Milky Way over Arscenic Arch

[CarpeyBiggs]

A nice payoff for what ended up being an adventurous night last night. For some reason, I remembered this arch being a lot closer to the road, and the approach being fairly straight forward. It was not. Ended up being 3/4 of a mile in pitch black, over somewhat complex territory. Big props to Wyoming Dave for bringing along Mr. Geepus, an iPod, and some speakers while we waited for the 1/20th moon to set (bottom right.) Notice the small shooting star over the arch as well.

Poison Springs, Utah.

(more to come as i get the time)

http://danransom.com/blog/images/20090329145002_arscenicmilkywayshootingstar.jpg

[rooster32]

Great pic. I really like the night shots you have posted up over time. I need to give that a go this summer while camping.

Did you stobe the arch or light it up with a big flashlight? Need to learn how to set something like this up. Care to share you exposure setup?

Thanks :2thumbs:

[asdf]

SICK
:2thumbs:

[Kent K25]

Got a larger version I could steal and use as my desktop background?

GREAT pic!

[DiscGo]

Way cool Dan!

[Cirrus2000]

Zoinks! Gorgeous. First thing I noticed was the shooting star - very cool!

[CarpeyBiggs]

thanks all. one more from a couple nights ago at little egypt.

http://danransom.com/blog/images/20090329194254_littleegyptmilkyway.jpg

[ststephen]

These are fabulous!

How are you illuminating the rock?

[DiscGo]

I prefer the more recent picture of little Egypt. That is way cool! Although the shooting star is awesome in the first picture.

[DiscGo]

Really, though these pictures are fantastic.

[rockgremlin]

http://danransom.com/blog/images/20090329194254_littleegyptmilkyway.jpg


Dan -

Could you email me a larger version of this pic? I'd like to use it as my desktop.

Thanks in advance.

:2thumbs:

[asdf]

Very nice Dan :2thumbs:
Did you using any in camera noise reduction?

[oldno7]

Great shot's as always Dan.

[CarpeyBiggs]

These are fabulous!

How are you illuminating the rock?

Thanks. The arch is lit with a tikka xp headlamp. Little egypt was lit with a camera flash, handheld, 3 times as I walked around.


Did you using any in camera noise reduction?

No. Try to take care of the noise in post. Though, these types of images lend themselves to really high ISO. They are stars after all, so they look like grain. A little noise is no big deal. I just get rid of the chroma, leave the luma.

[CarpeyBiggs]

Great shot's as always Dan.

thanks kurt. :five:

[Brewhaha]

Impressive! You lit the arch with a headlamp? What was your shutter speed?

[Wild One]

Dan, as usual--sick pics.

Would you mind sharing your EXIF info? PM if not here?

:hail2thechief: :hail2thechief:

[CarpeyBiggs]

no problem.

ISO 3200, f2.8, 30 seconds, canon 5D, 15mm fisheye. light from either another camera flash, or my tikka xp headlamp

contrast and color correction in post, clean up the noise. no compositing.

[Scott Card]

Those are fantastic Dan. Sorry to have missed you and WyoDave. The guys that I was with on Saturday were in way too much of a hurry to get home. Steve and Clark said you were skinnier. Sounds like you need to hang out with the Mapleton boys and have a dutch oven dinner or two. After all, Dutch oven John and I have beat anorexia. :haha:

[CarpeyBiggs]

yeah, bummed to have missed you guys. i was there friday night, but didn't come down to 'thrax, since it seemed there were tons of people.

not sure i can say i am really skinnier than before. but 3 months of asian food probably didn't bulk me up too much, that's for sure.

hopefully next time :2thumbs:

[accadacca]

Cool stuff Dan. :popcorn:

[Wild One]

no problem.

ISO 3200, f2.8, 30 seconds, canon 5D, 15mm fisheye. light from either another camera flash, or my tikka xp headlamp

contrast and color correction in post, clean up the noise. no compositing.

nice.

Thanks man

[bryan]

Carpey,
Having tried some night photography as a novice, I'm amazed at how great your shots come out. It's not easy. My biggest problem is obtaining good focus without closing down the aperture too much, which leads to 1 minute + shutter speeds.

Do you use a hyperfocal distance scale to set focus? I'm surprised at f2.8 you can get both the arch and the stars in focus. I guess the 15mm lens helps (my widest is 18mm). Also, I'm guessing your camera's ISO 3200 is much less noisy than my Nikon D40's?

[CarpeyBiggs]

Carpey,
Having tried some night photography as a novice, I'm amazed at how great your shots come out. It's not easy. My biggest problem is obtaining good focus without closing down the aperture too much, which leads to 1 minute + shutter speeds.

Do you use a hyperfocal distance scale to set focus? I'm surprised at f2.8 you can get both the arch and the stars in focus. I guess the 15mm lens helps (my widest is 18mm). Also, I'm guessing your camera's ISO 3200 is much less noisy than my Nikon D40's?

hey bryan,

i always shoot at 2.8 on the 15mm at night. shutting down the aperture is proactive, since you are trying to let as much light in as possible.

the depth of field on a fisheye is astounding. the arch is probably 30 feet away. at that range, the arch and everything behind it is easily in focus. not sure what the exact hyperfocal is for the lens, but i don't really worry about it. with a lens that wide, it's hard to make anything out of focus, unless it is 3 inches from the lens.

yes, the 5d is very good at high iso. plus, i have some other tricks. but, stars are particularly good for high iso, because they mimic random noise in and of themselves, so the noise is less noticeable.

to get good focus, set your focus at infinity (to get the stars) and then back away from any features you are lighting enough to have them fall into the focus plane as well. and shoot wide. 18mm on a d40 wide open should still have a remarkable amount of dof, if you closest object is say, 20 feet away. shouldn't have a problem holding it all in focus.

happy shooting

[bryan]

Thanks for the tips. I'll keep working at it. :cool2: