Stars over Flandrau

Moon rise was about 2 AM so a late night was the only way to get Milky Way images. It moves toward the west through the night and next time I'll try early morning to get different ground lights. I used framing to hide ground light and put a brief burst of light on the overhanging trees. WB at 3400k

Technical: highlight and white slider used to enhance Milky Way, no local adjustments used

Dealing with Light Pollution

Shooting in mixed light at night creates choices for white balance. Below are a couple choices showing the differences of 1000k. Which one is right? As in most photography the right one is the one that looks right, in this case most natural. We all know the night skbrowy is black but blue also seems to fit into this reality.  If in doubt I choose Auto WB and adjust until the colors look pleasing, a real scientific answer.

WB 5500k

WB 3800

The best solution is to minimize ground light by shooting into a false horizon like a small swale or hiding the points of light with foreground objects.

Almost in time

I had a brief opportunity to record the milky way this weekend.  I set the alarm and arrived at Namekagon Barrens just as nautical twilight was starting, hence the blue sky. The beauty of Namekagon is the ground fog that obscures light pollution for cities along the 35W corridor. I was a little late, as the sky brightened the milky way faded with a few minutes. Always a next time...
 

Sky Glow

Night brings a whole new perspective to the sky.  During the day we marvel at the clouds with an occasional jet intruding into our vision but at night we cannot escape the influence of man.  The nearest town of about 10,000 people is over 30 miles away. 

Technical: no local adjustments were made to the milky way

Star Trails

Shooting star trails was a mystery until I recently watched the B & H video on night photography presented by Gabe Biderman. One of the take away messages was converting exposure at ISO 6400 to exposure at ISO 100.  I may have mentioned this method on an earlier post but here it is again. Take the exposure at ISO 6400, keep the same f stop, change the ISO to 100, then covert seconds to minutes. I use aperture priority to get the initial shutter speed, then change to bulb for the actual shot. This was a 15 minute exposure facing north with a faint limb of the Milky Way and city lights showing.  The image was cropped to vertical because of the bright ground lighting to the east. Give it a try. 

Sir, the park is now closed.

This is another in my series of exploring the night sky. The Milky Way is a constant in the night sky so the next step is showing it over a specific location. To do this I have started using light painting  for a second or two to brighten the foreground.  

An August Night

I was shooting the prairie sunset and early night sky last night. From my location the lights of 5 different towns were visible on the horizon. Despite city lights the Milky Way was brilliant in the southern sky. This month's Outdoor Photographer ties its brightness to Sagitarrius, I'll need to look that up. Choosing the white balance for the color of the sky is perplexing since it is black. A good explanation of this can be found at: Can the night sky be "authentic?"

Milky Way over Tree

Another image from the winter tree series. How small we are in the universe.

The Tree

I saw this tree a couple weeks ago and it just had to be photographed. At the time the ground was bare and brown, the sky was dull and gray. The tree just would not leave my mind, I was fixated on it. Finally the solution hit me, shoot it at night.

Technical: What is the best best white balance at night? In this image I decided to keep the sky black and let the cloud color fall where into place. 

Looking for Night

I went out last night looking for the fabled meteor shower and we saw lots of meteors but none went through the frame.  I was in southern MN and ground light is everywhere with each farm having a security light and the closely spaced towns.  This was shot earlier at the cabin and shows the city lights of the north Metro, 60 miles away.  I'm still experimenting with white balance in these mixed lighting situations.  On some I like 2500K, this was about 3800K.

Milky Way Landscape

The night sky has been my subject lately with the clear, moonless nights.  The amount of light pollution has been surprising, especially at Crex Meadows where there is a clear horizon during the day. It seems counter intuitive to get in a depression to get the best night sky shot but that's the best way to minimize the Metro lights in the south or pin points of city light in the other directions. Camera settings: wide angle, wide open aperture, 30 seconds, ISO 2500.  White balance at 2500 K for starters.

Astro landscape Photography

This is a popular form of photography in Oregon and Washington where there is much less light pollution.  Here we have to make the most of what we have or get way north.  The best I could do with this light pollution was adjust the white balance to make it work with the rest of the image. Technical: 30 seconds at ISO 3200, f 3.5. For information on the location of the Milky Way anywhere in the world check stellarium.org for a free download. It's a little complicated to use and contains more info than most photographers will ever use. 

Milky Way

I did some night photography to celebrate July 4th. I am an early bird but 2 AM is a little too early so this photography might not happen very often.  The conditions need to be right with a moonless, clear night to get the stars to "pop". Technical: ISO 4000, 30 second exposure.  For a detailed but understandable tutorial see Beginner's Guide to Astrophotography by Ben Canales.  Ben is a young photographer with an unbelievable future ahead of him. The next post will tell you how to find the Milk Way.