p.1 #1 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
With the permission of our moderator Jim I have dedicated this thread to all of us who saddle up as the sun goes down into the night to find and capture some of the most beautiful Nightscapes.
I am asking that we all share our best Nightscapes of the year or your favorite and please tell us how you made them.
Please list all equipment used ex. Camera body, lens, tripod, triggers, and anything else that was used to capture your photo.
Then please include how the image came to final print., ex software used, techniques, filters and anything else you feel can help anyone else understand how you got there.
I know this is more involved and time consuming then just posting a photo and waiting for a response but I think this will give more insight to the steps and techniques used to be creative at night and then to see the final result.
I know I can not wait to see all of the amazing Nightscapes and to learn how they were made.
The only rules are the photos have to be at night.
I will start off with The Arch,
Photo was taken with a Nikon D3 and a 24-70 f2.8 lens. I was actually not prepared for this shoot and was on a business trip when we decided to hop some fences and photograph the Arch. We actually went to Wal-Mart and bought a $13 tripod for the long exposure. I have since then invested in a traveling strong tripod. that fits right in my duffle bag. The way this was photographed was camera was set on the tripod , I used mirror lock up and a 10sec timer.( I now carry my pocket wizards wherever I go). Below are my settings.
Post processing included Photoshop Raw editor , once in photoshop I did some dust removal in the sky, I then used noise ninja and then sharpened it. Thats it.
p.1 #2 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
Very nice idea Shane, I can't wait to see others setups and approaches for night images.
My photo was taken of a pier at Piney Point Lighthouse in Piney Point, MD. A friend and I were out around the lighthouse for sunset, which didn't go well. I was using my D90, Tokina 12-24 F4, and tripod. This shot was at 3 minutes and 40 seconds, and I used a one second delay to allow for the mirror to lock up. I did use a flash light for a few seconds to paint some light on the pier.
Date Taken 2009-09-28 20:06:09
Camera NIKON D90
Exposure Time 3min 40sec
Aperture f/5.6
ISO 200
White Balance Auto
Focal Length 12mm (Tokina 12-24 F4)
Photo Dimensions 4288 x 2676
File Name Piney Point Pier I.jpg
File Size 4.15 MB
Post Processing: CS3 for a little saturation boost, cloned out two or three star trails I didn't like, noise plug-in Noiseware Pro I believe, and added a little unsharpen mask.
p.1 #4 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
25 minute exposure. I was using my Canon 17-40 f/4L, at f/4, on my 5D at ISO 400. I did have to apply a standard helping of Noiseware and painstakingly removed a jet trail across the top 3rd of the image.
p.1 #6 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
Hello all, while I seldom go out at night to shoot, when going to shoot a sunrise, I always plan to be on site while it's full dark. This particular morning, when I got to the beach is was raining so I just turned around and headed home. I was about 3 miles from the beach when 'my eyes were stared by the flash of a neon light' (with apologies to Paul Simon). The combination of very dark clouds in the background and the bright reflections on the rain wet asphalt of the parking lot was way too much to pass up.
D2x, 12-24 Dx at f/4, 7 exposure HDR - 1 stop increments, probably 1/60 for the shortest exposure, tone mapped in PhotoMatix, Neat Image at defaults, Ron Bigelow's Selective Sharpening in a layer.
p.1 #7 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
This thread is a VERY neat idea. Please consider continuing the theme, "How you took your best...."
Since moving to Aridzona a while back, I've looked forward to the summer monsoon season and the lighting it brings. My girlfriend at the time was also a weather nerd photographer and was nice enough to share one of her 'secret' vantage points a little ways east of Phoenix. A ~3/4 moon behind us provided light for the mountains and clouds. Upon stepping out of the car, we both thought, "Star Trails!"
Canon T-90
20mm nFD
Slik (the brick) DX700 tripod.
Fuji Provia 100 (I think - might have been Sensia)
Likely f5.6, shutter on bulb for about 6~7 minutes.
Scanned with FS4000 dedicated scanner. Out-of-box color management is awful, I've recently purchased a target slide and now have a decent profile with which to correct the dark, overly magenta scans. Color corrected re-scans of this series are on my other computer and I'm too lazy to go get them. These pics were given coarse color and level correction by eye to match the original slides as seen on a light table.
When shooting lightning, you never know quite what sort of fish you're going to land. Here are a few more from the same roll.
(I just whipped up some quick and dirty jpegs from the uncorrected scans I happen to have on the computer. The color balance will jump around a little. Also, longer exposures tend to accumulate stronger blue hues. The tighter scenes were likely shot with my 50mm f1.4)
Storm just getting going. Rather short exposure.
Not too shabby! (I'm pretty sure the source TIFF enjoyed massaged levels.)
Getting the 'Lightnings' to cooperate is always tricky! It helps to talk to them in a soothing voice.
Foreground clouds shaping up nicely! I like the 3d effect the movement and backlightning provide.
