Headed to Big Sur this morning pre-dawn hoping to catch some stars before sunrise. Inspired by other recent night shots I have seen by other photographers I thought I'd give a moonless night another go.
This is fun stuff. But I am definately still experimenting with the darkest nights. It had just rained and the stars were really bright. And I saw several shooting stars while taking these.
Anyway this was a composite of two images. The first was 1 hour before sunrise - 30 secs, f4, ISO 2500. The second 45 minutes later - 30 secs, f4.5, ISO 100, 5DII, 17-40L. This type of shot really is pushing the limits of the 17-40L. This time it seemed to do better than others. But I did have to push the exposure up a stop during raw conversion. So there was definately noise to deal with. But for this lens I am pretty happy with the results especially wide open.
That's pretty cool, Derek! Great star fields....Pleides, Hyades, Orion and Canis Major easily recognizable.... and good work on the blend....looks quite natural.
Very nice and the blend works for me.
Boy, does this make you feel small (in a good way).
Have thought about doing something like this.
Thanks for posting
Dan
Stunning image Derek - I keep hoping I can capture a scene like someday but so far I have yet to be anywhere near the right time and place to make it happen.
I am still experimenting with these darkest of nights. But I think this is progress in the right direction. Using the staggered foreground frame was an idea I got from Floris on NPN. Anyway I will probably use dark frame subtraction next go out to help minimize noise.
XFBO, the reason I used ISO 2500 was out of necessity. Dark skies are the goal which means it is really dark out - so dark that you can't even see things a few feet in front of you when walking. When it gets that dark you need to brightest, widest lens you have - for me that is the 17-40L/f4. At 17mm, f4, ISO 2500, 30 seconds this image was still at least 1 stop underexposed. So shooting at ISO 3600 may have been better. But obviously the higher ISO you go the more noise. So it is a trade off. If I wanted star trails I could just shoot for 10 minutes+ at lower ISOs. But I am going for non-trail shots.
Thanks for the comments everyone. And I appreciate the feedback on the sky too. Now that you mention it it does seem to have a bit too much purple. So I'll work on that after work tonight. Night sky color balanace is really tricky to get right, even after the fact during RAW conversion. I may have to set the color manually next time.
I am really looking forward to trying this again when we get some more clear nights. it seems like each time I go and experiment I learn a little more.
I love the STARRY sky and the interesting foreground.