Hey everyone...it's been a while now that I've wanted to try this. I wish I had known how to do this kind of thing on our hike through the Fish River Canyon last year as the starscapes where just unreal (the moon was dark). :(
All advice and critique will be welcomed here. We were on a farm this weekend and the sky was clear so I decided to try this out after scouting out this tree on the edge of a dam the afternoon. I could only get there after 9pm due to my father celebrating his 57th birthday, so the combination of a last-light shot for golden light with a night shot will have to wait until next time.
I painted the tree with an LED-headlamp, and cloned out some power lines sticking out above the horizon. I dare not venture into the ISO-1600 territory on long exposures with my 1000D (hopefully I will have that sorted after getting a D3s sometime soon ;))
Ideally I would want less movement in the stars, but as mentioned I wasn't prepared to sacrifice ISO for exposure time.
Techs:
Canon 1000D with 18-55mm IS @ 18mm
f4.0 @ 60s @ ISO-800
The light on the horizon and above the trees is from a nearby informal settlement (TIA - this is Africa! :))
You've painted the tree very nicely, it almost has an infra red feel to it. I agree with your assessment on the stars, but I don't find it detracts excessively from the image. I really like the sky colour, on my monitor it has a beautiful copper look to it. I would probably clone out the bright light on the horizon, rhs of image. Personally, I don't feel that the reflections in the water add much, but that is, no doubt, an individual ascetic. I feel that all the focus should be on the beautiful tree and I find my eye moving to the reflections.
Look forward to seeing more of these types of landscapes.
Hi Morkel, I like what you did with this. The tree is well lit with a nicely colored sky dotted with stars. The tree is offset within the comp with interesting distant silouettes. The brighter light on the rim of the silouettes does look a bit funky but not a major factor. Would of wanted a bit more base to the tree.
Roman has done alot of this type of image and curious to hear what his comments are.
Overall,nicely handled...
Hey Morkel,
site is finally up and running for me now.....must have been pretty calm as you didn't get any noticable ghosting in the tree from movement! Looks like you have a slight halo on the silhouetter horizon but an easy smooth out/fix. At ISO 800....this is about as much as you will get out of the stars. I think the magic number is around 27 seconds for movement.....but I generally do a 30 second exposure for the stars w/o a really noticable movement......comp wise you did nicely with the tree and painting and I even like the copper glow.....only way to get more out of the stars is perhaps a 2.0 lens.....but you may want to try an ISO 1600 shot and run NR on it slectively......you won't believe how much the 1 stop gives you more of in the stars! If you do get the D3....it has amazing high ISO capabilities.
Handled very well consideing the camera's limitations.....very nice start!
Above comments take it all in. Halo around tree tops and that little white light on the right side at top of trees....but when I first opened it, I thought, "Wow! This would make a cool Halloween card!)
Hey Morkel. I really like the comp you have here. One thing I do with my "painting with light" is put an orange filter over my light. I have a small piece of orange fiber that works really well. It just adds a slight warmer feel to the light. There is nothing wrong with the coolish light you have here on the tree, but I prefer a slightly warmer light. The High ISO capabilities of the D3 really do make experimenting to the extreme with nightscapes so much fun, and you really can get amazing results.
I think the stars are soft both due to the long exposure and the noise reduction I needed to run on the BG :o
Mark - looking forward to going on a nightscape shoot with you sometime after I get the new toys...
I hear what you're saying on the light temperature - had to completely desaturate the blue channel on the tree to get it as presented!
First night landscape - advice welcome please!!
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