Night on Sand Beach

Gallery: LandscapePosted June 28, 20173,837 views5 comments

My brother Ed and I made our first ever attempts at night photography on our recent trip to Maine. Using my Photopills app, I determined where and when the Milky Way would be visible. Unfortunately, there was also a bright moon which made it harder to properly expose for the Milky Way. With my limited PS skills, I don't know how to process to bring it out more. I also learned I could put my Rokinon 14mm lens on upside down and still shoot with it. I had this severe vignetting on both sides and couldn't figure out what was going on untill we got back to the car. I had to crop severely and this file is probably only about 8 mp.
Nikon D800, Rokinon 14mm F/2.8, 30 sec @ f2.8, ISO 3200.

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on June 28, 2017 at 6:48 AM

Very nice moonlit landscape, Michael. I like the the light on the rocks and beach to go with the night sky. The image is pretty clean despite the high iso and large crop. My only suggestion is to play with selectively darkening the sky. The sky to me looks more like a twilight sky than a night sky in color and light, and selectively darkening the sky may bring out the milky way way a bit more, but the sky as is has nice color and is attractive so I just suggest this as just something to try.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Lowe on June 28, 2017 at 4:07 PM

This came out rather nicely for our first attempt, Mike. I do like the warmth of the landscape along with Scott's suggestion for selectively darkening the sky. Now all we have to do is practice. cool

I think if we had had a quarter moon the milky way might have been a little more prominent. Anyway it is a keeper for our first attempt.

Ed

Registered on February 7, 2004, 414 Posts, 7115 Comments

Comment posted by Alberto Patiño on June 28, 2017 at 8:31 PM

I think that the Moon actually helped, by making the foreground much brighter than it might otherwise have been, and giving it detail that makes it more interesting.

Registered on December 2, 2014, 278 Posts, 1736 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on June 29, 2017 at 10:52 AM

Michael, this is a good looking result for a first try at night photography. I really like the details and eye movement in the land portion. The fact that I can see clouds along the horizon fits well with the brightness of the rest of the sky. My gut reaction is that the rocks in the middle distance are too bright, but I'm sure that is what the moonlight gave you. In PS, a good way to bring out the stars with minimal brightening of the surrounding sky is to dodge using a luminosity mask. Those are very easy to create in PS, Tony Kuyper has a good tutorial showing how to create and use luminosity masks here (luminosity masks). While you can post process this to get a different look, you can also adjust the brightness by waiting for a different moon phase, seven days earlier or later would be a half moon with the Milkway in nearly the same position.

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

Comment posted by gary phillips on June 29, 2017 at 10:12 PM

I think this is outstanding, Michael. I know next to nothing about night photography, but I really like this image. The light on the rocks does look a bit bright, but it's subtle enough. I might clone the bright light on the horizon and the bright reflection just below mid-frame. Beautiful.

Registered on October 24, 2013, 185 Posts, 4136 Comments