Our Galaxy II
Re posting "our galaxy" with a few changes and alterations, wasn't happy with the earlier one.
Galactic center of the Milky way shines bright ove...
Read more
Re posting "our galaxy" with a few changes and alterations, wasn't happy with the earlier one.
Galactic center of the Milky way shines bright over a shepherds hut up in the himalayas
Read less
Galactic center of the Milky way shines bright over a shepherds hut up in the himalayas
Read less
Sep, 2014Views
179
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Awards
Chatter Award
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Superior Skill
Peer Award
Jaw Dropping
Magnificent Capture
Exceptional Contrast
Top Ranks
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was clicked when I was on a 8 day trek up in the Himalayas of Kashmir, India. On the third day we had a campsite set up just besides the Vishansar Lake, which is situated at an elevation of 3710 meters, about 115 km. northeast from Srinagar.Time
Luckily we had a clear sky that night and fighting the urge to sleep and fatigue, I stayed up. And what a sight it was seeing the galactic center of the Milkyway rise up from behind the towering peaks. I captured this photo at 9:30 pmLighting
Well, there's a catch to successfully clicking the Milky way. The less light the better !! Light pollution is an absolute no-no. Unless you want to light paint the foreground. Here I got lucky as the shepherd's hut suddenly lit up at the very same time of the long exposure :)Equipment
I used a canon 600D camera body, a wide angle 11-16 mm lens and a sturdy tripodInspiration
Ever since I saw the Milky way in a magazine I have been mesmerized by the night sky, and knew that one day I had to go out there and capture one myself.Editing
Yes, as I shot it in RAW , a little post processing was needed just to liven up the pic. Post processing was done using Photoshop. Little bit of sharpening, upping the contrast to get the details out was done. I played around with color balance till I was satisfied with the final result. Tiny increase in highlights to enhance the galactic center using curves (here, you have to be careful as there is a risk of blowing out the pic), I also used shadows to darken the night sky around the stars even more.In my camera bag
Normally I have a lot of stuff which I carry around, but since this time I was on a 8 day trek and had to carry all my stuff I kept it at a minimum. Camera body (canon 600D), a wide angle lens (11-16 mm), canon 18-55 mm stock lens and a canon 55-250 mm zoom lens apart from a tripod and a lens cleaning kit. Extra pair of charged batteries is a must !Feedback
Location has to be right. As I mentioned earlier, the less light the better. For this you might have to travel away from the city or town to a dark place where there is minimum to zero light pollution. Use a lens with apertures f2.8 or lower preferably. A good sturdy tripod is a must as this is a long exposure shot, you want your camera to be as still as possible. To really capture the details , use a high iso setting ( I used 3200 for this picture,but you can experiment and go as high as 6400 iso, depending upon your taste. Exposure time was kept at 30 sec and I used a 10 second timer to further minimize camera shake. There is also a free software that I use to find the precise time and locate the exact co-ordinates of the galactic center called Stellarium. There are many other simillar free aaps which you can find for your cell phone or Pc over the net. Also checkout for the local weather forecast as you don't want to be suddenly confronted by cloudy skies or a thunderstorm when you are out there ! Cheers and good light to you :)
