Geminid

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 14, 2012196 views9 comments

This was my first attempt at shooting a meteor shower...stood in the cold for hours to get this!! But it was a great learning experience and test of patience. I wasn't able to get that far away from the city, as you can tell by the light pollution, and my poor D200 doesn't do great at high ISO's(1000 is what i shot this on), so there is some pretty good noise. Tell me your thoughts!!

Thanks in advance for looking and for c/c

P.S. Any advice on shooting this type of scene would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on December 14, 2012 at 9:02 AM

How nice to get 5 meteors in a single shot. I would prefer this without the trees in upper portions, but I like having some context with the tree in the lower right.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Kah Kit Yoong on December 14, 2012 at 10:23 AM

Well you've achieved your goal of shooting a meteor shower. Technically the main issue is noise, bit hard to say if it could be improved without full tech details. While you been able to capture the phenomenon this remains a documentary kind of shot rather than a landscape image.

Registered on September 27, 2006, 636 Posts, 10682 Comments

Comment posted by Justin Richardson on December 14, 2012 at 11:21 AM

Nikon D200, nikkor 18-135mm@18mm, f/3.5@30sec, ISO 1000

Registered on November 18, 2012, 28 Posts, 134 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on December 14, 2012 at 12:55 PM

A fun shot. Well done for a first attempt.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on December 14, 2012 at 2:19 PM

Fun to see so many in one shot. The light pollution doesn't seem too bad to me. Are you shooting in RAW? It seems to give one very good control over noise. Anyways, this is definitely worth the cold hands/nose/feet!

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on December 14, 2012 at 2:22 PM

Justin,

Congrats on getting so many meteors! Someone mentioned on shot? Is this a single frame or multiple? Not that it matters, but since the stars aren't streaking, that means a relatively fast shutter speed (relative to night photography, say 15s?) Really amazing if you got this many in one frame AND that they're all going in different directions. Cool.

Noise is of course an issue, which is too bad. Otherwise, nice job.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Justin Richardson on December 14, 2012 at 2:34 PM

Nathan- yes,I always shoot raw, I normally shoot low ISO's because I've always seemed to have a bad noise issue above 400 with my D200, of course,I really haven't done much research on fixing that issue either. I even used the noise reduction feature on the camera..suggestions?

Lon- this was one LUCKY frame. I got one more shot with two in it, all other exposures had one. I used a 30 second exposure.

Any suggestions on technique for this type of photography and noise control would be greatly appreciated!!

Registered on November 18, 2012, 28 Posts, 134 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel Rappaport on December 14, 2012 at 4:52 PM

There's something about a good meteor capture that assures an emotional impact (with me anyway) so I'd class it with landscape art. The noise is unfortunate but not a deal breaker.

Registered on September 9, 2009, 294 Posts, 2006 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on December 15, 2012 at 8:20 PM

Like the colors and the way the branches frame the meteors.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments