A sky full of stars over the North Cascades. The yellow glow on the right is actually light polution from Everette/Seattle over 75 miles away in a straight line.
also of sahale with the Andromeda Galaxy
Sahale Peak above the Sahale Glacier. Above that, on the upper right hand corner, is the Andromeda Galaxy.
-------------- "Getting up is optional, getting down is mandatory"
Capturing better stars is one of my highest priority goals in photography, but I haven't had a lot of success. I've seen a few streak shots I've liked, but much prefer the more realistic look of sharp stars which requires high quality sensor (good high ISO) and a fast lens, and or an Astrotrac.
Here are a few of my best efforts, they look fine reduced size on the web, but wouldn't make good prints:
My favorite so far - Rainier (with climber's headlamp streaks) reflected in Tipsoo Lk.
North face of Rainier
Shi Shi
Here is one of the best star shots (using an Astrotrac) I've recently found that shows what I aspire to:
Bryce Canyon by Steve Perry
Steve has masterfully captured a beautiful foreground element that perfectly complements the stars and gives a fantastic sense of place.
I've read that star trails are a kind of "gateway drug" to night landscape photography...and I can see what they were talking about!
I've only done a couple of star trails - that one up top being the most interesting so far - and now I'm itching to get out to do some more. Too bad it's probably the worst time of the year for clear skies....
Now all I need a better DSLR, and a faster lens, and a lighter tripod, and.....
I did find this blog which was packed full of good tips on star related photography:
I thought the Nakashima barn outside of Arlington would make an interesting foreground. Unfortunately, the barn was much closer to the road than I had hoped and forced me to really crop my composition to avoid the lights from Hwy 9. I'm pretty happy with the results though:
Nakashima Barn Star Trail
-------------- Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
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-------------- Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
Here is one of the best star shots (using an Astrotrac) I've recently found that shows what I aspire to:
Bryce Canyon by Steve Perry
Steve has masterfully captured a beautiful foreground element that perfectly complements the stars and gives a fantastic sense of place.
That can't be done with photography, can it? There is too much detail in the foreground for a dark night. Split filter shading doesn't appear on the horizon line, so it must be a composite photo produced in photoshop.
...it must be a composite photo produced in photoshop.
Yep! I've learned that a large percentage of the really cool night shots I've seen are composites. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you. Photoshop is just the new darkroom.
-------------- Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
0
-------------- Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
No, I agree. It is a really cool image. I guess what is real in photography is up to the artist's discretion. For myself, though, I tend to like images that look real, without noticeable flash fill or visible split filters, etc. But, I do admit to using split filters occasionally; but never more than one or two stop splits, sometimes stacked and offset so they are less visible.
Still, my best star streak image is a three hour job silhouetting an ancient bristlecone. And that is not what I saw either. So, there you go...
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