Milky Way over Arscenic Arch

[accadacca]

Cool stuff Dan.

[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.