Some of my Lostock Nightscapes

[sheeny (Al)]

Here's a few of my nightscapes from Lostock. I was pushing the little OM-D EM-1, I know, so the images are relatively noisy compared to a current full frame DSLR.

I find most of my night scapes have a red/brown cast, which I'm experimenting with the best ways to remove. Sometimes, Auto levels helps, but sometimes not. Other times I've used the selective colour layer to manual adjust the images. Some of these were processed before I started doing that, so they will show the cast. I had left the white balance in Auto when I took these shots... should I use something else instead?

1. A Cross through the Tree.
2. Lostock Sky.
3. Under the Southern Cross.
4. Orion and the Watchers.
5. Tree Reflections.
6. Magellanic Road.
7. Orion Reflections.

Al.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

A nice set of images haven't seen any nightscapes with the EM1 before, What lens were you using? The stars look very sharp. My favourite nightscape lens when shooting with the GX-1 is the 20mm 1.7, the 14mm 2.8 is great but just a bit slow.

What ISO were these images taken at? The noise looks pretty good, I assume you had dark frame subtraction on?

Cheers
Jo

[acropolite (Phil)]

Nice work Al, i don't mind the colour, looks like the weather was good.

[h0ughy (David)]

Glad you had a great time Al

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks guys. I was using the Oly m.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8... didn't take it off all weekend. So my landscapes and star trails will all be at 17mm. There's a mix of 3200 and 6400 ASA in that lot I think. All 15s, which shows some trailing in the full sized frame, but not objectionable. 30s was too long for the 17mm (equivalent of a 34mm full frame).

The weather was pretty good, Phil, well... when it was good. Last night was cloudy, but the others were great. ... and then there was the biblical storm and tempest we awoke to... was it Saturday morning? That was just to make us really appreciate how good it had been! It was a bit of an adventure down by the river in Chateau Sheeny! Like being in a sub that can't stand the pressure!

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by nebulosity.

The noise looks pretty good, I assume you had dark frame subtraction on?

Cheers
Jo

Yep. Standard in camera noise reduction for these. I turned it off for the star trail / time lapse sequences I shot. I'll manually subtract the darks for them.

Al.

[iceman (Mike)]

Great shots Al! The colour is because of your white balance. Mine tends to do it when I use high ISO too.

Just adjust them down to about 4000 kelvin instead of probably 5800 where they are now.

[Rod771 (Rod)]

Nice shots Al

I really like the Orion refection image. I wish I had got it in a shot before it set.

Well done!

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks Rod. That was actually a vertical panorama (with camera in landscape position) of 3 shots.

Al.

[peterl]

good shots Al.
that camera is working well. always good to experiment with new technology to see how it handles astro work.. well done.
peter.

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks Peter. Its definitely not to camera you'd buy to do this sort of stuff, but as a lightweight all rounder it doesn't do too bad.

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

OK, since CS5 won't play with my camera's raw files I have started using Olympus Viewer 3. A bit clunky, but the results are better than starting with JPGs I think.

I also found late in the session that the 17mm lens has some vignetting, and started to correct for that.

Al.

[iceman (Mike)]

Looking good Al!