03/15/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–Night skies over Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River
- At March 15, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
Taken with a Nikon D800e, Nikon 14-24 Lens @ 14mm, F4.5, iso 400, total exposure time approximately 40 minutes. This shot was taken back in January, but it was a great night to be out shooting the stars. The temperature was around 29 degrees and there was virtually no wind. We started shooting at dark and by about 1 hour into the night we were getting excellent runs. This shot is a composite of 40 minutes taken in 2 1/2 minute exposures at iso 400. I will then stack the exposures to catch the motion and create the trails. The blue sky is due to the moon. If you work with the moon at night you will be pleasantly surprised by the results. It will give a nice blue hue to the sky and also provide all the illumination to the bluff that you see in this photograph. This is not a daylight/nighttime exposure as many people think. This is all done at night with the aid of the moon. As was looking up, it makes the perspective of the trees a bit more interesting, as if they are looking into the photo. I am going to start working at night with a Canon 24mm TS-E for perspective control where it will give me a good enough FOV, which on this shot I needed all of the 14mm I could get. You are looking to feature the sky, but you still want to get as much of the foreground as possible.
03/13/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–January Night skies over Roark Bluff
- At March 11, 2013
- By paul
- In Featured Arkansas Photography
- 0
Taken with a Nikon D800e, Nikon 14-24 lens @14mm F 4.5, iso 400. Image taken in a series of 2 minute exposures and stacked to capture motion. This was my first trip with the Nikon D800e for night photographic capture. I had used the D800e throughout the 2nd half of 2012 but was never able to coordinate a good night for a shoot. I prefer to have a clear night with a 1/2 to 3/4 moon and on the 20th of January in 2013 all of this came together. There was also very nominal wind for the entire night. This particular shot was taken looking downstream so I can featuer Roark Bluff and still capture Bee Bluff, the next bluff down river. All of the on the bluff and riverside trees is from the moon and no light painting was needed. The moon is a wonder ally with night photography, giving you a great blue hue to the sky along with adding just enough illumination to see the foreground details i.e. bluff, trees, etc. I was very pleased with the results of the D800e at night. The 14-24 lens at F4.5 still was extremely sharp and the corners of the shot were very useable. I noticed no coma in the stars and very little chromatic aberration. I used Capture One 7 to convert the raw files and stacked them in Photoshop CS6 to capture the star motion. I then combined various versions of the foreground image until I got the best overall image.