Last Night

[orionid]

So, I went out last night in search of star trails with Geminids and a cool old dead tree in the foreground. Sky was clear, except a light haze to the east, and the moon was still below the horizon. A last-minute check of weather.com’s hour-by-hour showed clear skies until 8 AM.

Test Frame by Orionid, on Flickr

I set up with a composition I liked, fired some test frames, set the trigger and walked away.

Then, 90 minutes later, I came back outside to fetch the camera. The sky looked like Hurricane Irene all over again, just without the rain. This is straight from the camera:

Fark You, Weather Channel by Orionid, on Flickr

Fortunately, I know a little processing-fu, so although not fark-eligible, I was able to keep it from being a total wash. Attempt number one: Adobe PS CS4 with Camera Raw and Topaz Adjust 4.0

Recovered via TopazAdjust 4.0 and Photoshop CS4 by Orionid, on Flickr

Attempt number two: Psuedo-HDR processing with Photomatix Pro

Recovered via HDR/Tonemapping by Orionid, on Flickr

[CauseISaidSo]

The HDR version’s actually pretty cool. I’d save that for the next Software Hootenany…

[lokisbong]

Both of the processed versions are cool.

[chupathingie]

wow, tonemapping recovered a LOT of info on that.

[orionid]

Thanks. I certainly like the tonemapped version more than the topaz’d, but neither of them are close to what I was shooting for. I’m going to give a couple more attempts on what looks like clear nights as the moon phases out over the next week and a half. I figure if I want to take star like this guy, before I worry about the awesome locations, I should work on mastering the technique at the convenient locations.

[chupathingie]

I can share what I know, if there’s anything in my little bag of tricks that you don’t already have figured out.

Was that a single 90minute exposure? if so, consider multiple subexposures combined in post. You have to have exceptionally dark skies to run exposures over say, 10-15 mins without saturating the sky. I’m surprised that there was anything to retrieve at all from a 90min exposure; just points out how dark the skies were where you took the image.

[orionid]

I can share what I know, if there’s anything in my little bag of tricks that you don’t already have figured out.

Was that a single 90minute exposure? if so, consider multiple subexposures combined in post. You have to have exceptionally dark skies to run exposures over say, 10-15 mins without saturating the sky. I’m surprised that there was anything to retrieve at all from a 90min exposure; just points out how dark the skies were where you took the image.

Yup, single 90-minute exposure. IIRC, ISO 200 at f/8 or f/11. It was also a full moon night, but I was pointed in the opposite direction and was hoping to catch what I could before it came above the treeline to the east (I failed. It lit those clouds up something fierce and turned them into a giant reflector in the sky). Skies are generally good where we live, but I’ve certainly seen better out in the mountains. There’s two small towns (2-3 stoplight) about 1.5 mile south and 2.5 miles north. Then nothing until medium town (60K people) about 11 miles north and 13 miles south. East is BFE until Quantico, which is mostly BFE and west is piedmont and mountains. I usually prefer to stack 30-second frames, but I was hoping this one would be Farktography legal, hence the single exposure.

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