The Whole Truth!
A two image stack as the meteor shot through between clicks.
A two image stack as the meteor shot through between clicks.
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Aug, 2017Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in The Stars Photo Contest
Winner in Stary Night Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Absolute Masterpiece
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Outstanding Creativity
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in a field at the western end of the Isle of Wight, on the south coast of the UK.Time
It was heading towards 1am.Lighting
It was very dark at the time, and I was out with a friend who was also shooting. We were also messing about with torches, trying to get the foreground lit, while still maintaining enough darkness for the stars. The whole image has been lifted in post, messing with both the exposure, and the white, black, lights and darks in lightroom.Equipment
My camera is a Nikon D750, which I coupled with a Samyang 16mm F\2 lens for this shot. The whole lot stands on a Vanguard Alta Pro 263 tripod, which I have found to be an excellent quality, very versatile piece of kit for those on a limited budget.Inspiration
I love night time photos! I'm fascinated by the way familiar places look so different at night. I also like to shoot the milky way, and starlight, and I knew that the perseid meteor shower was taking place. I've caught quite a few meteors before, but this is by far the brightest. To be fair, it's nice just to be out, in the quiet, and dark, looking up at the heavens, it gives me chance to kind of connect, and think through any problems that I may have lurking, and just wonder about stuff, like, is there other life out there? or, What if the meteor that killed the dinosaurs was really a space ship, and we're the aliens that came from it? :-D :-DEditing
I HAD to! The lens is for a crop sensor camera, and I had forgotten to set my camera to shoot in DX mode. Also this meteor happened at the end of one exposure, and the start of the next, meaning that I only actually have two halves of a meteor. I imported the shots to lightroom and worked on one. I upped the exposure a little, altering the whites and blacks, and controlled the lights and darks to bring it back into within range of the histogram. I also altered a few of the colours in the hsl panel before synchronising with the second pic. Then I opened them both in Photoshop, place one on top of the other, and masked out where the missing part of the meteor was. This just left a small gap where it had travelled while the camera was between exposures, and a bit of cloning took care of that.In my camera bag
I'm just starting to get away from carrying everything I own "just in case", and now tend to think about where I'm going, and what I'm going to shoot. I always take spare batteries, lens cloth, LED Lenser P7 torch, as well as a head torch, and hand warmers, along with a 50mm F\1.8 and 24-120 F\4 lenses along with my favourite tripod for a night shoot. However, I also love making timelapse films and tend to use a Nikon D7100 for that, along with a the Samyang 16mm F\2 which I find is a great lens for that camera.Feedback
Luck plays a huge part in a shot like this, but remember, meteors can, and do, happen ANY night of the year. Do some research online, as to when there are meteor showers due, and head out on these nights to increase your chances of success. Choose a dark location, and set up your camera, on a tripod. take a few shots, making any necessary changes, to get your scene and exposure right. Once you have a picture you're happy with, set your cameras intervalometer to take another photo immediately, as the first one ends. At this point you can lay down and watch the sky, retire to your car for a couple of hours, or go home and return in the morning. - Just don't touch your camera! It's also worth noting that I tend to use this method for catching lightning too. (Storms tend to be quite short lived here in the UK, and I find this method works best for me).
