I am so glad I opened the "download" file. This is a wonderful image.
That being said, I have to tell you that your watermark is a significant distraction. In general, I don't like watermarks; but if you worry about theft, I urge you to use a smaller watermark, one that makes your point without marring the effect of your image.
Beautiful image, Jack. Worthy of a prominent place on the wall.
Vault
Loc: Gig Harbor, WA and Yuma, AZ
Excellent image. Well done. Gives me hope for my first venture into a dark enough area.
neco
Loc: Western Colorado Mountains
Wilderness Images wrote:
I've always been intrigued by photographing the night stars, so for the last few months, I've been reading up on Star Trails and Milky Way photography and finally got to the point where I had to either do it or forget it. I'll admit that I don't have the ideal lens that the U-tubers are recommending, but I just used my 18-55mm kit lens on my Canon M6 Mark ll mirrorless with a 1.6 crop factor.
On Monday morning (04-12-21) I woke up around 01:30am, threw my gear in the truck and headed out to a deserted First Water Road which runs parallel to Superstition Mountain. My Photo Pills app had indicated that the Milky Way would be right above the mountain at around 03:00, and I was just hoping that the near 5,000ft ridgeline wouldn't be blocking it out.
I drove to one of my favorite parking spots, set up the camera/tripod and checked "Pills" again. Pills showed the Milky Way as being above the mountain with a slight incline to the East, which would put it in-line with the top ridge. I took a series of 'test shots' to see if the camera was pointed right and, after a few adjustments, took a 5-shot sequence. I did the same at five different locations to see which one would provide the best results, then called it a morning at 04:30am and went home to see what the computer would show me.
I used Sequator photo stacking software for the first time, while watching a U-tuber demonstrate its abilities and came out with a final image that I could take to the next step. I loaded the .tiff image into Affinity Photo and made some adjustments to enhance the Milky Way and highlight the face of the mountain and called it quits for the day.
Camera Settings:
Camera set on: Manual
Lens set on: Manual focus
Aperture: f/4 (its minimum)
Exposure time: 15 seconds
ISO: 1,600
White Balance: 4,000 K
Timer Delay: 2 seconds
Focused on: Infinity (I hope)
I'm open to critique/recommendations but keep in mind that this is my first time for celestial photography.
Jack Olson
Apache Junction, Arizona
I've always been intrigued by photographing the ni... (
show quote)
Just wonderful. I can't see a flaw.
Jack,
If that is your first attempt at celestial photography, then the sky is literally the limit. That is definitely a wall-hanger. Thanks for sharing a great image!
Bob
Wilderness Images wrote:
I've always been intrigued by photographing the night stars, so for the last few months, I've been reading up on Star Trails and Milky Way photography and finally got to the point where I had to either do it or forget it. I'll admit that I don't have the ideal lens that the U-tubers are recommending, but I just used my 18-55mm kit lens on my Canon M6 Mark ll mirrorless with a 1.6 crop factor.
On Monday morning (04-12-21) I woke up around 01:30am, threw my gear in the truck and headed out to a deserted First Water Road which runs parallel to Superstition Mountain. My Photo Pills app had indicated that the Milky Way would be right above the mountain at around 03:00, and I was just hoping that the near 5,000ft ridgeline wouldn't be blocking it out.
I drove to one of my favorite parking spots, set up the camera/tripod and checked "Pills" again. Pills showed the Milky Way as being above the mountain with a slight incline to the East, which would put it in-line with the top ridge. I took a series of 'test shots' to see if the camera was pointed right and, after a few adjustments, took a 5-shot sequence. I did the same at five different locations to see which one would provide the best results, then called it a morning at 04:30am and went home to see what the computer would show me.
I used Sequator photo stacking software for the first time, while watching a U-tuber demonstrate its abilities and came out with a final image that I could take to the next step. I loaded the .tiff image into Affinity Photo and made some adjustments to enhance the Milky Way and highlight the face of the mountain and called it quits for the day.
Camera Settings:
Camera set on: Manual
Lens set on: Manual focus
Aperture: f/4 (its minimum)
Exposure time: 15 seconds
ISO: 1,600
White Balance: 4,000 K
Timer Delay: 2 seconds
Focused on: Infinity (I hope)
I'm open to critique/recommendations but keep in mind that this is my first time for celestial photography.
Jack Olson
Apache Junction, Arizona
I've always been intrigued by photographing the ni... (
show quote)
Wow!!! Wall hanger for sure.
Wilderness Images wrote:
I've always been intrigued by photographing the night stars, so for the last few months, I've been reading up on Star Trails and Milky Way photography and finally got to the point where I had to either do it or forget it. I'll admit that I don't have the ideal lens that the U-tubers are recommending, but I just used my 18-55mm kit lens on my Canon M6 Mark ll mirrorless with a 1.6 crop factor.
On Monday morning (04-12-21) I woke up around 01:30am, threw my gear in the truck and headed out to a deserted First Water Road which runs parallel to Superstition Mountain. My Photo Pills app had indicated that the Milky Way would be right above the mountain at around 03:00, and I was just hoping that the near 5,000ft ridgeline wouldn't be blocking it out.
I drove to one of my favorite parking spots, set up the camera/tripod and checked "Pills" again. Pills showed the Milky Way as being above the mountain with a slight incline to the East, which would put it in-line with the top ridge. I took a series of 'test shots' to see if the camera was pointed right and, after a few adjustments, took a 5-shot sequence. I did the same at five different locations to see which one would provide the best results, then called it a morning at 04:30am and went home to see what the computer would show me.
I used Sequator photo stacking software for the first time, while watching a U-tuber demonstrate its abilities and came out with a final image that I could take to the next step. I loaded the .tiff image into Affinity Photo and made some adjustments to enhance the Milky Way and highlight the face of the mountain and called it quits for the day.
