russellwaite

Lighthouse infront of milky way watermark

Lighthouse infront of milky way watermark

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

settings

Aperture f/3.5 ISO 1000 Shutter 121/1 Focal Length 10/1

upload_date

Mar, 2016

Views

675

Likes

+68

Awards

Summer Selection

Peer Award

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All Star

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Magnificent Capture

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Behind The Lens

Location

This Photo was taken at Happisburgh Lighthouse,

Time

This was taken at 2am on location at Happisburgh Lighthouse facing south west, I was with another photographer and we were hoping the northen lights were going to appear so whilst waiting I grabbed a few shots of the lighthouse with the milky way behind it.

Lighting

The lighting in this photo was difficult but I do teach night photography and this was a challenge even for me. If you look at the right of the picture it is very bright. This is because there is a major gas plant 2 miles away and is a serious hindrance to any night photos being taken in the area on the actually image it was very orange but I managed to filter most of it out using Camera Raw in Photoshop and dropping the sliders right down.

Equipment

This was shot on a Canon 7DMk2 using a Canon 10-22mm lens at 10mm on infinity. All on a tripod mounted to a vixen Polarie star tracker running at half speed so I could shoot for 4 minutes without blurring the lighthouse. I also used a cable release/intervalometer so there was no movement on the camera.

Inspiration

I just love milky way shots and I was lucky enough to be out when the skies were clear.

Editing

Not really, I used the Camera raw filter in photoshop and dropped the orange sliders right down to take away the effect of the gas plants light pollution. I sharpened it up a little and then added a little contrast to make the sky a little darker.

In my camera bag

A canon 7dMk2 and my spare is the Canon 500D, A Canon 10-22mm EFS, A canon 75-300mm for basic telephoto work. A sigma Art 24mm Prime lens mainly for my night work because this will go down to F1.4 but it is also super fast for street photography on holidays, and the standard 18-55mm kit. Telephoto wise I use the new Sigma 150-600 sport which is a little weighty but does take superb pictures that need little editing because they are so sharp.Other equipment I nuse are lens wraps for my night stuff, A Vixen Polarie Startracker, USB Batteries and 2 intervalometers because I quite often break them, I also have a whole array of filters from a 0.3 Grad to a 10 stop, and my giotto tripod. Yes The bag is pretty heavy.

Feedback

Plan your shot and your location well, night shots need very little pollution so get to a dark place and if you can scout it out beforehand then do. Check using apps like stellarium on where the milky way will be at what time. Don't forget the stars move during the night. ( Actually it's us on the earth but let's not get technical), and lastly read up on the 500 rule or get a long exposure app on your mobile device. This will tell you how long you can shoot for without blurring the stars. Good Luck

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russellwaite

Lighthouse infront of milky way watermark

Behind The Lens

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