Kory Lidstrom Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Jeffrey wrote:
That's a fine image, Kory.
Thanks, Jeffery.
Maritan wrote:
Great picture. Would you mind sharing the camera settings? Did you have to take more than one picture to get this? I'm still learning how to get impressive shots like this.
No problem. When shooting star scenes, here are THE settings most people use (including myself on this image): f/2.8, ISO 6400, 20 seconds, 16mm.
Why 16mm? Because you want to shoot at a very wide angle, otherwise the stars will start to trail from the movement of the night sky. The wider, the better. I use 16mm because it's the widest lens I have.
Why f/2.8? Because, obviously, it's a fast aperture, but, more importantly it's the fastest aperture commonly found on wide angle lenses. IF you are lucky enough to have a wide angle that's f/2 or f/1.4, then you can use that, too. Just remember: at such open apertures, depth of field is very limited, so compose accordingly.
Why 20 seconds? Because it's about as long an exposure as you can go without trailing the stars. If you are facing Polaris, sometimes you can get away with a bit longer.
Why ISO 6400? Because it's the fastest ISO on most cameras that doesn't introduce boatloads of noise. Some cameras are on the near horizon that will allow for much faster USEABLE ISO's which will change the game completely, allowing one to use much slower shutter speeds than 20 seconds, which will in turn allow the use of focal lengths much longer than 16mm., which will allow for different types of compositions.
Believe it or not, this is all from ONE exposure. Coming out of the camera, the sky looks washed out and grey. THE KEY to processing the sky is to burn down the shadows in the sky, which will make it black without changing the stars. Then dodge up the highlights, which will makes the stars brighter. When you do this, remember to select the sky and ONLY the sky so that you don't end up affecting the land. The foreground only needed minimal processing: just some dodging and burning to taste.
Hope that helps.
dgdg wrote:
We don't often have perfect light painting provided for us. Excellent job of using it.
David
I know, right? Those were my thoughts exactly.
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