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Milky Way and Turrialba Volcano
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Milky Way and Turrialba Volcano



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Turrialba Volcano at Costa Rica, below the Milky Way

Turrialba Volcano at Costa Rica, below the Milky Way
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cameraNIKON D810

settings Aperture f/2.8 ISO 3200 Shutter 20/1 Focal Length 140/10 

upload_dateMar, 2018

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10 Comments |
stigfagerli PRO+
 
stigfagerli December 22, 2018
Fantastiskt flott 👍👍👍👍
TomasTar
 
TomasTar December 23, 2018
AWESOME
RickL PRO+
 
RickL March 09, 2019
Exceptional photography
DNproSTUDIO
 
DNproSTUDIO October 21, 2019
so amazing this landcape view
scartras
 
scartras October 03, 2020
Muy buena 👍
mariesydney
 
mariesydney October 27, 2020
very nice
zabiullahsaifiaskari
 
zabiullahsaifiaskari February 03, 2022
Outstanding
Yashia
 
Yashia November 20, 2022
I love it ❤❤❤
raninaidoo
 
raninaidoo November 22, 2022
Brilliant
KirstMuller PRO+
 
KirstMuller Feb 26
Incredible!!

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken in the slopes of the Turrialba Volcano, in Costa Rica. I love night sky photographs and every new night shot is a new challenge that becomes pretty much a new learning.

Time

This was probably the most challenging Milky Way image I have ever taken. Since the Turrialba Volcano is actually active, there are some restrictions to get close to it. So, the challenge started on getting the permissions so we could have access to the 'Hacienda La Central' (Central Farm) area. We were a group of 6 photographers and once we were authorized to get in we started hiking at 3 AM and we walked around 45 minutes until we found that right spot heading southeast and offering such amazing view for the volcano cone almost right below the galactic center. Temperature was around 3 Celsius degree at the time this picture was taken on March, 25, 2018 at 4:02 AM. After taking some other images (you can see them in my gallery) we stayed at the place until the sunrise.

Lighting

Lighting for this picture was also a little challenging. There were some clouds at the zone and also, right in the same galactic center direction there was a town down in the hill. So, light pollution was present in some way. Luckily, there was also enough wind that moved the clouds a little bit and helped to uncover the most of the Milky Way. It is still possible to see some 'yellow' toned clouds in the right of the image, but in the end they gave the picture a little of mystery and warm to the picture.

Equipment

The image (which is actually a two pictures panorama merge) was shot on a Nikon D810 with a Rokinon 14mm Prime lens, all setting to a f/2.8 aperture, ISO 3200 and 20 seconds shutter speed. The gear was set up on a light travel tripod and a remote shutter release was used for avoid any kind of camera shaking.

Inspiration

Star-gazing and the night sky always inspired me in some way. Actually, it was the idea of taking night sky and Northern Lights pictures that inspired me to be a photographer. When I bought my first camera back in 2014, I made the decision based on several reviews for "the best cameras for shooting the night skies". At that point, based on the reviews and in my budget, the winner was a Nikon D610. I still own it and it is my actual backup camera for night sky shots since now I use mainly a Nikon D810 for that sort of pictures. So, I don't need any additional inspiration for shooting the Milky Way since our galactic center was one of the original inspiration for me to became a shooter :)

Editing

I always shot raw for night sky images. So, my workflow consists of several steps that often includes Lightroom, Photoshop, Nik Collections and some other tools depending on the type of image I shot. In this particular case, I first imported the images into my Lightroom catalog. I use to use an import preset for automatically perform Lens Corrections. After that the next step was to merge the two images as a panorama. Basic adjustments were made in LR for White Balance, contrast and brightness, including highlights and shadows. I used some Adjustment Brushes for dodging and burning the Milky Way so I could pop up a little bit its highlights and shadows. Since there was some clouds in the right, I also pushed the Dehaze option a little bit. After completing the basic adjustments I imported the image into Nik Collection for reducing noise a little bit (using the Dfine 2) and for some color adjustments (using Color Efex Pro 4). Color Efex Pro has some amazing tools for color balancing and adjustments. I really recommend it for the color adjustments of your night skies images.

In my camera bag

I never leave home without carrying my gear pack. The first thing into my bag is my all-in-one Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5:5.6. With that lens, at 28mm I can take wide angle landscapes and scenes, and the lens length range allows me also to take nice portrait at 85mm as well zooming birds and other kind on nature stuff at 200mm or 300mm. Then it comes my FXs Nikon D810 and D610, and my DX D500 bodies. If I am about to shoot sports or wildlife I included my Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 Contemporary Version for getting even closer to the action. And to complete the pack, I also include my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 for portraits, my Tamrom 180mm f/3.5 1:1 lens for macro photography, my Rokinon 14mm f2.8 for wide angles, and my Opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 fish eye lens too. Also, I never forget the two spare batteries, tripod, additional memory cards, a wireless remote shooter, the Yongnuo YN685 speedlight flash and a set of ND filters for long exposure landscape shots.

Feedback

For me, shooting the night sky is one of the best sort of photography. If you are thinking about taking that kind of images my advises are the same anyone can easily find out around the internet, youtube and thousands of photography pages and blogs. Get a fast wide angle lens, a tripod and a remote shutter (cabled or wireless) for reducing shaking. Plan your shots during the New Moon phase. Also, depending on where you live, probably the Milky Way will only be visible at some specific time of the year. So, I also recommend to use some astronomy tools like Stellarium or Photo Pills so you can plan your shots based on where you are. Those tools will tell you precisely the directions and the visibility hours where you can see the Milky Way in the sky at any location and at any date. Stellarium is free for PC and paid on mobile, and Photo Pills is only for mobile as a paid version, but it is not that expensive and it worth any cents if you want to plan night sky shots. Also, some light pollution map like lightpollutionmap.info will help you to avoid locations where the light can compromise your project.

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