The Countless Stars of Heaven's Field
Our Galaxy, in all its Glory
I've been posting a lot of photos of the Milky Way recently. It's not on purpose, it just kinda worked out that way. I love night photography and capturing the core of our galaxy - it's such a beautiful sight, and the camera can pick up so much more detail than our eyes can, so... #sorrynotsorry.
Once again we are at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in Utah, (south of Salt Lake City), on an exceptionally dark and clear night. I was renting the Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 - a lens renowned for its clarity when photographing stars. The light-capturing ability of the Rokinon, paired with the excellent high-ISO performance of the Nikon D750, made for a formidable nighttime duo.
(I'm not the only fan of the Rokinon: @caseygrimley recently shared a photo of the Milky Way taken with the 24mm f/1.4 - it's a stellar lens, if you'll excuse the pun, for night photography, because it's so sharp).
This photo was shot as a vertical, but I cropped off the bottom half because I realized afterwards that the composition was stronger in landscape orientation. It was a multiple exposure - one 10-second frame for the sky, and another longer frame at a lower ISO while I light-painted the dunes with a flashlight and LED panel.
Incredible! Crazy to think what could be out there
You never know, there might even be a Tesla Roadster out there somewhere.
So pretty man. I need to get into astro stuff. I was looking recently at the Rokinon 14mm, I need an ultrawide. What do you use in that department?
I use the Rokinon 14 f/2.8 in that department. ;) It's pretty good - I have nothing to compare it to, but I've heard that it's better than the Nikon 14-24 in how it handles coma. Given that its so cheap it's a great lens to have around, even for daytime stuff. Manual focus isn't a big problem. Most night photographers seem to have this lens, though some prefer making panos with the 24 or 35 instead.
Sigma just came out with a 14mm f/1.8. It's way more expensive but if it's in your budget may be worth a look. I don't know how it compares.
Awesome, thanks for the info. I definitely won't be getting the Sigma, not worth it in comparison, in my opinion. I was looking pretty hard at the Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 w/VC though. That looks intriguing. It's just as sharp as the nikon, more useable zoom range, best VC in the biz. Will probably wind up with that one, though it's a bit more expensive
Can't speak for the Tamron - I would search specifically for how it performs with the stars (some otherwise very good lenses have what they call "coma" that distorts stars when wide or nearly wide open).
Obviously if night isn't your primary concern, it doesn't matter. :)
I wish I didn't use filters so much - those bulbous lenses would be too much trouble and added expense for me.
I had all three, the Tamron, the Rokinon/Samyang and the Nikon 14-24. Overall the Nikon was the best so I kept it and I am very happy with it. But it also depends on the sample you get. Especially the Rokinon/Samyang lenses are known for its wide sample variation.
Oh, interesting! Even for stars the 14-24 was better?
At 2.8 the Nikon was sharper at the edges than the Tamron. I think it was about equal to the Samyang.
Wow how I wish I could see that beautiful night sky too, I'm always longing to see it personally and experience how beautiful the night sky would be.
I don't want you to have false expectations - the Milky Way will not look like this, with the level of detail and colors, simply because the camera is able to expose for much longer than our eye can, and so it can capture more light. But if you've never been in an area with truly dark sky, you will nonetheless be blown away by how many stars you can see!!!
okay okay thank you for the informations, but still I'm looking forward for this kind of night sky.
Oh yes, it's not to be missed! :)
Pictures are wonderful!! Beautiful desert with sparkling star on it. many thanks for info :)
Thank you! :)
What f-ratio did shoot the sky at? I'm impressed if that was wide open.
As for the image another great composition!
Excellent question - it wasn't wide open - I think it was f/2.0. This lens performs better when it's stopped down a bit. You'd notice a lack of sharpness if you shot at f/1.4 and then looked closely.
That's the same story for most if not all lenses. The Rokinon 14 f/2.8 is better at f/4.
And thank you. :)
Even at f2.0 it would be an excellent performer.
Yes, it is! I've heard people say their quality is a little hit or miss, but I think my rental lens was a good copy, because it was so sharp!
I'm dying to rent it again or buy it, and use it on a star tracker.....
Yes make sure you can return it if it is a bad copy. Having said that I've seen some bad premium lenses as well, like a Canon L (which I ended up fixing myself - there are centering screws inside the lens you can adjust).
Did that void the warranty? :)
It was a second hand lens, I should have returned it to the guy but I kind of didn't use it straight away, so found some info on how to fix decentering in that lens. It was pretty obvious decentering as the stars were elongated even at the lens center.
I guess that's the same principle as collimating a newt?
This is amazing @derekkind!!!
Thank you, @jasonrussell!! :)
Great photo. The foreground fits perfectly: not too much detail to distract from the milky way but with a line which leads into the image...
Thank you, I'm glad you think it works well! :)
Love it mate ; keep on posting them !
Thank you! This is my favourite so it might be downhill from here until I can take more. ;)
The composition is beautiful and you pulled of a nice light painting as well... You know, I started getting taking photography more serious because I wanted to do astrophotography. Now, I am doing everything else more then astro... But the Milky Way season is coming and I will make that change for a couple of months :)
I feel the same, it was the main reason I wanted a better camera - I want to do astrophotography way more than I have been. Part of that is not being in the right place at the right time - this trip was an exception!
Good luck! :D