A night at the Barn

[Roman Kurywczak]

John asked me to share one of my night images here with you.......so if you have any questions feel free to ask or if you would prefer you can PM me with them.

I know many of you have been to the Tetons to photograph the barns on Mormon Row......I have the usual shots of this over the years and even a few night ones......but this year I was trying for something a bit different.....especially with the iconinc locations of the area. This continues my moonlit series that I was trying this time out but with a twist......I forced my hand under the door and put a flashlight inside the barn to give the look of a bulb or candle being on inside......rest is moonlit.
Canon 1D Mark lll wit the 17-40mm lens at f4 for 30 seconds and ISO 6400 all tripod mounted w/ bubble level in the hotshoe. Slight wide angle correction in photoshop. I did also take this at the more traditional area......but I actually felt the WA lean added to this.

[Joel Eade]

Roman,

A fabulous effort and result, can you share your post processing workflow? I would be especially interested in your noise reduction techniques.

Joel

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Joel,
no problem.....first let me state that I have seen a difference in the camera bodies at that high ISO in all the major manufacturers. The 2 top dogs.....the Mark lll and the D3s......have better results than the step down models (my personal opinion based on client images/results).....that doesn;t mean you can't get as good results.....you may just have to work harder in some of the PP'ing or use faster glass! A 2.0 or 2.8 will probably be unbeliefable!!! All that being said.....you still need to do some work in post. I first start with the normal levels or curves corrections.....then generally do a seperate layer of either selective ccolor......white, neutral, and black channel....on the sky. With the moon out I often need to do more on the sky....always keeping in mind that it isn't quite as dark as it is when there is no moon. This gets rid of 75% of the visible noise in the sky. A few small passes of Noise Ninja (less is more) on the sky....even less on the FG if it was lit takes care of the rest. I do feel that the future generations of bodies from both manufacturers will only get significantly better.....so this will only improve over time. You get VG results at ISO 1600 - 3200 on most bodies......so just keep the camera limitations in mind! Hope this helps.

[Julie Kenward]

Awesome image, Roman. I stopped down in Landscape last night to check out your others from this trip. Fantastic stuff!!! I love the "candle lit" window but the tilt of the barn with the line of the horizon and the deep tones throughout the image really makes this one extra special.

My question for you is this: When you have a sky like this one, how do you decide how much is too much? You're obviously not using the ROT's here as there is way more sky than FG...so do you crop to a specific size or ratio or do you just stop at the point that you think it looks best?

[Maureen Allen]

This is an absolutely beautiful image. Thanks so much for sharing your pp workflow.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Awesome image, Roman. I stopped down in Landscape last night to check out your others from this trip. Fantastic stuff!!! I love the "candle lit" window but the tilt of the barn with the line of the horizon and the deep tones throughout the image really makes this one extra special.

My question for you is this: When you have a sky like this one, how do you decide how much is too much? You're obviously not using the ROT's here as there is way more sky than FG...so do you crop to a specific size or ratio or do you just stop at the point that you think it looks best?

Thanks all! Jules......I normally just shoot at 17mm.......because that is where I know exactly where the lens focuses! For me it is about the night sky......so I tend to minimize the FG's and use the stars as a compositional element. If I had a smaller amount of stars.....I don't think it would convey the sense of the night as well. At least that's my take on it. Hope this helps explain some of my though process.

[Joel Eade]

Thanks Roman

[John Chardine]

I love the image Roman. The inside light really adds an element of life. I am impressed that you are not seeing star trails at a 30s exposure but I guess the 17mm focal length helps there. I assume if you want star trails you make them obvious (long) and if you don't you expose like you did. Is the barn angled that way or are we seeing some distortion from the wide angle used?

[Roman Kurywczak]

I love the image Roman. The inside light really adds an element of life. I am impressed that you are not seeing star trails at a 30s exposure but I guess the 17mm focal length helps there. I assume if you want star trails you make them obvious (long) and if you don't you expose like you did. Is the barn angled that way or are we seeing some distortion from the wide angle used?

Hey John,
The longer the length.....the more you get movement in that same time period.....that is why I use the WA......and yes the severe angle is what caused the lean. I have one in a more traditional spot where the barn was closer to my film plane angle.....so no leaning edges. As we are discussing in the landscape forum....some like it and some don't.....mostly because they feel there is a disconnect between the barn and sky. I wonder if I should post the other angle here for comparison or a new thread for people to see the difference? Let me know your thoughts on this.
Here is the link to the landscape forum for comparison: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...359#post583359
If the mods here want me to post it.....let me know where or I can just leave this link.

[Bob Miller]

Wow Roman! This is awesome! I love everything about it...the sky, the WA tilt of the barn roof...and the light. What phase of the moon ?
Ok so WA takes care of the star trails but how do you get all the dof with an f4 aperture :confused:
I am going to Australia next week and hope to try some of these along the coast. You and others on this forum have inspired me to try some of these star field compositions!

[Bill Randall]

To veer away from the tech aspects of this image and go with how it strikes me. Overall a very exciting image of a very quiet subject. The color scheme of orange foreground and warm barn against the dark blue of the sky is a vibrant combination. The exposure and detail in the mountains adds strength to the composition. The stars are icing on the cake.
Bill