03/13/13 Featured Arkansas Photography–January Night skies over Roark Bluff

Night skies over Roark Bluff on the Buffalo River–click on image for a larger view

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.