How To Light Paint Foreground In Astrophotography
The Tablelands
Heaven Exposure: Star-stacked blend of 10 exposures, each at 14mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 10 seconds
Foreground Exposure: Foreground Exposure: Blend of two exposures, each at ƒ/ii.eight, ISO 1600, 8 minutes.
Nikon D810A, Nikkor 14-24mm ƒ/two.8
Go ready to stay upward all dark taking in the wonder of the stars. Astrophotography, which is technique of capturing long-exposure photos of the heavens is immensely rewarding. It combines recreational time spent in the outdoors and photography to create images of the cosmos that are largely hidden from view. A few simple steps tin exist the divergence between successful images of the sky and a blurred jumble of lights.
Earlier nosotros starting time, I want to annotation that the images in this article are the consequence of blending multiple exposures together in Photoshop considering arriving at a a low-noise and in-focus wide-angle epitome at night usually requires multiple exposures, something I'll cover in detail.
Choosing A Camera And Lens
Until recently, you needed a generous budget to capture high-quality images of pinpoint stars in the sky, but over the past few years cameras have come up a long mode, and you tin can go practiced results with a mirrorless camera and a fast wide-angle lens, such as a Sony a6000/a6300 or Fujifilm X-Pro2 and the Rokinon 12mm ƒ/2 lens. The Olympus O-MD serial of cameras has a congenital-in feature to "stack" multiple exposures into one final image, and the results tin can be exceptional.
Sky Exposure: Star-stacked blend of five exposures, each at ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 14mm, x seconds.
Foreground Exposure: Alloy of three exposures: two at ISO 1600, ƒ/2.8 for 10 minutes, a third at ISO 1600 for 30 seconds at ƒ/5.6 with light painting on the immediate foreground.
Nikon D800E, Nikkor xiv-24mm ƒ/2.8
The highest-resolution night images are still captured using full-frame cameras, such as the Nikon D810A (a camera tuned specifically for astrophography), Canon 5D series, Sony a7 series, and the Pentax K1—whose built-in GPS allows the camera to move the sensor to capture perfect, precipitous stars. The truth is though that you can produce amazing night sky images with whatever modernistic cameras.
You want a big-aperture broad-angle lens that is sharp with minimal chromatic aberration fifty-fifty at its largest aperture, or at least at ƒ/2.8. To capture as much light equally possible in the sky over a xxx-second or shorter exposure, your lens needs to be pretty sharp even at its largest aperture, or you'll get soft stars.
Capturing The Stars
To capture pinpoint stars—as opposed to long star trails—you demand to utilise exposure times that are generally 30 seconds or less. The bodily exposure time will depend on your focal length. A full general rule of pollex is the "500 Rule", which states that your focal length (35mm equivalent) divided into 500 gives you an exposure time that would have small amounts of star trails.
Sky Exposure: ISO 3200, 14mm, ƒ/2.8, 25 seconds.
Foreground Exposure: ISO 1600, ƒ/2.8, 20 minutes.
Nikon D800E, Nikkor xiv-24mm ƒ/2.8
Using this formula, a 50mm lens would need a 10-second exposure—500/50mm=x. However, I personally find this rule often results in star trails that are too long, so I usually back off the exposure time.
You too need to use a loftier ISO in order to capture plenty light from the nighttime sky. By and large, ISO 3200 or college is a good kickoff. An ISO setting that'southward too low won't capture enough detail in the heaven, and one that's as well high might event in more noise than stars. Experiment to find the all-time results with your camera.
When shooting single exposures of the sky, I'chiliad oftentimes at a focal length of 14mm, with my aperture gear up to ƒ/2.8, an exposure time of 25 seconds, and an ISO betwixt 6400 and 12800 on my Nikon D810A.
Foreground Exposures
Since yous need to capture the stars at a very wide discontinuity, focused at infinity, and a very high ISO, the foreground will be out of focus and noisy. Past taking additional exposures of the foreground at different focus distances and lower ISOs, yous will have a cleaner and in-focus foreground that you can alloy with your heaven exposure in Photoshop to create a single prototype that has pinpoint stars and the entire scene in focus.
This panorama consists of ten vertical shots stitched together in Photoshop. Each shot was at ISO 3200, 14mm, for 25 seconds at ƒ/ii.8.
Nikon D800E, Nikkor fourteen-24mm ƒ/2.8
When possible, I like to shoot my foreground exposures at ISO 1600 or lower. The exposure time tin vary anywhere from one infinitesimal to 30 minutes, depending on the ambience light. You tin apply light painting to brighten the foreground for a shorter exposure time, simply this tin can lead to harsh shadows and specular highlights. I usually prefer to capture the scene using ambience light.
Star Stacking
You lot can create an image that has truly pinpoint stars with exceptionally low racket past using a technique known equally "star stacking." Using this technique, you take multiple very curt and very high ISO exposures of the stars, and then align and boilerplate those exposures together in software. The event has pinpoint stars due to the brusk exposure time, with very low dissonance due to the averaging of the noisy images.
Sky Exposure: Star-stacked blend of ten exposures, each at 14mm, ISO 12800, f/ii.viii, ten seconds.
