antongorlin
FollowThere are 2 similar images stacked here for bigger depth of field, otherwise it's not a composite.
There are 2 similar images stacked here for bigger depth of field, otherwise it's not a composite.
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Contest Finalist in Capture The Milky Way Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in The Zen Moment Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 11
Contest Finalist in Nightscapes Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this shot at one of my favourite locations, which is also the nearest to my current location. It's a Shark Point just below the Burrows Park at Clovelly, NSW. This place is a little gem in all eastern suburbs in Sydney.Time
Unlike many other photos I take (in fact 99%), it's not sunrise. This shot was done long after sunset. I wanted to do the Milky Way and picked a day with half Moon just to try how it turns out. Full Moon would be too bright for the stars. It was around 9 PM (winter).Lighting
Many people think it's the Sun, but in fact it's the Moon (a little less than half of it if I remember correctly). The foggy thing on the right is a long exposure wave back lit by the moon light and the light on the rocks (left side) is coming from distant city lights. This place is not too far from the city, so I wasn't sure if it turns out well because of the light pollution. But it appears to be pretty much acceptable if shot after 9 PM.Equipment
Nikon D750, Tamron 15-30, some simple tripod and SlingShot app (wifi connected) to set really long exposures.Inspiration
It's the first year I decided to shoot Milky Way and was just experimenting with different settings. I tried to shoot on the new Moon previously and it showed up great. And then I saw some guy did a photo with Milky Way and the Moon and decided to give it a go.Editing
Surely, this photo was edited. Every raw photo needs some love and editing. So to take this photo I had 2 exposures. Not because the Moon was too bright or something, but only to do focus stack. This means that one shot was focused on the stars and the other shot (with same exposure) was focused on the rocks. And then I combined them for a depth of field. Also, with the Milky Way - I had to play around with the white balance to get the most juicy colors. I prefer to add a little bit of purple tint as it gives dreamy effect. There are lots of great vides on how to edit Milky Way on youtube and I just used those as a starting point.In my camera bag
Nikon D750, Tamron 15-30, Nikon 50mm / 1.8, Nikon 70-300 VR2, tripod, small IR remote, microfibre wipes, lens pen, chocolate, spare socks, spare fully charged battery.Feedback
You need certain conditions to get something like this. Pick a day with clear sky and as little light pollution as possible. You can find light pollution at numerous sites across the internet. I use "PlanIt! For photographers" app on my phone for all Milky Way - related planning as it has all the data. It shows light pollution and Milky Way position for any given time and day and same info for the Moon. So if you play around with it for some time (or watch tutorial videos), you'll be able to quickly figure out when and where to go shooting. So, for this particular shot - pick a day with clear skies and less than half Moon. Full Moon would be too bright, it would have impact even stronger than the light pollution. I did 2 exposures here for greater depth of field - one shot with stars focused and the other one with foreground in focus. For the stars you should keep shutter speed below 30 seconds, otherwise they will produce star trails instead of points. There's a "500 rule", which states that if you divide 500 with your focal range (don't forget the crop factor if you use non-full frame), you'll get the maximum exposure time. This ruls is a simplified version of the real rule, but it works pretty fine. Don't be afraid to raise ISO - 1000, 2500, 3200 etc. You will clean up noise later and still get great results for the internet. There are techniques out there which help you to reduce noise in post production, but I find them too cumbersome (you need to some shoot photos on same high ISO with lens covered use them for noise reduction or shoot few shots of the Milky Way and then combine photos). If you don't plan to print it big, you can just raise ISO and do photos. Bonus tip: Avoid very windy days. Even on tripod, then can shake your camera on long exposure or even trip it over, like extremely strong wind gust did for me just after this photo was taken.