Last night I attempted to get some photographs of the Milky Way. At midnight it should have been directly in front of me above the horizon looking east south east. At 11.45 p.m. what I saw was a wall of clouds rolling across the sky exactly where the view of the galaxy should have been.
Regardless I shot 80 RAW photographs with four different lenses and a variety of long exposure settings from 10 seconds up to 30 seconds. I then went to sleep.
Today we had a BBQ and as I was sitting in the garden this little Robin popped in to say hello and I got this shot which made me smile. My daughter Natalie had the idea to put out some water for the birds. It worked a treat.
Robin
Anyway I digress. Back to the night photography and those stars. When I looked at the results it was quite illuminating to note that all of the 'advice' videos that I had watched on #astrophotography were pretty useless for me.
The long exposure times that were suggested were all wrong. (for me) the high ISO was also wrong again for my circumstances.
My lighting and other conditions are totally different to what these other photographers were explaining and it made me think that putting in the details of each photo is fairly pointless because each persons environment is going to be totally different?
Anyhow here is what I shot last night.
The night sky looks like daylight? - This is normal btw
Same sky after a little processing
A slightly different angle and a little bit more processing gave this result
This last photo is the same image as the first photo above and shows many stars can be seen even through cloud
So what did I learn?
◘ Clouds are a pain but you can punch through them with long exposures.
◘ Not having ideal conditions doesn't mean that you cannot get something interesting.
◘ We have to experiment with our own equipment and test, test and test again. It is the only true way to improve....anything.
◘ Finally I learned that I need to know a lot more about how to process multiply shots of the same region of space.
Stack those images
Stacking. This is where you take several images of the same place and stack them using your computer and some software to blend them on top of each other to make a composite photo.
All of those magical photos that we see of the Milky Way are rarely a single shot but are compiled from many photos to bring out the fine detail of the Milky Way.
I'll be out there again in 5 minutes to try again. It's 11:59 p.m. and the Milky Way is waiting for me.
That's the joy of photography. Every day is a chance to get better photos.
My submission for #BeautifulSunday By @ace108,and #SublimeSunday, created by @c0ff33a,
Good luck on your night shots, I tried a few times, and all I really got was cold feet and cold toes and cold fingers. I decided that it is just to dang cold where I live to try and get night time shots. Now would be a good time, but we don't really get night skies now, It gets a little bit dark, but not dark dark. Looking forward to see your results, and let us know how to stack photos, I keep trying to figure that out, no luck yet on it yet.
I had a go at stacking some photos last night but was so knackered that it all became a bit of a blur 😴
It's all good though because the stacking software doesn't mess with the original RAW images.
I'll try again today with fresh eyes.
Once I'm happy with the process I'll write up a crib sheet so you can give it a go. 🙆
Thank you. Hope you got some nice ones. We are in the "It does not get dark enough" season for night time photos. Only about two hours of the sun below 6% horizon mark, which is fine, because that means the really long sunset to sunrise days are coming.
Wow. That's amazing @molometer. I didn't know you could photograph through cloud. How clever!
I must remember to show John that. He'll be dead impressed, as was I! 😁
It's a lot of fun, almost like christmas every time because you never know what you may capture. 😁
I had no idea that you could photography through the clouds but I guess this makes sense with light sources like stars. WRT to stacking is that one of the reason why cameras allow you to take so many photos in quick succession?
You can set the camera up to take a series of shots one after the other on long exposures each lasting 5 to 30 seconds each depending on your kit but by which time the stars will have move position.
There is software that can select specific stars and pull them all back into position for the final composite image.
The alternative is to buy an expensive tracking mount that follows the stars in transit and takes the photos in sequence but where's the fun in that lol
I think about poor old Galileo Galilei back in 15th -16th century Pisa with the poor telescope equipment that he had to use compared to us today. He still made some amazing discoveries.
He would be astonished at what we can do these days in our back gardens. :-)
The burst mode you are refering to is usually used in fast action shots like sports etc.
I got some better photos just now and it's way past my bedtime. Goodnight Pryde. :-)
Thanks for the wonderful response:)
I love that the Robin stopped by for a photo session! And good for your daughter for adding to the habitat that will entice them to visit! Nice sky shots... We all continue to learn, don't we?
My kids come up with all 'my' best ideas lol She made a lovely little scene with the rocks and all and the birds dived right in even though we were in the garden. A safe and friendly habitat is so important.
Yeah, the sky shots are coming along. Just done some more practice shots and they are getting better. I'm going to try stacking a few together.
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Great experience.
Didn't know that, great thanks!
Totally agree. Besides, there are sometime more nuances you can learn while testing. Like when I tried to take a shot of stars, it turned out that I need an exposure longer that 30 sec that is maximum for my camera :)
Good luck today with Milky Way :)
Yep it's quite a mission sorting out the correct exposure time.
At 30 seconds we tend to get star trails which is fine if that is what we want.
Here's one I did a while back.
Wow, at 30 sec exposure?
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Haha no sorry for the misunderstanding, this photo above was a 15 minute exposure.
I see. Thank you.
Cool result, I like it 👍
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I'll have another go at these star trails now that I know a bit more about it.
Good luck! Look forward to seeing what you get
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Howdy sir molometer and that was a great try for the first time and you learned alot, it's going to get better and better now.
Thanks Janton, it is getting better every time. Hopefully we get some clear weather in June. There are some big astro events this month.
oh that's interesting, that can make for some really great posts! We'll learn something about astromony!