brandonmanning

Love, Infinitely

One of my favorite astro shots I've ever done. Shot with a Fuji X-T1 in Mono Lake last summer. Their hearts spoke to me the moment I met them. ...
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One of my favorite astro shots I've ever done. Shot with a Fuji X-T1 in Mono Lake last summer. Their hearts spoke to me the moment I met them.
Read less

Apr, 2015

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photograph in Mono Lake on a very special trip I was fortunate enough to join a mentor for. We spent the day creating his visions and decided to come out here for the last shot at something new and different in his project series - the universe was very kind to us! This final image was not planned, but the couple of ballerinas we had were actually a couple, so we asked if they would pose together and I ran around trying to find a good composition. Couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity!!

Time

This was around 11pm in late September in 2014. The moon had recently set right below the horizon with a layer of clouds buffering the light above.

Lighting

I used a standard Milky Way exposure - 25s f/2.8 6400ISO at the time and set my white balance to 4200 for a bluer sky (which I enhanced in post). I use the 500 rule (500/focal length) as a general guide, but I find that between 20-25s with a wide angle lens yields the best results for me with sharper stars. Unless your camera can handle really high ISO ratings very well. The RAW is always flat, but that's what I'm looking for. For great stars, you want as little light as possible in the sky from any other source.

Equipment

This shot was created using a Fuji X-T1 equipped with a Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8 and my old Vanguard Tripod. That's it!

Inspiration

The first moment I saw the Milky Way with my naked eye. Sadly, this moment didn't come until about a year and some change ago, but thanks to a very good friend, it found me. Every time I get out to view the stars I'm struck with awe - you can *feel* the endless multitude of infinitely beautiful bodies pulsing with the life of the universe...there's not much better!

Editing

I always shoot flat in RAW to get as much detail in the histogram as I can and bring back contrast later in post. I used Capture One to do my raw conversion and initial edit (color correction, minor exposure, curve adjustments, bring highlight detail back if necessary, pull up shadow detail if necessary, fix coma and other lens issues). Then I export to a 16bit Tiff file to finish up in Photoshop with curve adjustments to specific tonal ranges, sharpening and enhancement of the milky way banding, and then overall mood adjustments with color balance, hue/saturation, and curve adjustments to finish. This image is a bit more heavy handed than others I've done, but I'm in love with how it feels, so I don't mind the technical "oopsie" so much. This "mistake" has lead to learning and new images that were born from it.

In my camera bag

I've almost always got a 5D III, 16-35 f/2.8 II, Nifty 50, 100mm Macro f/2.8, my Manfrotto 190 tripod (the thing deploys to almost ground level with its horizontal center column switch, favorite tripod I've ever owned!), an intervalometer, a bag of tricks, and my trusty Fuji x100s.

Feedback

When out in the dark exposing for Milky Way images the exposure itself is easy - get a wide lens, with a wide open aperture (f/1.2-2.8), boost your ISO to 6400, and try exposures between 15-30s - the *focusing* is hard. What seems to work the best is to use a live-view mode and find a star that is pulsing kind of brightly. Zoom in as far as the digital zoom will go, and focus your lens (in manual) out and around the star. Get a feel for what looks like the most sharp (least blurred edges), and you're about there. You'll want to be a decent distance from your foreground (in this case I was 15ft away) so that there is no blurring of the image. There's some logic in simply finding your lens's hyper-focal length, and it produces decent images, but I find the stars are not as sharp as when actually finding your focus on a distant star. Best advice I can give - GET OUT THERE, find somewhere dark, really dark (but go with a friend and tell someone where you're headed, you'll likely have no cell service), and pay attention to what the universe is telling you - where is the moon, what time of year is it, where is the Milky Way? Most of my friends swear by a couple of apps like Starwalk to find out where the stars are at any given time and any given location - handy for planning phase and when on location.

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brandonmanning

brandonmanning

Love, Infinitely

One of my favorite astro shots I've ever done. Shot with a Fuji X-T1 in Mono Lake last summer. Their hearts spoke to me the moment I met them. ... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow brandonmanning

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One of my favorite astro shots I've ever done. Shot with a Fuji X-T1 in Mono Lake last summer. Their hearts spoke to me the moment I met them. ...
Read more

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