Photo of the Week 2024-07-22

 

' MW Arching Over Hay Bay '

A first go at capturing the Milky Way Arch. Six vertical images, themselves each a stack of 4 exposures, stitched into a panorama. Processed in LR, PS and ON1.

 

There is no shortage of 'nightscape' images on the internet showcasing the Milky Way over dramatic landscapes. There are nearly as many processing styles, with options ranging from subtle single exposure versions to the surreal using stacking and tracking techniques to extract the last photon of light and detail.

Recently I was treated to a clear sky forecast while at the cottage and decided to take advantage of it to try out the new (to me) Irix 15mm f/2.4 for some night sky shots. I spent some time planning with PhotoPills, TPE and other online resources to determine time and position of the Milky Way core. I had not thought to try a stitched panorama capturing the full MW Arch until I was out on the shore near midnight and noticed just how much of it I could see.

The process of image capture was relatively simple, though it was my first time out under the night sky with my R5 and with a hew lens as well. I ended up capturing six sets of four images over a roughly 150* (estimated) field of view. I applied lens profile correction in Lightroom, then exported to TIFF's, then used Sequator to stack each set of 4 exposures, following some online tutorials. The resultant output from Sequator (also in TIFF format) were touched up for light pollution and bright cottage lights in PS, saved back to the TIFF and then stitched in LR using photomerge.

 

Challenges came mostly from the quarter moon shining bright to the SW, blazing lights from cottages across the water, and the ever present glare of Tobermory and the Ferry dock megawatt lights. All the aforementioned challenges were tackled using a combination of Lightroom, Photoshop and ON1 Effects adjustments, dodge, burn, clone, heal and curves techniques and tricks to achieve the result shown above.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-03-27

 

As we enter the last days of March, spring is truly upon us. No matter what the weather may throw at us, the Spring Equinox has come and the season has changed. Sunny warmer days with the emergence of leaves and flowers is not far off ... but before I get there with my photography, I have one image from the frigid depths of winter that I'd like to share.

 

Back in January, while looking after the farm for the youngin's, with a major winter storm forecast to slam Eastern Ontario, an idea for an image came to mind. With a fresh blanket of snow, I had thoughts of a night shot with the lights of the house glowing in the pitch black of night. Well ... add in blizzard like conditions with extremely heavy snow blowing off the roof of the workshop and here you have it !

' on a dark winter's night '

And here's the backstory ...

 

In the weeks and months leading up to my time at the farm, I was hoping for wintry, snowy conditions as they would figure prominently in my plans for photography. As luck would have it, the snow came and in a healthy dumping starting earlier one day and continued through that night.

After dinner, with cousin Steve who had come for dinner and a first visit to see the place I had talked so much about, I went around flicking on the interior and exterior lights. Then we donned the warm winter gear, checked for a charged battery plus a spare, grabbed the camera, tripod and headed out. Trekking down the lane and around the garden area I wanted undisturbed in the foreground, we made our way to the corner by the cedar rail fence. I set up a couple of compositions I liked and captured a number of frames for each, varying exposure so they could be combined in post processing to control the dynamic range of the scene. Done, I picked up the gear and headed in to continue with the after dinner conversation and adult beverages.

When I got around to processing the captured files a few days later, I was met with an unexpected challenge. For the composition I preferred, I had not captured an exposure where the brightness of exterior lights of the workshop were controlled. The lights and workshop wall were blown out beyond recovery in all the frames I had made. Undaunted, I grabbed one from another composition, fiddled for quite a while to manually adjusted the size and perspective to suit my preferred composition and meticulously aligned it as a layer with the others in Photoshop. Then I blended the portions of several frames together, adjusted exposure, highlights, shadows using a variety of steps in several work sessions.

All of this done, in the end I wish I had spent a little more time in preparation for the outing, paid more attention to the images as I was capturing them and confirmed rather than assumed that I had captured everything I needed. I normally don't spend as much time processing my images as I did for this one but  still, I'm very pleased with the result even though there is room for improvement.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-07-27

Once every 6,766 years ...

Finding Neowise

The NW view from the Tugs Deck in Tobermory at twilight, with little Neowise below the Big Dipper, above the last vestiges of a Huron Sunset.
 

I had attempted to see and photograph the comet Neowise a few days earlier but cloud cover obscured the SW night sky, thwarting the effort. With clear sky forecast from 10pm midnight, conditions were perfect for another go.

It took a while to 'see' it, even though online resources had me looking in the correct spot. The lights from the Dock and Chi-Cheemaun made if difficult for my eyes to adjust to the dark (I really wish there were a way to dim the dock lights and those of the ferry but still manage to maintain security in the area). As it got closer to 11pm, the sky had darkened enough for long exposures on the camera to pick up the faint tail and orb of Neowise.

I had chosen a good viewpoint, but not a good platform from which to photograph. The small deck, that provides access to the area of Little Tub where snorkelers go to see the sunken remains of the Tugs, was transmitting vibration from the waves striking it's supports, making most exposures (10 - 20 s) show as jittery points of light. I found I could not zoom in and get a larger image of he comet without exaggerating the issue and without skyline for context, I found it wasn't a really interesting composition anyway.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-09-29

...  she said, "I think you should make one of those in the tall narrow ones you do."

... so I did :-)

DJE.

Earth Hour 2013

What do I decide to do for Earth Hour 2013 ? Well there's a comet, PANSTARRS, that is visiting earth and these types of things are more easily seen when and where light pollution is lower so why not head out and see if I can find and photograph it. One of my photo friends, Vince, had success recently, but he's more experienced at night sky photography. 

Some botched communication led to just Alan and I heading out to Pilkington Outlook in Waterloo Region to lay eyes and lenses on night skies. The text and email banter with the Third Musketeer (Swiss Guard may be more accurate), had us laughing and trading "zingers" back and forth as he sat at home in the warmth enjoying some Mondavi. (Sure Patrick, you meant Sunday night - LOL)

I can't say that the light pollution was any less for earth Hour as the moon was near full and provided lots of light to traipse around the Outlook between 8 and 10 pm. We never did see PANSTARRS because clouds were covering that part of the sky or perhaps because we didn't know exactly where to look.

After misidentifying a number of the astral bodies we came a way with a few images of the night sky, nothing particularly good, 'cause this stuff ain't easy. Mostly neurochromes (memories) and one passable, slightly blurry shot of the Orion Nebula.

Orion Nebula

 
Amateur Astronomers ... pffffffttttt

DJE