Astrophotography: Volume Two (All Original Work)
This week, I've decided to mix things up a bit, by showing a few of my "startrail" photos, as well as my regular starscape ones.
For the star trails, I use a method known as stacking, whereby you take a bunch of 30 second exposures - one directly after the other - for about an hour (the longer you go for, the longer the trail becomes). Once you're done shooting, load all your photos into your favourite image editing program, and merge them all together. It's a bit more time consuming, but the results below speak for themselves.
As for the regular starscape ones, they have a maximum exposure time of about 20 seconds - any longer, and streaking will become visible. A full guide on both these methods will be coming up soon (in the meantime, I've listed all my equipment used at the bottom).
Hopefully you enjoy these photos, and I'll be posting more when I've had the chance to head out of the city again and do some proper photography. But until then, take a scroll through these and let me know what you think.
Equipment used:
Canon 6D
Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens (for startrails)
Rokinon 24m f1.4 lens (for milky way photos)
Lightroom CC for edits
Oh God, your pictures are fab. At first when I saw them I was like how it could be possible but then I read your post and came to know how you do it but again, Incredible job man.
Followed and upvoted you to not miss out the interesting content coming from you in future.
Thanks for the awesome comment @suf1an! I'm hoping to make a post soon where I go into more detail about the exact camera setting used / editing process. Maybe it will inspire more people to get out there and try it for themselves :)
O really? That's great. I am waiting for that. I would love to learn it.
Damn! These pictures are PERFECT! We've been doing a promo campaign at work using the sort of dusk-ish light of the sky and composing stars in which these reminds me of. #2 wins the money for me! Such an awesome shot.
Thanks for checking them out! Lots of people seem to like the second one the most, so I guess thats the "money shot" :)
Followed, these are seriously awesome!
Thanks @kjnk! Seriously blown away by the response my photos are getting, just makes me more motivated to get out there and take some more :)
congrats. you deserve it :) photos are mindblowing :)
Thanks @rifkan! I remember you commenting on my first astrophotography post, glad to see you're still here for the second one :)
you are welcome.
Top quality photos you have here Gareth.
I will be trying this type of photography once I get a chance to get away from the light pollution where I live.
Keep up the excellent work and I look forward to seeing some more of your shots in the futrure.
Thanks for the comment @ozzy158. Indeed, getting away from light pollution is key to getting these types of photos. I'm usually at least 50km away from the nearest town when out on an astrophotography journey, and even then, a faint glow is sometimes visible on the horizon.
I posted a few extra photos a week ago, take a look here if you'd like to see some more: https://steemit.com/photography/@garethb/astrophotography-volume-one-all-original-work
These photos are breathtaking! Great photography skills!
Thank you @jacksongroves! Glad to see so many people like them, makes me motivated to get out there and take some more to share with everyone :)
Wow, your images look amazing. I particularly like the glow in picture number 3. You inspire me to get back to taking long exposure photos myself.
Thanks for the comment @oyvindsabo! The glow on the clouds was from a town a couple of miles away - wasn't visible to the naked eye, so a bit of a surprise seeing it come through in the photo.
You should get back out there, it can be quite a therapeutic experience :)
These photos are breathtaking. Where were they shot?
Thanks @mirella! They were mostly all shot in the Drakensberg region of South Africa. It's an area far away from major cities, so there's minimal light pollution.
Let the people know the truth about the flat, domed earth! Excellent shots! The Heavens declare The Glory of God
very Original Work) and floower you