Mil8ant

Al Fresco

We've had very few clear nights for shooting astro this winter so when I managed to find some clear sky down in Karangahake Gorge I made sure I dined out o...
Read more

We've had very few clear nights for shooting astro this winter so when I managed to find some clear sky down in Karangahake Gorge I made sure I dined out on it.
Read less

NIKON D810

settings

Aperture f/2.8 ISO 6400 Shutter 25/1 Focal Length 14/1

upload_date

Oct, 2018

Views

456

Likes

+35

Awards

Contest Finalist in Composing With Arches Photo Contest

Peer Award

Absolute Masterpiece

Top Choice

Magnificent Capture

Superb Composition

Superior Skill

Emotions

Impressed

Top Ranks

Top 30 rank

Top 30 rank week 2

Top 30 rank

Top 30 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken at the abandoned Victoria Battery in Karangahake Gorge, Waikato, New Zealand. In the very early 1900s the battery used cyanide to extract gold from crushed ore.

Time

Astrophotography is not great for my sleep patterns with a lot of nights spent driving long distances to get to interesting foregrounds for the Milky Way. This spot is an hour and a half from my home so using the PhotoPills app I timed the drive to arrive there in time for the core of the Milky Way to line up with this view from inside the battery at around 11pm.

Lighting

This structure is built with concrete so some very subtle lighting was required to show some detail and reduce noise without getting glare or blowing the foreground out. In this shot the lighting was provided by lighting the screen on my phone and brushing the muted light over the arches for a few seconds.

Equipment

Nikon D810 camera with the Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 lens on a Sirui tripod. This was a 25 second exposure at ISO 6400 shot at 14mm and f2.8

Inspiration

In order to get a cool astro photo it's vital to find an interesting foreground rather than just having the Milky Way in the sky and nothing else in the shot. I spend a lot of time searching Google Earth to find objects, natural features or interesting structures that face either east or west specifically for astro shots. I then use PhotoPills to establish when the best time of year will be to capture the core in a worthwhile composition with these foregrounds. I had stopped at this historical site many times before I got into astrophotography so it immediately came to mind when I started to think about suitable spots to shoot the Milky Way.

Editing

Astro almost always requires post-processing. I shoot in RAW using auto white balance so that often needs adjusting to find what works with the scene. I usually use adjustments to the whites, blacks, highlights and contract to bring out as much detail as possible in the Milky Way and local tweaking of the shadows in the foreground plus some minor noise reduction.

In my camera bag

I own one camera (Nikon D810) plus just 2 lenses which I use for all my photography. I have the Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 and the Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 which are both always in my bag. Along with those I keep the Nisi S5 filter holder and a range of grad and ND filters. When I'm out shooting astro I always have a headlamp to navigate to my shooting spot, 2 lumecubes for lighting large foregrounds and some reusable heating gel sachets to wrap around my lens to avoid condensation.

Feedback

The first and most important thing is to go somewhere really dark as light pollution really drains the clarity and detail out of your stars. A quality fast lens is massively important to harness as much light as possible. Shoot in RAW to give you as much post processing flexibility as possible. Do a lot of research to find interesting foregrounds that give your astro shots a point of difference.

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Mil8ant

Mil8ant

Al Fresco

We've had very few clear nights for shooting astro this winter so when I managed to find some clear sky down in Karangahake Gorge I made sure I dined out o... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Mil8ant

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We've had very few clear nights for shooting astro this winter so when I managed to find some clear sky down in Karangahake Gorge I made sure I dined out o...
Read more

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Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.