Into the Cabins for Sleep
Isolated in the high desert, the milky way divides two centenarian cabins.
Isolated in the high desert, the milky way divides two centenarian cabins.
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Feb, 2016Views
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jimfbauty
February 26, 2016
Love your photo. The only change I'd make is to cut the bottom foreground off at the eaves of the left building to eliminate the light area of the house. That way all the attention is to the stars. Leave the "Speed Limit 25 miles" for those who need to find more in your photo.
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Behind The Lens
Location
I live too close to big city lights to get even a hint of milky way or even a few decent stars out of the sky. For this one, I was a couple thousand feet above sea level in Kern County, California. A lucky night with no clouds or stars.Time
I think it was around 8 or 9pm in winter. The temperature was around 20 degrees and I was standing outside in the quiet cold with jeans, jacket, and thin leather gloves. Much earlier and it would've been too light out, much later and some of the best looking stars would've set.Lighting
None of the light (except low on the horizon) is from electric lanterns. Everything is illuminated with Coleman lanterns and the stars.Equipment
This was one of my first chances to really put my Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 to use. Before that I'd never had a wide angle lens with an F2.8 aperture and it made a huge difference. My A77 isn't a low-light showstopper, but for a shot like this it did the trick. I use a Vanguard Alta-Pro carbon fiber tripod, originally bought for its tilting center column for macro use, but its light enough and sturdy enough I've taken it everywhere from submerged in saltwater to holding my camera upside down pointing it at a cabin window. A remote release coupled with a 2 second delay are essentially requisite to ensure a stable start for a long exposure such as this.Inspiration
Ever since I got my first DSLR in 2010, I've been interested in wide-frame astrophotography. My early attempts with slow apertures and not-so-wide lenses were feeble, but every year with this recurring trip, I've been able to get better and better at the photos. In the previous year I was stymied by a full moon (which made for nice night shots of a different kind.) The lack of modernity coupled with the agelessness of nature has always made the idea of shots like this attractive to me.Editing
Oh my, I sure did do some post processing! The camera has the ability to detect such subtle gradations in color and tone in the milky way that when viewed later can hardly be seen by us humans. It requires a fair bit of careful processing to expand the contrast of the tones while looking realistic and not heavily processed. The yellow-cast light in the foreground was a bit overpowering, so to de-emphasize it, I slightly desaturated it and brought down the luminosity. It's often hard finding a balance between what looks good and what looks real, and my usual goal is to recreate the feeling of the experience itself, rather than enhanced reality, or precisely how it appeared.In my camera bag
I've been using the same Tamrac gear bag I got with the first lot of lenses I won in an auction, though all those lenses have since been cycled out. For lenses I typically carry for traditional photography: Tokina AT-X 28-70mm F2.8, Samyang 24mm F1.4, Rokinon 85mm F1.4, Tokina 11-16mm F2.8, Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro, and a Minolta 70-210mm F4. I have a whole different kit for my infrared photography. The remote shutter release/intervalometer is a constant carry since it takes up so little space and had diverse usability. There are also a sort of random mix of polarizing and ND filters, as well as extra batteries, SD cards, lens wipes, and a water bottle jammed into a side pouch.Feedback
The most helpful piece of advice I think to get early on for photos like this is "Don't be afraid of high ISOs." While my original A100 couldn't comfortably go beyond ISO 400, almost any modern DSLR/DSLT/Mirrorless can produce adequate results up to ISO 1600 or even 3200. The other benefit of shooting at higher ISO is that it has a small benefit to the signal to noise ratio as compared to brightening a photo later on. A wide aperture makes a huge difference too, but sometimes people feel discouraged about using a lens wide open. While the image is likely less sharp, the benefits of shorter star trails and less noise far outweigh the loss of image resolution. A good lens like a Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 or Rokinon 14mm F2.8 will make it barely worth considering for most shooters. Once you get down to F1.8 or so, then you may see some obvious out of focus areas in the foreground/background, but wide angles tend to be slower than that and have extra large depths of field. In a similar vein, most lenses infinity position is just a suggestion and if you assume it's correct, you'll get blurry photos almost every time. If you can't see stars in the viewfinder for focusing, crank the ISO way up and take a test shot. That will let you dial in the focus without waiting as long between shots. Once you've got a focus you're happy with, turn the ISO back to a reasonably setting and start your real photography. Make sure to use your camera's mirror lock-up mode and shutter delay to eliminate vibration imparted. A remote cable is an extra step to improve things. If your camera or lens has stabilization, turn it off, and make sure your camera's long-exposure noise-reduction is turned on. And be patient.
