I Can See The Light…

Sea Girt Lighthouse shot after spending an hour making a star time-lapse. I think I’m going to like this better than the time-lapse.

Processing was quite extensive and is as follows….

1. Change color temperature.
2. Apply lens correction in Lightroom 5.
3. Correct vertical perspective using auto upright in Lightroom 5.
4. Worked with highlights to brighten stars.
5. Synched all corrections to 3 brackets.
6. Import into Photomatix for tone-mapping.
7. Dodging and burning in Lightroom.
8. Used tonal contrast preset in Color Efex Pro (love this preset).
9. Changed purple and yellow color channels.
10. Struggled with color temperature.
11. Struggled with color temperature (really).
12. Added vignette.
13. Sharpened and reduced noise in Lightroom.

Did You See It?

Awesome solar halo today in New Jersey…….

Many Moons Ago…

Literally, I took this shot last summer during my astrophotography phase. I remember the night being so illuminated that people were out and about like it was the middle of the afternoon. I can’t figure how I got his shot with so few people in it considering there were families all over and at least a dozen people surf fishing at 11pm at night. It was a great night!

This is sooc with only a slight vignette added for mood. I can’t wait to do this again with my 5D as I will be able to control noise so much better. Maybe I’ll even catch a shot like this.

It Would Help If I….

I was pretty excited when the skies cleared during our second night of our camping trip because I knew two things: 1. we had a new moon phase and 2. the ambient light would be minimal in our remote location. These are perfect conditions for capturing the Milky Way.

Well, it didn’t start out all that great….let me explain. I grab my gear and head out for a short walk around the other side of the lake from our campground. I get to a clearing in the forest an set up my gear. Now mind you, it’s pitch black. I need my handy led flashlight to see the controls of my camera. Pointing the led at the camera, I set up the proper aperture etc., point the camera at the milky way in the the sky and start snapping away. 30 sec exposure, 40 sec. exposure, 50 second exp., not one damn star shows up in my screen on the back of the camera. What the hell is going wrong? I try a 90 second exposure and still nothing. Okay, great, the opportunity of a lifetime(at this point) and my cameras broke. take the battery pack out, play with the controls a bit….. nothing! 20 minutes goes by and I’ve got not one picture. I take a deep breath and start thinking(yes, again) What’s the only thing I haven’t checked?????……..

No, it can’t be that….yes it is…. I hadn’t taken the damn lens cap off the camera. Can you believe it? What an idiot:)

Anyway, that did help:) and after playing with my settings a bit more I did manage to get one or two shots that are usable. Yes, only one or two because the noise produced on my old Canon XTI @ iso 800 is pretty bad.

Have a great weekend and remember….. take the lens cap off:)

You May Need To Sit Down For These….

…epic shots. Like I said they aren’t anywhere need the status of  Jack Fusco’s shots so it’s back to the drawing board as they say.

I have to to a bit more research on this type of photography (thanks Mike) and get back to it, maybe during my annual trip to Ocean City, NJ will give me the best opportunity to see the Milky Way. So check back soon!