Too dark, as it turned out. I didn't have a timer and was guesstimating exposure times.
p.1 #13 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
jbr13 wrote:
Very nice idea Shane, I can't wait to see others setups and approaches for night images.
My photo was taken of a pier at Piney Point Lighthouse in Piney Point, MD. A friend and I were out around the lighthouse for sunset, which didn't go well. I was using my D90, Tokina 12-24 F4, and tripod. This shot was at 3 minutes and 40 seconds, and I used a one second delay to allow for the mirror to lock up. I did use a flash light for a few seconds to paint some light on the pier.
Date Taken 2009-09-28 20:06:09
Camera NIKON D90
Exposure Time 3min 40sec
Aperture f/5.6
ISO 200
White Balance Auto
Focal Length 12mm (Tokina 12-24 F4)
Photo Dimensions 4288 x 2676
File Name Piney Point Pier I.jpg
File Size 4.15 MB
Post Processing: CS3 for a little saturation boost, cloned out two or three star trails I didn't like, noise plug-in Noiseware Pro I believe, and added a little unsharpen mask.
http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Land_n_City_scapes/PICT6677_Fall_Maple.jpg
Technique: Poped up the flash, pointed and clicked. No Post Processing other than the JPG conversion.
Image Created: 2009:12:02 18:21:30
Exposure Time: 1/50 sec
F-Number: f/2.8
ISO Speed Rating: 64
Lens Aperture: f/2.8
Metering Mode: Pattern
Light Source: Flash
http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Land_n_City_scapes/ReflectionStationS.jpg
Technique: Had to lay down on the sidewalk with the pod all the way flat. Lots of people walking around so kinda embarrassing. About a 20 sec. exposure. I had to doge out the flare/glare from the flood-light (bottom-right) that was pointed directly into the camera lens. Dodging was done by a moving finger in front of the lens during exposure and in PS later at home. The shots without the finger or where the finger wasn't there long enough have the whole bottom half of the image washed out. Sharpened and smudge/bug removal from the window glass done in ACR and PS.
http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Land_n_City_scapes/Fountain_004.jpg
Technique: Exposure Blending - 1 shot for the sky (about a 2 min. exposure) and one shot for the fountain and foreground (about a 20 sec. exposure. Merged in Photomatrix Pro and color corrected in ACR. I was 1/2 down so steps so I didn't need to lay on the ground. I did several variations of the shot. 3 tone mappings and 2 exposure blends.
The other exposure blend: Here.
And the three tone mappings: Here, Here, and Here.
http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Land_n_City_scapes/My_School_sm.jpg
This is the school I taught CG Animation at for a few years. No real technique involved. Just a tripod blocking traffic in the left lane. For americans that would be like the right lane. 45 second exposure @ f8. Some of the lit areas at street level had to be selected (with feathering) and the exposure dropped a bit as it looked a little blown out (still does actually). Sharpened and JPegged in ACR/PS.
Definitely not my best but one of the firsts that I considered a keeper at the time.
Nikon N75 35mm Velvia Tripod MX2000 from Walmart
Crappy scan at 72 ppi
No photoshop
I just learned earlier that day how to shoot a scene in one exposure with out a grad and still have the sky and land still exposed correctly. Some highlights and shadows are beyond their limits but the shots I took earlier did not have the contrast I wanted. I guess you have to start somewhere. Wonder what the difference would be like shooting the same scene 7 years later?
p.1 #18 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
hugh wrote:
Hello all, while I seldom go out at night to shoot, when going to shoot a sunrise, I always plan to be on site while it's full dark. This particular morning, when I got to the beach is was raining so I just turned around and headed home. I was about 3 miles from the beach when 'my eyes were stared by the flash of a neon light' (with apologies to Paul Simon). The combination of very dark clouds in the background and the bright reflections on the rain wet asphalt of the parking lot was way too much to pass up.
D2x, 12-24 Dx at f/4, 7 exposure HDR - 1 stop increments, probably 1/60 for the shortest exposure, tone mapped in PhotoMatix, Neat Image at defaults, Ron Bigelow's Selective Sharpening in a layer.
p.1 #19 · Your Best Nightscapes and how they were made
Shane, I can give you a quick and dirty low down on HDR.
First you will want to use a tripod and get your camera attached. Next set your camera so take Bracketed shots. This will usually give you three shots, one even exposure, one overexposed by +1EV and one underexposed by -1EV. You can vary from that if needed and take several shoots as well. After you have a set of photos, you head to the computer and use a program such as Photomatix to combine them all into one photo. The darker areas will be pulled from you overexposed photo, and areas with stronger highlights will be pulled from your underexposed photo, while evenly exposed areas will come from you normally exposed picture. In Photomatrix you will also have a tone mapping process that lets you vary how strong of processing you like. Pretty neat once you get into it.
You can find out much more by looking into Photomatrix, and doing a goggle search on "How to do HDR photos"
No post processing other than the JPG conversion.