Any night shooters here?

[michael13]

Every fall, I make a road trip to the desert southwest with my camping and photo gear, always looking for new locations with dark skies and interesting piles of rocks to photograph. In October I'll be visiting Coal Mine Canyon, AZ, Goblin Valley in Utah, and Esmeralda Badlands in Nevada.

Do you guys know of other good places with nearby boon docking/camping areas? I'm attaching a few examples of the kind of locations I like ...

Thanks!

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Check in with CarlD and Happyjax... They’re both night shooters.

 

[Happyjax]

Michael,

Love your shots. Having not been to the west yet I can not help with locations.
I will be interested in where you go though so I can add those places to my list!

Keep up the good work

HJ

 

[knoxswift]

I've been working at night shots. Still trying to figure out the best settings on my camera.


Valley of the Gods and Navajo National Monument.

 

[Smokecreek1]

Ya know, on your way down or back and if the smoke clears, you might check out Res "C" on the lava bench on the Modoc NF. It is known for it's great night shots of the sky and no nasty city lights. Easy access from 139 or 395 has a prim cg and not many people 'cept day fisherman. I camp there allot myself-like to hear coyotes at night! West side road of Smoke Creek desert from Gerlach to Sand Pass also good area for shooting stars and neat rock formations!

Smoke

 

[Happyjax]

I've been working at night shots. Still trying to figure out the best settings on my camera.

20180825_093059.jpg

FB_IMG_1535725140381.jpg

Valley of the Gods and Navajo National Monument.

Knox,

Your exposures are too long. Use the 500 rule. Divide 500 by the focal length of your lens. If you are shooting crop you have to add 50% to your focal length.

So a 35mm lens on a full frame camera would be 14.2 seconds. On a crop sensor it would be 9.5 seconds. (35 +17.5 = 52.5)

If you are shooting with a phone good luck figuring that out...lol

Wider lens gets you more time. Shorter time requires faster ISO or wider aperture.

Good luck

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Another secret is to take photos (locked down on a tripod) at different ISO. So foreground at a high ISO to bring out details, then shoot the sky at a lower ISO to have crisp stars. Load the images as layers into photoshop, and mask out the areas in each layer/image that detracts from the composite.

Here’s an example

 

[knoxswift]

Knox,

Your exposures are too long. Use the 500 rule. Divide 500 by the focal length of your lens. If you are shooting crop you have to add 50% to your focal length.

So a 35mm lens on a full frame camera would be 14.2 seconds. On a crop sensor it would be 9.5 seconds. (35 +17.5 = 52.5)

If you are shooting with a phone good luck figuring that out...lol

Wider lens gets you more time. Shorter time requires faster ISO or wider aperture.

Good luck

Thanks for the tips. I have a fixed lens so can't change that out. I was wondering if I should use higher iso and shorter times. The stars are elongated...
Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

 

[Happyjax]

Nice shot Sage! Now I know the secret!

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Nice shot Sage! Now I know the secret!

Some details... the shot is on my Flickr acct if you want to check EXIF.

“Orion and the Harmony Borax Works
A night shot of the Harmony Borax works in Death Valley. Orion is directly over the mill. Lighting was with a small LED lantern and orange filter. Two exposures, ISO 1600 for the foreground, ISO 400 for the stars, hand blended in PS CS 6. Taken with a Nikkor 24mm PC E at f11 and 20 seconds.”

 

[Happyjax]

I thought there might be more than higher ISO..... I'll check out Flickr!

 

[michael13]

Ya know, on your way down or back and if the smoke clears, you might check out Res "C" on the lava bench on the Modoc NF. It is known for it's great night shots of the sky and no nasty city lights. Easy access from 139 or 395 has a prim cg and not many people 'cept day fisherman. I camp there allot myself-like to hear coyotes at night! West side road of Smoke Creek desert from Gerlach to Sand Pass also good area for shooting stars and neat rock formations!

Smoke

I am planning on stopping at the black rock playa, that's close enough for me to check it out. Thanks for the tip! The res would be a good place to try for a surface reflection of the sky.

 

[michael13]

Another secret is to take photos (locked down on a tripod) at different ISO. So foreground at a high ISO to bring out details, then shoot the sky at a lower ISO to have crisp stars. Load the images as layers into photoshop, and mask out the areas in each layer/image that detracts from the composite.

Here’s an example

I mostly shoot a single shot, exposed for the sky, and do as many tries as it takes to get the foreground light where I like it. But when I do make blends, I do the opposite - I expose the sky at high ISO so I can shoot faster, then turn the ISO low, stop down and shoot longer for the foreground. With Long exposure NR turned on for both. More than one way to skin a cat!

 

[knoxswift]

Another secret is to take photos (locked down on a tripod) at different ISO. So foreground at a high ISO to bring out details, then shoot the sky at a lower ISO to have crisp stars. Load the images as layers into photoshop, and mask out the areas in each layer/image that detracts from the composite.

Here’s an example

Another question if you don't mind. Are you shooting in RAW format or JPEG?

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

I almost always shoot raw...

 

[knoxswift]

I almost always shoot raw...

Ok I think that's one of my problems too...thanks

 

[Happyjax]

Here is a shot I got at Gettysburg a couple years ago.

D810 24mm ISO1600 13sec. Edited in photoshop

 

[knoxswift]

So what can be used for amateurs if they don't have the $$ for photoshop?

 

[Happyjax]

Gimp is free and fairly powerful. You just need to learn the menus. There are several tutorials available for it

Paintshop Pro is also a good alternative and if you can live with it's limitations Adobe Photoshop Elements isn't bad and can be had for a good price around Black Friday sales.

 

[knoxswift]

I will look up gimp. Thanks