Terlingua Cemetery

[Michael Lloyd]

A small group of us met in Terlingua, TX for some night star / light painting but we ended up getting clouded out except for the last night. We decided to use our star access pass and shoot the old Terlingua ghost town cemetery (still active BTW). No ghosts were harmed in the making of this image.

This is essentially right out of the camera so some improvement from cropping is likely

EOS1DMK4 manual mode
14mm f2.8L II on an old ARCA Swiss ballhead mounted to an RRS ground pod

ISO 3200
30s @f3.2 (this was supposed to be f2.8 but obviously a dial was bumped)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Michael,
Great minds think alike!!!.....my last image was of a cemetery too! I might lighten the stones a bit but I like the comp with the 3 crosses and your angle. All in all very well done! Looks like you nailed the focus!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Michael, this is very well done! Has a bit of a spooky feel to it!

[John Ippolito]

Michael, this has a powerful feel to it. I love the comp and the very dark tones. If you lighten the stones, I wouldn't lighten much. Very nice indeed.

[Michael Lloyd]

Thanks Roman- you're guide played a part in the creation of the image :S3: I had a lot of fun on this outing. I tried some things I've never done and I got to show some fellow photographers around Big Bend. A couple of us did some time lapse work. Unfortunately for me I missed the focus on my only attempt so I didn't get a decent movie. Next time I'll use my right angle eyepiece. The ground pod is great for getting low but not so great for seeing the eyepiece.

A friend of mine got me started on shooting time lapse. It's addicting! Here's a link (http://vimeo.com/user4674673/videos) to some of his work. We had big plans to shoot mostly night and time lapse shots but Big Bend was cloudy for all but one night. We are planning to return in September.

Andrew and John- I like the feel of the image too. I have another version that I lightened in CS5 and it has a different feel to it.

I have a few other versions and locations here (http://500px.com/Mike_Lloyd) and here (http://wildlightimagingstudio.com/p1072203583)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Looks like you had a blast Michael.....and a pretty good Milky way!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Sounds like you had a good time! Lovely composition...I feel there should be a few more stars visible given your exposure time and techs?? :2

Did you run NR on the foreground? Even on my 7D when I use ISO3200 for nightscapes I don't do NR on the foreground in post...only adjust the LR sliders.

[Michael Lloyd]

I think that the lack of stars is more about exposure than noise processing. I uses Noiseware Pro and I didn't see that it reduced the star field much if any. If I push the exposure and brightness up there is more detail in the star field. It's a matter of whether or not I want a moody image or an astrophotography image with foreground clutter in it. Personally I like them both ways

[Morkel Erasmus]

I hear you Michael...I think the "sweet spot" is somewhere between you OP and repost?? :e3

[Michael Lloyd]

I agree.

The first one is right out of the camera other than the conversion from RAW to JPG. The second one is pushed as far as I would care to go and it does have a pass of Noiseware Pro run on it

We had a great time shooting. Sounds odd for shooting in a cemetery but we did :bg3: