Milky way 2014

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Ok I have finally got a full shot of the milky way, this is my first attempt at such a photo so I am quite happy with the result. The quality is majorly squashed here as the full size (reduced) is still 500mb. I had to wait until after 01:30am for the moon to set, the orange glow is a fire slowly burning in the park.

Adding EXIF.

14mm
ISO 5000
f/2.8
30second
WB manual 5000k but then put in auto in LR5 and synced all 8 frames.

Each photo was taken in portrait mode (The first one a few time so that I could get enough distance in the foreground and allow for more room in the sky) in hind sight I should have also done another few in landscape mode and merged all together. This is for next time.

Feel free to rip it to shreds.

Milkyway 2014.jpg
 
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hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Wow, another absolutely fantastic shot, Scott! ;)

I don't know if you have access to a PC, but if you do you should check out Caesium to reduce jpegs. It's surprising how well it works, and it lowers the file size by quite a bit.

Caesium - Image Compressor
 

Krs_2007

Senior Member
Scott, I have looked at this picture 3 times and will look at it even more. That is a fantastic shot and I dont think I can find one thing wrong with it except the fact that I didn't take it.
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Well I would say that next time I would probably reduce the exposure time from 30sec to 25sec as I can see small star movement.
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Rip it to shreds??? Ok... It's HORRIBLE, and you don't even deserve the equipment you used to shoot this FARCE with! Ship it ALL to me immediately!!!

Or... to translate: Wow! I'm envious! Fantastic shot, Scott!!
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
GREAT SHOT Scott. I guess you'll return the Rokinon to get your money back... :)

These little lenses are quite surprising for their price. I only have the 85 1.4 but I'm very happy with it's IQ and sturdiness.
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
GREAT SHOT Scott. I guess you'll return the Rokinon to get your money back... :)

These little lenses are quite surprising for their price. I only have the 85 1.4 but I'm very happy with it's IQ and sturdiness.
Yeah I might sell it to [MENTION=11881]Moab Man[/MENTION] for double the cost ;) but shhhhh dont tell him lol
 

wornish

Senior Member
Fantastic shot, you should put a full size version on Flickr.
I am so jealous of locations where there is no light pollution here in the UK we are lucky to be able to see the moon.
 

egosbar

Senior Member
need my 11-16 , just have too win at the local races this weekend and ill be looking into getting the same sort of shot

heres a great free program too let you know the time of night it will look like that , just google a new moon and hope the skies are clear

stellarium is the program , if you get it just go on the left hand tool bar and make the milky way 10 times brighter so it looks like that , its really worth a look if you want too take these shots
 

SteveH

Senior Member
Fantastic shot Scott!
Also, I second Stellarium - I used it loads when I had my telescope years ago, very useful tool for anyone taking night sky shots.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Absolutely lovely, Scott. If I'm going to pick nits then the only one I have is with the atmospheric condition that caused the dark vertical stripe on the left. I agree that the fire spot adds character to the shot. Well done. I don't know that I've seen many Milky Way shots that don't have some star movement. That said, according to the star trail calculator here (grelf.net - Star photography) even at 25 seconds your star is going to wander across 9.5 pixels on the D800 (you're getting 11.4 at 30 secs). Not a lot of movement, but it's going to be there. I wouldn't worry about it - the glow from the Milky Way is what you want.
 

T-Man

Senior Member
Very nice shot, sir! I have no critical input to add, and I'm not sure I'm even qualified to do so.

I really admire your work, and I appreciate you posting your shots! I joined this site to learn from folks like you and a few others here.
 
a few days late on this, but what a beautiful shot that is!! I love the composition! Great job! What lens did you use? I have a few night shots too, but nothing even close to yours, going to practice again soon.
 
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