The Milky Way over Mt. Hood and white pasqueflowers taken from Elk Cove.
These dark images are tricky, because the viewing environment matters a lot. I process the larger version NPN allows first, for the darker background it is displayed on. I then try to get the smaller version to match, when viewed on the white background NPN uses. Sometimes it works better than others. I recommend clicking on the image above to view the larger version on the darker background; it is more what I intended.
And for those of you not into the whole brevity thing:
My prior camera was a Nikon D80, and the several times I attempted night photography with it the resulting pictures were pretty much unworkable. I probably would have had better success with it if I had stacked images, but I didn’t know about stacking at the time.
The D7100 I’m using now is a not-so-new generation camera with an APS-C sensor; while it is dramatically better than the D80, it still struggles a bit with low light compared to a new full-frame sensor camera. It survivable with the sky, but really struggles in the shadows of the land. To get around the camera’s limitation with low-light photography, this is a frankenphoto.
I took three foreground images around 8:30 pm, and blended them for depth of field. It was quite breezy out; I used the bright, indirect, light for a faster shutter speed and to minimize noise.
Although the foreground had indirect lighting when I shot it, the mountain was in full sunlight. I waited a bit and shot an additional photo of the background at around 9:00 pm to capture it in indirect light.
Leaving the tripod and camera where they were, I went back to camp and had a bit of a nap. I returned to shoot the Milky Way at around 11:30 pm. The sky is a stack of five images to reduce noise and increase clarity. I aligned the images by hand, which was a pain. In the future I need to explore, and learn how to use, stacking software. (Any suggestions on a good program for a Window’s computer??)
I always find processing night images to be a bit baffling. I really like the way images look when you can see the Milky Way brighter than with the naked eye, and enough detail and color in the land portion to enjoy the beauty lurking there. I would never argue that “that is how I saw it at the time” though; I always see it darker. In addition, I prefer more blue than what scientists say the true color of the night sky is. I suppose in the end it is a bit like black and white imaging; you start with what the camera records and work from there.
Nikon D7100
Nikon 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 at 12 mm (18mm equiv.)
Blend of three foreground images for DOF taken at 0.3 sec. at f/16 and ISO 100, one image of the mountain in indirect lighting at 3.0 sec. at f/16 and ISO 100, and five images of the sky at 20.0 sec. at f/4 and ISO 2200
Comments
19 commentsThe large version is definitely much better, and I really like it. The blue tint is noticeable, but OK with me, night shots look like that. I do see a couple small bright blue spots in the flowers that seem out of place. I think you have done a fantastic job in blending the multiple exposures.
The GIF is not cycling at all for me. I only see one dark shot.
Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI.
This is fabulous. There is so much to love here: the incredible milky way, the old man of the mountain flowers (western pasque, but prefer the more anthropomorphic name) looking at the scene, with the viewer seeing it from the perspective the the flowers. The purple on the flower tips adds some magic, which I like. The only suggestion I have would be cloning out the two very bright stars near the upper left corner. They pull my eye unnecessarily.
ML
p.s. how were the bugs?
On a gear related note, you might keep an eye out for the prices of the D750 or the D810. The D750 is priced pretty well right now at $1,796 at B&H. The D750 is a great little camera and does very well in low light. It has a nice balance of resolution, dynamic range and low-light performance all of which are beneficial for landscape photography. It would also handle very similarly to your D7100 so you wouldn't have to get used to a whole new layout. Of course, we could also see further price drops on the D810 once the D850 is officially announced or becomes available.
Shooting in dark is challenging, equipment helps a bit.
I tend to shoot night images at way higher Iso's and do all in processing.
Your approach works really well, a challenge as you say.
Overall, I feel the image needs some CW rotation, not just the FG but the mountain seem tilted.
The processing is outstanding, the blending is superb.
Ed
It's been about 3 years, but I tested Photoshop 6, Zerene Stacker, and Helicon Focus for stacking. In macro work, Photoshop ALWAYS includes some soft areas in the middle of sharp regions. You usually have to go to 1:1 to see them, but they are definitely there. Zerene required me to create TIFF files of all images and then delete them once the stacking was done. Helicon fully automates the Tiff creation and removal (at least in working from Lightroom). Helicon also will import and export .dng files. Helicon's touch up tools are useful, but can be amazingly slow at times. Both Helicon and Zerene provide 30 day trial versions for free.
Thanks also for your notes on the making of this image. It is appreciated very much.
Thanks very much for the long and detailed explanation of how you did it. I am very impressed with the effort this kind of image takes and certainly hope to gain the patience, skill and perseverance you shared. Your efforts were worth it.