Stars

Photo: Door County Star Trails

Star trails from a 12 minute exposure taken on a perfectly dark night at Peninsula State Park in Door County, WI.

Back Story

It’s fairly easy for me to say that this is new crown jewel in my night sky portfolio, no question.

The family and I were up in Door County, WI last weekend as kind of the last peaceful moment before the holidays kick into high gear. Joining us were my wife’s aunt and uncle, who were responsible for us exploring Door County in the first place.

For the last weekend in October, the weather was extremely nice and the skies were incredibly clear for most of our time there. While exploring the state park in Fish Creek during the day, I made a comment on how nice it would be to come back at night and shoot the stars. Well, that’s what we did.

The Setup

After shooting individual 30 second exposures for about a half hour, I decided to break out of that and go a little longer. So I found the north star (which was a little tricky since the sky was just littered with stars, mind you) and shot a 4 minute exposure at ISO 1600.

Liking what I saw after the 4 minute exposure, I decided to expand on that to get what you see here. I dropped down my ISO to 100 (4 stops) and then tripled my exposure time to 12 minutes, shooting wide open at f/4 on my 24-105mm lens.

Even on the LCD screen afterwards, and showing my wife and her family while zooming in, it looked pretty nice. I would have tried going for a 24 minute exposure, but with everyone with me, that would have been too much for me to ask of them. Maybe next time.

Tweaks in Post

It would have been interesting to see how the 24 minute exposure would have came out, since I ended up increasing the exposure in post by 2 stops. I also cooled down the WB a bit to get back to more of a black sky, an the noise reduction in Lightroom helped quite a bit, too. After bumping up the Clarity slider to 100, you have what you see above.

I also had a quick 4×6 print ran off yesterday, and was very happy with how it transferred from my screen to print. Next, I’ll probably try to blow it up more and see how it looks on a grander scale.

Until Next Time…

Even though much of my previous night sky shooting was done in Maui, the conditions there were never as great as I had seen them this past weekend. And who knows when I’ll get to be back with conditions like that again. I may have to wait an entire year, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it. I’ll be prepared to be there all night (or at least until the park closes at 11pm).

In any case, this was my first attempt as shooting star trails like this, and I have to say it’s pretty fun.

Photo: Big Dipper Redux

Photo: A different look at my Big Dipper image thanks to a cropping suggestion from Andy Beal.

What can I say, there may not be such a think as a “finished” image. After a great tip from Andy in yesterday’s Before and After post, I went back into the darkroom and spun this image out of Photoshop.  Many thanks to Andy for not only identifying the potential for a new look for the original image, but also for taking the time to leave a comment.

Moving Heaven and Earth

Okay, maybe just heaven.

My first attempt at this cropped version was a little off.  If you check the original image, you’ll notice that the right-most star in the Big Dipper constellation was actually captured to the right of the two chairs in the foreground. Now look at this image again.

Bet you wouldn’t have noticed it if I didn’t point it out, eh?

It was pretty easy to do, actually, by just duplicating the layer, moving it to the left and adding a gradient mask to blend it in.

Why Stop There?

I’m leaving this image as-is for now, since I like the simplicity of the scene and they well recognized Big Dipper – which was the reason I shot the scene in the first place.

At some point, I could take it a step further, and instead of the Big Dipper, I could swap it out for this image of the Milky Way I shot on Maui last September. The possibilities – like the universe in this case – truly are endless.

– Kris

Before and After: The Big Dipper

The previous two editions in my Before and After series have featured the use of the Topaz Adjust plug-in for Photoshop.  Sometimes that extra creative step isn’t needed, and the following images demonstrate.  Many times it’s just a few minor tweaks in Adobe Camera Raw that will do the trick.

The Before Image

Most people will recognize that as the Big Dipper constellation, which I captured here over the waters of Sturgeon Bay in Sept. ‘08. It’s a neat little shot, but I wasn’t happy with the orange tint. Also, I had took a few liberties when I cropped this image initially, so I thought there might be something worth bringing back into it on the redux.

The After Image

I took a few different approaches to redoing this image. What I ultimately ended up with was processing the RAW image twice – known as mutli-RAW processing – to preserve some of the darkness in the sky while adjusting some of the foreground elements.

By processing the elements of the scene independently on separately layers and applying the changes using a gradient mask, I essentially keep the best of both worlds and have an image more to my liking with relatively little extra effort.

Thoughts?

For one, I definitely like the detail on the right with it’s color more in check and not gushing orange hues.  However, each time I look at that after image, I still think to myself, “is the foreground too bright?”. Since I save checkpoints at each step in my workflow, it wouldn’t be that difficult to go back and just darken the chairs on the pier just a tad.

Well, what do you think?

Photo: Stars Over West Maui

Photo: A starry sky on a perfectly clear night above Black Rock in West Maui.

Another reminiscing photo from my first ever attempt of shooting the skies back in ‘07. Call it beginner’s luck, or having the perfect canvas to work with.

We’ll be heading back up north to Wisconsin later this week, and I’m starting to think of some of the shots I want to work on this trip.  We have seen some great night skies that far north in previous visits, and especially in the winter if the skies are completely clear.  Sure, there’s about a 60-70 °F difference between this image and anything I see this weekend, but layers just aren’t for Photoshop, you know.

Into the Night

Maybe not as favorable for stargazing, we’ll be staying right near downtown of the biggest city in Door County, WI (that’s Sturgeon Bay for anyone playing along at home).  Still, I’ve been getting more socially active on Flickr lately and some of the night shots I’m seeing in the Night Images group pool have me itching to stay up late and shoot.

I mentioned that a little bit back in September when I said the night was my new golden hour, so it won’t be too far out of my norm.  Plus, we’ll be staying right on the bay, walking distance from where I attempted this shot in Sept. ‘08.

As I like to think that both my field skills and my talents in the digital darkroom are now much improved since this shot, I get excited about the new possibilities this trip.

And, seeing as it’s the middle of January, I don’t think I’ll be worried about getting washed out this time, either.

Back to the Stars

Getting back to the original photo, if you’d like to see more of my night shots of the heavens, click through to my Astrophotography Portfolio. The one of me and the Milky Way is starting a little bit of chatter on Flickr, at least compared to my other images in the past.

Photo: Milky Way above Black Rock

Photo: The Milky Way in the western sky above Black Rock outside the Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali.

This is the very photo that enticed me into astrophotography in the first place, and was an instant favorite. Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime shot given what little I knew about shooting the night sky 2 1/2 years, but after about a dozen shoots under the starry heavens, this image is still one of my best works.