Jewel of the Sea in a Sea of Stars

[rogerg]

With it's aquatic feel and Venus shining like a jewel amongst the aqua sea and blue sea of stars, I like the surreal feeling to this. One of many astrophotography shots from Kalbarri, many more yet to be processed and still to come.

3 x 60s frame mosaic
Canon 6D @ 6400ISO
Canon 17-40 f/4 @ f/4, 17mm

I'm happy with the sky but wish I had more data for the foreground to increase it's sharpness.

http://astrophotography.com.au/product/jewel-of-the-sea/

Regards,
Roger.

[gregbradley]

That's really a good shot Roger. Everything starts looking better when you go beyond the manufacturers 30 second limit.

Was this done on a Polarie?

Greg.

[rogerg]

Yeap, with the Polarie Greg. The foreground shot of the three was not tracked.

[iceman]

Really beautiful roger. I really love this. Wish I'd been able to get out at night at Kilbarri!

[multiweb]

Lovely colors. Nice. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Way to go Roger.

Your image is very nicely composed with the MW at a diagonal and your coastline at a diagonal also.

90 seconds to 2.5 minutes in hindsight may've worked even better. Gee, 5 minutes would be even better!

I have found 90 seconds gives a compromise to the slightly blurred foreground but saturates the MW well. But foreground untracked and sky tracked means you have the freedom to go longer and use lower ISO and protect dynamic range (it drops heavily as you up the ISO ve 1600) and lower noise overall significantly. 2.5 minutes at ISO3200 I would estimate is close to an ideal setting for a 6D.

Greg.

[rogerg]

Thanks Mike, really appreciate your positive feedback. Are you staying at Kalbarri on your way back down the coast to have a second chance?



Thanks :)



Yeah, 90s is probably the balance I'll aim for, but regardless I always do un-tracked forground shots, I notice the difference in 20s+. I'm going back to Kalbarri soon hopefully and weather permitting will be trying a bunch of things including longer exposures. On the first trip I was as much as anything trying to get to as many spots as possible to scout for future trips, so kept the exposures short so I could move on quickly. Also on the first trip I was sticking to the one lens, but going back I'm going to mix it up a bit and do some more f/2.8's which will help the data.

[Octane]

Gee, Roger. Your finest image to date.

Very, very impressed!

H

[Larryp]

That's superb, Roger

[Ross G]

Beautiful photo Roger.

Ross.

[rogerg]

Thanks everyone for your positive words, the encouragement is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Roger.

[skysurfer]

Great image / composition !
But I have one notice: the image is too grainy so 6400 ASA is even on a FF body overkill. Try 4 minutes @ 1600 ASA and that greatly improves dynamic range as @gregbradley says.

[rogerg]

The main reason I'm have been surprised by the response to this image is I thought the noise was too noticable. I think the problem is more the colour noise than the grain, I don't have a significant issue with grain in it but do the blotchy colour noise.

I don't agree with your blanket statement regarding 6400ISO on full frame though. In this case the camera had come straight from a hot day in the sun doing landscape photography, and it was a warm night so hadn't cooled down significantly. If I'd noticed at the time, I would have gone with 3200ISO and taken 3+ shots to stack, it would have been fine then. This was only single exposures.

:thumbsup: