Milky Way and Startrails Alongside Manawatu River

**nadlyaizat** · 29-02-2012, 09:27 AM

Hey guys,

The weather was very good last night and moon set out early so I decided to walk alongside the river with my camera. Plus, I want to test my new Samyang 14mm f/2.8 and its infinity focus (since it was miscalibrated, but I managed to find out the infinity point at 2m mark).

The difference that I want to try this time is to make a vertorama. And at the end of the session, I made a startrails (which I was lucky to capture as much as possible as the thick cloud was coming in at the end). The only problem that I experience was to illuminate the foreground as the place was very dark. I may bring a torchlight next time.

So these are the pics that I managed to capture:

#1

Nikon D700 | Samyang 14mm | f/2.8 | ISO800 | 30sec

#2

Nikon D700 | Samyang 14mm | f/2.8 | ISO800 | 30sec

#3

Nikon D700 | Samyang 14mm | f/2.8 | ISO800 | 30sec

#4

Nikon D700 | Samyang 14mm | f/5.6 | ISO1000 | 103 X 30sec

That's all. Hope to hear from you guys

**SteveB** · 29-02-2012, 09:48 AM

Very nice. You've captured a lot of stuff in those. I agree that a bit of foreground light painting would have worked well.

**Paul.** · 29-02-2012, 04:29 PM

Beautiful, nice one. I like the static shots better than the star trails, but the star trail is nice too. Distant light pollution gives the sky a nice colour i reckon.

**nadlyaizat** · 29-02-2012, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by SteveB

Very nice. You've captured a lot of stuff in those. I agree that a bit of foreground light painting would have worked well.

thanks SteveB

Will come again sometimes, but have to rid off the moon light.

Originally Posted by Paul.

Beautiful, nice one. I like the static shots better than the star trails, but the star trail is nice too. Distant light pollution gives the sky a nice colour i reckon.

thanks Paul. thinking to repeat again someday, perhaps a better location this coming mid sem break.

**Adam** · 29-02-2012, 07:09 PM

THe milky way ones at great. Almost look like a waterfall falling from the sky! Be good to see them a bit bigger?

**Jos** · 29-02-2012, 08:29 PM

Beautiful shots, I too prefer the still ones.

**Christian Lim** · 29-02-2012, 09:26 PM

beautiful. though, if I may, did you check the WB of the images, I believe the starfields should be white. stars are blue here. if you want to stay away from light painting, then you might have to wait until the moonrise so the foregrounds will also be a bit illuminated. cheers!

**nadlyaizat** · 29-02-2012, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by Adam

THe milky way ones at great. Almost look like a waterfall falling from the sky! Be good to see them a bit bigger?

thanks Adam. Looking forward on it. Need a telescope though.

Originally Posted by bigROBOTbill

Beautiful shots, I too prefer the still ones.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Christian Lim

beautiful. though, if I may, did you check the WB of the images, I believe the starfields should be white. stars are blue here. if you want to stay away from light painting, then you might have to wait until the moonrise so the foregrounds will also be a bit illuminated. cheers!

Thanks Christian Lim. I was shot these images with auto WB which turned the images pale red. Since all of these are RAW images, I did change the WB to tungsten to remove this red cast. I tried another options as well (incandescent, sodium vapor etc), but still got the same result. Can I get your suggestion on how the WB suppose to be? Like how many Kelvin will be for these stars to turn white? Thanks in advance.

**Christian Lim** · 01-03-2012, 02:36 AM

that's a tough question because one has to be at the scene itself to make the adjustment given the ambient light which also affects the image during capture. even a sigma lens compared to a canon lens on the same body will have a bit of difference in cast, and or play/interaction with the available light. usually i shoot a night shot like this using 3000k-3200k but it depends on how blue the sky is... and what time it is of course. try to use the white balance picker in ACR and find the spot that turns the stars white. also check the green to magenta slider to get rid of color cast that may arise after setting the WB. cheers!

**SteveB** · 01-03-2012, 08:08 AM

If you want to get star shots with some foreground, the moon between new and first or last quarter (as it is now) is just right. Not too much light to wash out the stars and enough to get shadows for texture.

**nadlyaizat** · 01-03-2012, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by Christian Lim

that's a tough question because one has to be at the scene itself to make the adjustment given the ambient light which also affects the image during capture. even a sigma lens compared to a canon lens on the same body will have a bit of difference in cast, and or play/interaction with the available light. usually i shoot a night shot like this using 3000k-3200k but it depends on how blue the sky is... and what time it is of course. try to use the white balance picker in ACR and find the spot that turns the stars white. also check the green to magenta slider to get rid of color cast that may arise after setting the WB. cheers!

thanks mate. that's really helpful

Originally Posted by SteveB

If you want to get star shots with some foreground, the moon between new and first or last quarter (as it is now) is just right. Not too much light to wash out the stars and enough to get shadows for texture.

thanks SteveB

Will try this again in the future