Milky Way Blast 2
Jun, 2016Views
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Fall Award 2020
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Westie
September 26, 2017
It's one shot that's been layered about 18 times in Photoshop. I answered her question a while ago, but I think my response was sent privately.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was captured at Lake Sonoma, California. I suggested to my girlfriend, who is also a photographer, that we go out to the lake late one evening to take some time-lapse shots. This photo is one of the results from that session.Time
While my priority that evening was to capture star-trail shots, I also took the time to shoot a few extended exposure shots. This was taken on 6/6/2016 at 12:21 AM.Lighting
Just a late summer night. The only artificial light in the shot is the orange glow from a nearby town.Equipment
Canon Rebel T5, Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di II, Vortex Pro GT Tripod, and a laptop with the Canon EOS Utility installed.Inspiration
To see what happens. I think the whole process is what inspired me to do it. The planning and execution of a night out taking star photography with my girlfriend Robin. The shooting of hundreds of photos. The post processing. And getting an end result such as this, this is what inspired me. The ability to call that shot mine.Editing
Oh yes, there was a lot of post processing. I believe I repeatedly layered and merged this photo at least 17 times. Each layering I would incorporate something different. Let's say I wanted some color saturation. I would then layer in the original shot at about 30% opacity and merge. And do another layering. There's probably a better way to do what I wanted to achieve in the final product, but I got what I was looking for anyways.In my camera bag
First, my camera body - just a regular old Canon Rebel T5. I would love to upgrade my body, but I cannot do so at the moment, so this camera will do. As for lenses, it goes like this - Canon 100-400 USM IS L 4.5, Minolta 58mm 1.2 with Canon EOS Mod, Canon 50mm 1.8, Tamron 10-24mm Di II, and lastly a Canon 25-105 USM that I don't use very often for it's pretty damn quirky. I'm not sure if the previous owner drop kicked it across a field, but if I need to use it, I know how to squeeze at shot out of it.Feedback
Make sure you shoot with the lens on manual (no auto-focus here) with the lens focus all the way out to infinity. Keep the exposure to 10 to 15 seconds or so. Any thing longer than 20 seconds and you'll start to see star trails in your shot. The setting I used for this particular shot are as follows: 3200ISO, 15.0 mm, and an aperture value of f/3.8. Happy shooting!
