

What did you do in PS, multiply layer + soft light?




May 12, 2014 at 10:04 PM
FarmerJohn
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


Maurice, technical nits aside, that's a great image. Good work! Keep it up!


May 12, 2014 at 10:12 PM
JimFox
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


mauriceramirez wrote:
Andrey and David, appreciate it! David, that's a good idea, wish I'd known D800 was already so dirty at iso 1600 and to have done that.

I haven't done much landscape, even less dark sky stuff so figured 20 secs would introduce noticeable star trails.


Hey Maurice,

A cool looking shot, especially as it sounds like you haven't done much in the way of star shots before. I will second what David said about shooting at a longer shutter speed.

But I have to correct a statement you made here, the D800 does not shoot dirty (noisy) shots at ISO 1600. I have shot clean star shots all the way to ISO 12,800... it's all about a proper exposure. I normally shoot my star shots from ISO 3200 to 5000 without any noise. If you are getting noise at ISO 1600 then it only means one thing, and that is that you severely underexposed your shot. Which if you shot at only a shutter speed of 8 secs and ISO 1600... man.... you are going to be about 4 stops or more underexposed... So of course you are going to see noise or in your words a "dirty" image.

When shooting at night, you have to becareful to not trust what you are seeing on your LCD screen. because it's so dark out, the LCD even when a shot is very underexposed will make a shot look perfect on that little 3" LCD screen. You have to look at the histogram.... it's your friend.

Jim



May 13, 2014 at 01:17 AM
mauriceramirez
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


Jim, thanks for your help. It's great to know the D800 can do clean 6400 and 12,800. I've only used the D800 for advertising work with studio lighting (D3s for everything else). Don't think I'll be get back under an unreal sky like that for a little while though.

So 15 secs doesn't trail yet with a 24mm. Huh.



May 13, 2014 at 02:04 AM
peteygas
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


Trailing doesn't show up until 25 seconds


May 13, 2014 at 04:03 AM
XSpringer
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


I've always wanted to capture a photo like that.


May 13, 2014 at 06:07 AM
pointbob
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


mauriceramirez wrote:
Andrey and David, appreciate it! David, that's a good idea, wish I'd known D800 was already so dirty at iso 1600 and to have done that.

I haven't done much landscape, even less dark sky stuff so figured 20 secs would introduce noticeable star trails.



camping at polihale?



May 13, 2014 at 11:45 AM
dgdg
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


nice color correction.

David



May 13, 2014 at 11:58 AM
alatoo60
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Insomnia due to Milky Way


I like the simplicity of this composition, in this case, less is more. Beautiful.

Sasha.



May 13, 2014 at 03:17 PM





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