Questions And Answers

Coral Sea Milky Way by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is a vertical panorama taken on the NE coast of Australia between the towns of Cairns and Port Douglas, in the region of the Great Barrier Reef. This part of the Pacific is called the Coral Sea. This is a stack of 8 horizontal image stacked vertically, each horizontal image taken with a Canon 16-35 mm lens at 16 mm, f 2.8, 30 sec, ISO 8000. So this image is pretty wide as well as "tall". From the perspective of an observer from the Northern Hemisphere, the Milky Way is fascinating in the Southern Hemisphere, and presents its own unique challenges. Here I am talking about the arch MW as a whole, and not just the core. First, the Milky Way arches high overhead at this time of year (April). The arch starts out lower on the horizon, but as the night progress it rapidly assumes a position high overhead. As a result the MW in the early night is a lot like the MW arch in the NH (Northern Hemisphere) in early spring, and then later in the night it is a lot like the NH MW in late summer and fall (more vertical) where it meets the horizon. Another difference is that the core of the MW is in the middle of the MW arch, and not near the horizon as we commonly see in the NH. As a result you need a really wide field of view or stacked panorama images to get good photos of the core and landscape at the same time. As a result you see a lot of panoramas of the MW taken from the SH (Southern Hemisphere). As for this image, it was taken after Moonset at around 2:30 pm. By this time the MW core was high in the sky, and I used a vertical stack to include the core. Since we did not plan the trip around night photography, I had to take the chances available, and this night I had a couple of good hours of shooting, after Moonset, but before the MW core got to high. A couple of nights later the MW was just about directly overhead before the Moon set, high enough to cause problems. When it is that high it is hard to include much landscape. This was probably as clear as mud. Hope you enjoy! Thanks in advance for taking the time to look and comment. 

After Midnight Landscapes: This is a video made for fun to show some photos from my website. I liked the upbeat music. This will take about 3 minutes of your time. Enjoy! As seen on You Tube:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2zAFserk0c

Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinks2000/19324861534

Questions and Answers

The very basics of getting started in nightscapes

People have asked me a number of questions about equipment, issues, and technique in Nightscape or Landscape Astrophotography. Since many of these questions are recurring, I am going to post the questions and answers here. I’ll answer your questions to the best of my ability!

Q: What do I need to do to get a night sky photo with my Canon 20D?

A: Here's a start to night sky photos with your 20D.

1)  Put the ISO on "H" which is 3200. The image will have noise but you need the high ISO.. That is the highest ISO for your camera.

2)  Use the fastest wide angle lens you have. F2.8 is good but if the fastest wide angle lens you have is f3.5 or f4.0 then use that. Open the aperture as wide as you can. You want a lens that is 24 mm or wider optimally. A 20 mm lens or wider is even better.

3)  Put your camera on manual or "M" mode.

4)  Focus on infinity

5)  Use an exposure time of 15-30 sec. 

6)  Use a tripod

7)  Use RAW files, and not jpegs (or save both). RAW files are better for processing later.

8)  Here is a starting guide to processing the images:

lightcrafter.smugmug.com/About-Nightscapes

Scroll down until you see "Workflow" and follow that lead.

Questions and Answers:

How to stitch photos together for panoramas

Question: Incredible work man! How did you stitch the 14mm shots so seamlessly?! The distortion on my Rokinon 14 makes stitching a huge issue in post.