Foreground Exposure: Blend of ii exposures, one at ISO 1600, f/2.8, ii minutes and the other at ISO 1600, f/2.viii, iii minutes.
Nikon D810A, Nikkor 14-24mm f/two.eight.
You tin do the alignment and averaging in Photoshop by masking out the foreground in each prototype before doing the alignment, so putting the aligned layers into a single Smart Object and choosing the Median blend way for the Smart Object.
If you're on a Mac, yous tin can utilize the program Starry Landscape Stacker (available on the iTunes Mac App store) to automate much of the star-stacking process for you. Y'all can then take the resulting star-stacked image and alloy it with your foreground exposures merely as you would with a unmarried exposure for the heaven.
Chasing The Aurora
Photographing the Northern Lights is a lilliputian different than astrophotography, in that your exposure time depends on the effulgence and movement of the aurora. Generally, you're forgoing pinpoint stars and doing whatever is necessary to get a good aurora shot. If the aurora is bright plenty, y'all tin can use a very short exposure to capture the pillars and arcs of light and freeze them more, simply if the aurora is very dim, yous may need to practice a longer exposure to capture plenty calorie-free—at the cost of blurring the aurora motility. I've used shutter speeds of anywhere from ane second to 30 seconds with the aurora, depending on my location and the conditions. Other than that, the foreground exposure technique and blending foreground with the sky in Photoshop is the same.
Sky Exposure: Single shot at ISO 3200, 14mm, ƒ/2.eight, 1 second.
Foreground Exposure: Single shot at ISO 1600, 14mm, ƒ/five.6, 2 minutes.
Nikon D810A, Nikkor fourteen-24mm ƒ/2.eight
For star stacking at 14mm and ƒ/two.8 with my camera, I usually use ISO 12800 for 10 seconds, and take 10 exposures. You should experiment to find what works with your setup. Some cameras will accept a lot of magenta sensor racket on the border of the frame when shooting a actually high ISO for a short fourth dimension, so keep this in mind and run into how your photographic camera performs. You may need to bring the ISO downward anywhere from 1/3 of a stop to a full finish to go rid of the magenta noise with these short ten-2nd exposures. When I was using a Nikon D800E, I needed to shoot at ISO 5000 or 4000 for star stacking to avoid the magenta racket trouble.
Dealing With Hot Pixels
Hot pixels are the bane of dark photographers. They happen excessively with long-exposure, high-ISO photos. The easiest merely often most fourth dimension-consuming way to go rid of them is to use Long Exposure Noise Reduction (dark frame subtraction) in your camera. This setting causes the camera to accept another exposure at the exact same settings as the bodily exposure merely with the shutter closed, and so use that "dark frame" to map out the hot pixels in the actual exposure before writing out the file. This effectively doubles your exposure time. If yous're doing star stacking, you don't demand to use dark frames since the averaging process will go rid of hot pixels, but single-heaven shots and long-exposure foreground shots oftentimes take lots of hot pixels. If y'all don't desire to wait for the night frame exposures, there are ways to do it in software, but this tin be time-consuming, besides.
Find A Nighttime Sky And Shoot!
At present that y'all know the basics, get out under a clear and moonless dark sky, away from calorie-free pollution, and practice.
Sky Exposure: Star-stacked blend of ten exposures, each at ISO 12800, f/2.8, 14mm, 10 seconds.
Foreground Exposure: Blend of two exposures at different focal distances for depth of field. Both shots at ISO 1600, f/2.8, xv minutes.
Nikon D810A, Nikkor fourteen-24mm f/2.viii.
Essential Gear For Astrophotography |
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| Full-Frame Camera. While yous can become amazing results with fifty-fifty ingather cameras these days, you'll have the to the lowest degree frustration and best quality with a mod full-frame camera. Bright Wide-Bending Lens. You'll want ƒ/2.viii or better, and on total-frame 14mm or so is great for ultrawide shots. Sturdy Tripod. For long exposures, sometimes in the air current, you'll demand a reliable and sturdy tripod and head. Remote Timer. You'll likely demand a remote release or intervalometer to do exposures longer than 30 seconds and star stacking. HeadLamp with Ruby LED. Salve your night vision past using a headlamp that has a red LED manner, available in many headlamps these days. Hand Warmers Or Other Lens Heater. For keeping moisture off your lens at night. Cotton Cloth & Air Blower. Cotton soaks upwardly water, microfiber doesn't. You lot may demand to wipe the wet from your lens and/or dry information technology with the blower. Eyepiece Shade. If you're using a DSLR and the eyepiece doesn't have a built-in flip-down shade, then y'all'll need something to cover the eyepiece to prevent low-cal leakage during long exposures. |
Adam Woodworth is a landscape photographer, fine-fine art printer, award-winning filmmaker, and software engineer. He has had a love of photography for nigh of his life, and 1 of his master focuses is landscape astrophotography. To learn more than well-nigh his techniques, check out the video tutorial available on his website: www.adamwoodworth.com.
Updated August 10, 2016
Published Nov 30, 2015
Source: https://www.dpmag.com/how-to/shooting/night-light/
Posted by: badgerspitied.blogspot.com
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