Milky way over Rio Chama
Sep, 2019Views
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Zenith Award
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pamelamichellebartonstallings
December 22, 2022
Where was this taken? I can only see such a BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING night sky like this in pictures! I live in Alabama, USA and we NEVER get to see such MAGNIFICENCE!!! Keep sharing with the world! PLEASE!
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in Abiquiu New MexicoTime
I was with a group and we were out from sunset until 3am. This is the last place we stopped. It was right along the road on a bridge over the Rio Charma river, this was taken around 2am. We had to jump over the guardrail where there was about 4 feet before a steep drop off. It was a little scary in the dark!Lighting
Well it was taken at night and it was dark out so had to use very long exposures to capture the scene.Equipment
I have a Nikon Z7 with the 14-24 f2.8 Nikon lens. I rented the lens since my wide angle only goes to f4 and when shooting the milky way you need a large aperture. I used a tripod as well.Inspiration
We were out to capture the milky way but this scene really inspired me! The milky way over the river was so beautiful and I knew if I got the right exposures of the 2 different sections I could put it together in Photoshop and have a killer image!Editing
I had to blend 2 exposures the first for the milky way was 30 seconds. The second was for the ground and river. That exposure was around 3 minutes. When I got home I blended the 2 images in Photoshop. I masked out the sky in the second exposure and dropped in the shot of the milky way.In my camera bag
I have my Nikon Z7 as well as a Nikon Z6 converted to infrared 720nm. The 24-70 Nikon lens, the Nikon 14-30 both are Z mounts. I also have the Nikon 70-200 that I use with the FTZ adapterFeedback
If you want to capture the milky way New Mexico is a great place to go. Around Abiquiu there are not many lights so you can have a nice dark sky. Use the widest angle you have and the largest aperture. Divide 400 by the lens widest angle and the will be the longest exposure in seconds you can use and not get movement in the stars. (400/16mm lens = 25 seconds)