Answer: Use a lot of overlap when taking the photos! I open the images in either Lightroom or Adobe RAW and use the lens correction function to undistort then as much as possible. If there is not a lens profile for your lens then do it manually and do it exactly the same for each photo. Also, there is less distortions if the camera lens is more horizontal. I get it as horizontal as I can and still get all the sky comfortably in the photo. I use a really wide angle lens. This means there may be a lot of "extra" foreground at the bottom, and I just crop it off. Hope this helps. Cheers, Wayne

The Arch With No Name by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Small unnamed arch in Nevada, USA. Nikon 810A, Nikon 14-24 mm lens, f 2.8, 15 sec., 24 mm, ISO 10,000. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL). For more about this technique please see www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne

Tower House Ruin Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is a panorama of the Tower House Ruin near the Cedar Mesa region of Utah. It is an Ancestral Puebloan Ruin, or Anasazi - Cliff Dweller Ruin in the Four Corners region of the SW USA. This is a panorama of multiple vertical images combined in Lightroom, looking out from the alcove. There is low level constant light on the foreground. This is not classic light painting, but more similar to modified studio lighting or "outdoor" studio lighting. It consists of light panels on tripods left on the whole time, very dim, barely visible or not visible to the naked eye. This takes time to set up. The light is intended to match the intensity of starlight (it does not take much!). This different from traditional light painting where you briefly shine a brighter light on the subject or near a subject. I have encountered several photographers at night that just about had a nervous breakdown when you mentioned light painting, but then became very quiet and cooperative when they saw the lighting I set up. I think we need a different label for this kind of landscape lighting, different from "light painting". I have decided to personally call this Low Level Landscape Lighting, (LLLL for short), or LLL, Low Level Lighting. I hope some term other than light painting catches on, as it just does not describe the more recent methods of landscape lighting at night. I doubt that anyone in a studio would describe their lighting as "light painting;. We just need some new language to talk about these methods more accurately. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Landscape Arch on Flickr.

Landscape Arch Panorama in Arches National Park, Utah, USA. I have posted a similar panorama previously from the same spot that I was not satisfied with. I decided to give it another try. Hope Thanks for your patience if you have seen this before. This is a series of 9 vertical images combined in photoshop, taken with a Bower 24 mm f 1.4 lens, at f 2.0, 20 sec exposures, and ISO 6400. This arch is really large (290 feet, 88 meters wide) and a real challenge to light uniformly. There were lots of messed up shots on this one, and I never quite got the right side fully lit, but at least you can see the whole arch! Hope you enjoy!

The Castle Gate by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook The Castle Gate: There is Low Level Lighting (LLL) from 2 sources. There is a small Goal Zero Micro Lantern just behind the tunnel turned down low, and a Ceneroid LED light Panel on a light stand behind me and to the left, also turned down low. The Cineroid has a variable color temperature and is set to about 4000-4200K. The rock here is very red-orange, and if you use a light temperature much lower (warmer) that this then the rock turns very unnaturally red. Stacked image, 19 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec., ISO 10,000.

Eric and the Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Sorry for the title Eric, I couldn't help myself. Once it popped into my head it wouldn't go away. It just has a classic sound to it, like a midieval knight going out to slay the arch (or dragon). I think you definitely slayed this arch. My apologies for posting a similar photo previously, but I ended up liking this one better. By the way, this is Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah. The person slaying the arch with his headlight is Eric Gail, fellow photographer and friend. He volunteered to be the model for this. Hey Eric, I need a model release! You can see his excellent gallery here: www.flickr.com/photos/dot21studios Light pollution from the town of Moab lights up smoke on the horizon from the wildfires in California. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Sunset Arch Panorama, Escalante by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is a panorama of Sunset Arch in the Escalante National Monument, Utah. This was taken in a workshop with Royce Bair (his workshops and ebook are highly recommended). This is a combination of 12 vertical images, taken with a Canon 6D Camera, and a Nikon 14-24 mm lens at 14 mm, f 2.8, 20 sec., and ISO 8000. The arch is about a 20-30 minute hike from the parking lot, and is less visited than many of the well known arches in Utah. It's petty much in the middle of nowhere, off the beaten path. Our group settled in for the night and we were blessed with great weather. Escalante is one of the least light polluted areas I have seen in the USA. This makes for excellent detail in the sky. The faint light pollution on the horizon is from Paige, Arizona or Lake Powell, many miles distant. Doesn't the Arch look like a sleeping dragon? Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoy!