Quite nice. I'm actually gravitating back towards wanting to shoot under more partially moonlit night skies. Nothing beats moonlight for long exposure illumination. Some of the best night sky shots you'll see feature a quarter moon or so. Sufficient to illuminate objects on long exposure while not washing out the sky. The summer milky way in particular is great this way. (sitting opposite a bit of moonlight)
onesickpuppy wrote:
I agree with wbrad....Fred...could you help explain why such little star trails?
I am working on a technique for making big prints from landscape night shots. When going 20x30in, I quickly realized that noise must be kept at a minimum and I'm getting good results with ISO 640 and about 3-4 minute exposures at 17mm. I first take a 3-4min exposure for the foreground and stars will be trailing like crazy. Without moving the tripod, I take another picture with identical exposure focusing to infinity using a tracking mount. In Photoshop, I blend the two together. - Fred
Feb 22, 2013 at 10:29 AM
David Leask Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Except for rock climbers and SoCal photographers, Joshua Tree remains little-known by most of the rest of the world. And it's a spectacular place, which you've discovered.
I love both of these images, Fred.
And the "nighttime" aspects make these shots even better.
Very nice thinking, planning and shooting.
Charlie
Is anyone else seeing that the first photo looking like an elephant with the eye in the left corner and the trunk with its mouth in the hole in the middle? Or perhaps I am just insane?
Fred Miranda wrote:
I am working on a technique for making big prints from landscape night shots. When going 20x30in, I quickly realized that noise must be kept at a minimum and I'm getting good results with ISO 640 and about 3-4 minute exposures at 17mm. I first take a 3-4min exposure for the foreground and stars will be trailing like crazy. Without moving the tripod, I take another picture with identical exposure focusing to infinity using a tracking mount. In Photoshop, I blend the two together. - Fred
Fred - I hope you will share your techniques for tracking and chasing stars ...
It was obvious to me this was a 2 picture blend mask.
Have you tried using a telescope x y z motor mount
My attempt at using such resulted in too much frustration and hardware.
Even thought of merging foreground with a pinhole made background.
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.
Jim
Thanks Jim,
The Arch shot was lit mostly by moon light. I did have a red-filter on my flashlight to paint it for a very short time though. From my limited experience, shooting very long exposures, even crescent moon lit, is enough to fill the foreground . The Skull Rock was lit by the moon and also my flashlight coming from the right side.
Fred
Fantastic captures Fred!! In #2 you can see a globular cluster with a nice tight formation of billions of stars.
Exposures are excellant.
Nice work...as always!
Dan
DSC01 wrote:
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
Dean,
Both images were shot at night at around 7:30 - 9:00pm. There was no twilight but since the moon was fairly bright, the long exposures were enough to lit the foreground on the frame. - Fred
Very nice shots Fred. I went to JT for the first time myself a few weeks back, hoping to do nighttime shots at these two locations. As my luck would have it, both nights I was there it was completely overcast! ARGH!!! Can't wait to go back for a second round since it is so close to home.