Camera Settings:
Camera set on: Manual
Lens set on: Manual focus
Aperture: f/4 (its minimum)
Exposure time: 15 seconds
ISO: 1,600
White Balance: 4,000 K
Timer Delay: 2 seconds
Focused on: Infinity (I hope)
I'm open to critique/recommendations but keep in mind that this is my first time for celestial photography.
Jack Olson
Apache Junction, Arizona
I've always been intrigued by photographing the ni... (
show quote)
This is a very good photo of the milky way; very well compose and very well post processed.
Wilderness Images wrote:
I've always been intrigued by photographing the night stars, so for the last few months, I've been reading up on Star Trails and Milky Way photography and finally got to the point where I had to either do it or forget it. I'll admit that I don't have the ideal lens that the U-tubers are recommending, but I just used my 18-55mm kit lens on my Canon M6 Mark ll mirrorless with a 1.6 crop factor.
On Monday morning (04-12-21) I woke up around 01:30am, threw my gear in the truck and headed out to a deserted First Water Road which runs parallel to Superstition Mountain. My Photo Pills app had indicated that the Milky Way would be right above the mountain at around 03:00, and I was just hoping that the near 5,000ft ridgeline wouldn't be blocking it out.
I drove to one of my favorite parking spots, set up the camera/tripod and checked "Pills" again. Pills showed the Milky Way as being above the mountain with a slight incline to the East, which would put it in-line with the top ridge. I took a series of 'test shots' to see if the camera was pointed right and, after a few adjustments, took a 5-shot sequence. I did the same at five different locations to see which one would provide the best results, then called it a morning at 04:30am and went home to see what the computer would show me.
I used Sequator photo stacking software for the first time, while watching a U-tuber demonstrate its abilities and came out with a final image that I could take to the next step. I loaded the .tiff image into Affinity Photo and made some adjustments to enhance the Milky Way and highlight the face of the mountain and called it quits for the day.
Camera Settings:
Camera set on: Manual
Lens set on: Manual focus
Aperture: f/4 (its minimum)
Exposure time: 15 seconds
ISO: 1,600
White Balance: 4,000 K
Timer Delay: 2 seconds
Focused on: Infinity (I hope)
I'm open to critique/recommendations but keep in mind that this is my first time for celestial photography.
Jack Olson
Apache Junction, Arizona
I've always been intrigued by photographing the ni... (
show quote)
I think you nailed it , jack...gorgeous light and great composition!
That's a beautiful photograph. Thanks for explaining how you planned it and the exposure information. We're headed to our cabin in NM in a couple of weeks for the summer, and I am going to try some Milky Way photography of my own. Thanks so much.
Looks pretty darn good to me Jack.
Don
Excellent first effort. Kudos.
It seems that everyone doing astro photography are following what I learned in the late 50's/early 60's - experiment and learn. - You have lots of well deserved compliments/comments.
Suggestion - future efforts might center on reducing your 'star trails' with shorter individual exposure times at the same focal length. You may well stack sky images and mask out some of the mountain images when the stars have 'rotated' well beyond the first exposures. Hope you understand what I am suggesting. And, as said earlier, experiment with different 'de-noise' programs to keep a darker sky after combining multiple star/milky way images. - Often the major effort is in the details and keeping the viewers from seeing/knowing what/how you did it.
And, you can begin to appreciate why people who make this a major personal effort will upgrade to get sharper optics, more sensitive camera models, use filters, use dedicated 'astro photography' sw applications, etc. The benefits are getting better and better results as you grow and learn from your experience.
I hope you do grow. You are off to a great start.
Wilderness Images wrote:
I've always been intrigued by photographing the night stars, so for the last few months, I've been reading up on Star Trails and Milky Way photography and finally got to the point where I had to either do it or forget it. I'll admit that I don't have the ideal lens that the U-tubers are recommending, but I just used my 18-55mm kit lens on my Canon M6 Mark ll mirrorless with a 1.6 crop factor.
On Monday morning (04-12-21) I woke up around 01:30am, threw my gear in the truck and headed out to a deserted First Water Road which runs parallel to Superstition Mountain. My Photo Pills app had indicated that the Milky Way would be right above the mountain at around 03:00, and I was just hoping that the near 5,000ft ridgeline wouldn't be blocking it out.
I drove to one of my favorite parking spots, set up the camera/tripod and checked "Pills" again. Pills showed the Milky Way as being above the mountain with a slight incline to the East, which would put it in-line with the top ridge. I took a series of 'test shots' to see if the camera was pointed right and, after a few adjustments, took a 5-shot sequence. I did the same at five different locations to see which one would provide the best results, then called it a morning at 04:30am and went home to see what the computer would show me.
I used Sequator photo stacking software for the first time, while watching a U-tuber demonstrate its abilities and came out with a final image that I could take to the next step. I loaded the .tiff image into Affinity Photo and made some adjustments to enhance the Milky Way and highlight the face of the mountain and called it quits for the day.
Camera Settings:
Camera set on: Manual
Lens set on: Manual focus
Aperture: f/4 (its minimum)
Exposure time: 15 seconds
ISO: 1,600
White Balance: 4,000 K
Timer Delay: 2 seconds
Focused on: Infinity (I hope)
I'm open to critique/recommendations but keep in mind that this is my first time for celestial photography.
Jack Olson
Apache Junction, Arizona
I've always been intrigued by photographing the ni... (
show quote)
Your photo is excellent but that is not why I am impressed. I am impressed by your effort to get the most interesting and best possible shot. If you have been doing serious photography for a number of years I would expect you to have an good shot but what I admire most is the effort you took to do the best you can. Congratulations.
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