Photo of the Week 2024-07-15

I thought this week's post may have been about my recent nightscape photography, given that a lens purchased for that purpose had arrived late last week. While I did get out on Saturday to give it a trial workout, other aspects of life, namely a new puppy, had other ideas for time that I had planned to learn some new image stacking software for editing the resulting raw files.

 

So I sit here at the keyboard on Sunday night, resigned to the fact that I don't have enough time or energy to get through a new workflow to show you the results of last night's shoot (amazing as it was that I managed to stay up until midnight to see the Milky Way rise in the sky). Instead, I delve into the archive for something and ... lo and behold, there's a nightscape image from over 4 years ago (albeit from winter) sitting there, ready to share.

 

' Front Row Seats '

 Dark skies at our cottage on the Bruce Peninsula are absolutely awe inspiring ...

 

This image was made with the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 on a Canon 5D MkIII DSLR. A while after I got rid of the 5D MkIII, I also hesitantly traded in the Rokinon 14mm with plans to upgrade it down the road. Now I have with the Irix 15mm f/2.5 in EF mount to use with the EF-RF adapter and Canon R5 mirrorless. Hopefully, I'll have something to show from this combination some time soon.

 

Up to now, all of my night sky / nightscape images have been processed from single exposures, as is the image presented here. During my shoot Saturday night, I was capturing multiple frames to stack later with software specifically designed for night sky work. Why? Well, in simple terms, because processing a single image shot at high ISO includes noise that can result in bright pixels ultimately show up like stars making for a busier than actual night sky. How much difference will there be? I hope t' let ya know.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-09-01

The last night of the last long weekend of summer ...

About a month ago, I made a first attempt to photograph the night sky over Hay Bay, the Bruce Peninsula and Lake Huron from the shore at our cottage. Conditions were not ideal but seeing the Milky Way appear, lead by many stars as a we sat at the shore enjoying the embers of a campfire, motivated me to give it a go.

Since then, during a week of vacation, an opportunity under much more favourable conditions arose and I was able to make some decent images (blog post 2014-08-18). For that possibility, I had come equipped with a particular lens, with characteristics more suited to night sky photography. I'm not certain how much the improved results were due to the selection of equipment, opposed to the more favourable conditions ...

... but, the results impressed me enough to do some further research on gear and technique in the effort to improve my night sky images more. My research led to an online discussion of lenses and which were recommended for the brand of camera I use. Never needing much of a push to acquire new gear, I picked up a ultra-wide FF lens, the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, a focal length not already covered by something in my kit.

As luck would have it, the next visit to the cottage looked as though it would offer only cloudy night skies and the Rokinon would see use just for landscape and trial images as I became familiar with it's manual focus and manual aperture control. Well luck changed and on the final night, the sun set through clearing skies and by 9:00 pm the first star was visible. I started to gather the equipment I would need and waited for the night to darken.

The challenge on this attempt, a waxing crescent moon throwing a tremendous amount of light over the bay and into the surrounding sky. At this particular point in the lunar cycle, the moon is just slightly west of the Milky Way when looking south across the bay. After making a number of exposures of just the sky, I decided to try a series that would include some of the surrounding landscape, water etc. I ended up including the moon and it's reflection on the bay. It required a fair bit of processing to get the look I wanted and I'm still not totally satisfied, but here it is ...

August Moon & Milky Way

I can can see spending many more nights working to capture the night sky at various locations on "the Bruce."    

DJE