Last weekend, I was experimenting with long exposure night photography. I captured some images at 2 and 3 minute exposure. The moon was beautiful but messed things up for me making the sky a little bright. In a couple months, I want to try again with a new moon and longer exposures using the milky way to balance the composition.
The first was at "Arch Rock" and the second was at "Skull Rock". - Fred
I'm thinking that "Skull" and "Arch" are reversed, but regardless I really like both. I don't seen any serious problem with the sky being lightened by the moon, and meanwhile is seems to have cast a very nice light on the rocks themselves.
I agree with Dave, the skies in these look great and the lighting is very nice. At 2 and 3 minutes I would have expected to see more star movement in these, even at 17mm, which usually gives the sky a blurred appearance. These look tack sharp.
Nice work, Fred.
Fred, these are really nice , the focus is fantastic were you able to achieve that with the moon light or were these done on separate nights and focused before dark and then you waited for the stars? Regards, Dean
Love that first one and something I want to do, that is use a full moon to illuminate some Icons. I think this works better on reflective surfaces like you had in the first and less well on less reflective fine detail as in the second image.
You got two really cool star shots here. I like the detail in the stars, but also like how the arch and the Skull are lit up, it looks like you took advantage of the moon to light them up? I think the arch is my favorite.
Hi Fred,
This is an excellent - admirable - night shot of Arch Rock!
Within a 2 - 3 minutes exposure, stars may still look like points, unless when zooming in one may already see small trails, but the effect also depends on the particular region of the sky one is looking at: the closer a star is to the (north or south) celestial pole the smaller is its trail (compared to other stars in a greater distance). From this position in front of Arch Rock, I recall, one is looking up towards appr. northeast, hence, the pole star should not be so far away...
Anyway, I checked out your excellent evaluation and comparison of the MK III versus the D800 (appreciate a lot that you tackled and emphasized the "noise in shadows" issue, very valuable!, letting me ponder - very seriously - whether I should switch from Canon to Nikon or not sooner or later... ) - how about your experience employing the MK III side by side with the D800 and D800E regarding star trails (long exposures during night)? Which of them perform better regarding noise? Does the D800E apply maybe (more) moiré to star trails rather than the D800?
Volker
p.s. if you like check out my shots of Arch Rock and the adjacent rocks taken with the old 5D around 2,5 years ago (I like the view from a slightly different angle as well because there the rock resembles a skull): http://www.artlimited.net/image/en/345439 http://www.artlimited.net/image/en/320917
dsjtecserv wrote:
I'm thinking that "Skull" and "Arch" are reversed, but regardless I really like both. I don't seen any serious problem with the sky being lightened by the moon, and meanwhile is seems to have cast a very nice light on the rocks themselves.
Dave
Sorry for the mix up. Yes, the names were obviously inverted. The images speak for themselves!
You are right, I was been a little harsh on the moon light. It actually helped me a lot illumination the foreground.
Thanks for your comment!
Fred
wbrad wrote:
I agree with Dave, the skies in these look great and the lighting is very nice. At 2 and 3 minutes I would have expected to see more star movement in these, even at 17mm, which usually gives the sky a blurred appearance. These look tack sharp.
Nice work, Fred.
Wayne
Hi Wayne,
You are correct. Even 20 seconds would show a little trailing. I took 2 separate shots using the same exposure but tracking the stars in one of them. This seems to work well with simple foregrounds.
Fred
AMaji wrote:
Fred,
Very nice. Love the night images, give a different feel to these icons.
Thank you. This was my first time in JT and I loved the place. The best part is that I can get there in 2 hours!
The night sky is absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to go back with a new moon.
Fred
) - how about your experience employing the MK III side by side with the D800 and D800E regarding star trails (long exposures during night)? Which of them perform better regarding noise? Does the D800E apply maybe (more) moiré to star trails rather than the D800?