Milky Way Over Erg Chigaga, Sahara Desert, Morocco
Jun, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken near our camp at the dunes of Erg Chigaga in Morocco. The dunes are near the small settlement of M'Hamid.Time
I took this image at around midnight, not far from the tent. When we arrived at Erg Chigaga, we had narrowly missed the sunset, and there was a terrible sandstorm blowing, so the prospects for photography were not good. It's fair to say I was not in a good mood. After dark, the storm cleared and the stars came out, so I was keen to try to photograph the stars instead.Lighting
The lighting for this shot was quite interesting. At first I tried to use some flash to illuminate the sand and also tried 'painting' it with my headtorch. However, this produced a nasty white light that was very harsh. I then realised that closer to the tent, the sand was picking up the glow from a tungsten lamp that was mounted on the ground as a night light. This gave the lovely red-orange colour to the sand dune.Equipment
For this shot I used my Canon 5D Mk III camera, with my Canon EF 16mm f/2.8 Mk II lens. These were mounted on my Gitzo carbon fiber mountaineer tripod and a Really Right Stuff ball head. The only other equipment was a Canon shutter release cable.Inspiration
The 5D Mk III is the first camera I have owned that can actually get shots of the milky way like this (as long as a wide angle lens is used, along with an ISO of 6400 and a 30 second exposure), so I am always keen to try to get the milky way in to some landscape shots if I can. As I said earlier, if it hadn't been for the clear skies and stars at night, the whole trip to Erg Chigaga would have been a photographic disappointment, although I did get to fly my drone over the dunes the next morning and get some interesting video footage.Editing
I try to do as little post processing as possible with my images. I'll usually work first in the Canon RAW software (Digital Photo Professional) to sharpen the image and boost the saturation slightly (Canon files seem to be a little flat straight from camera). Then I convert it to a TIFF file and use Photoshop CC to adjust the contrast, remove any hotspots or stuck pixels and do any further sharpening that is needed.In my camera bag
I specialise in travel and wildlife photography, so the kit I carry will vary depending on the particular trip I am on. I normally have my 5D Mk III camera, my 24-105 mm f/4 L lens, my 16-35 Mk f/2.8 L Mk II lens and my Gitzo tripod / Really Right Stuff ball head. For the trip to Morocco I also had my Canon 135mm f/2 L lens so that I could get some shots of the famous leather tannery workers at Fez. I also had my DJI Phantom drone (although sadly I understand that flying drones is now illegal in Morocco).Feedback
I was very lucky with this shot because of that mains powered tunsten lamp being nearby. Without it this shot would not have worked out. I now carry a pack of different coloured gels, that I can place over my flash gun or tape over the head torch to avoid the harsh white flash or LED light.
