Cape Leveque Nightscapes with the Vixen Polarie

[Octane (Humayun)]

Lovely images, Mike. The glow is superb.

These are fine in my books, too. Although, I do tend to agree with Greg (I'm one of those stinkin' purists), I would be upfront about compositing several images from different times, or systems, etc.

H

[Phil Hart]

nice effort Mike. did you shoot these on sunny white balance and leave that alone in post processing? if so the colours are probably pretty 'real'. certainly the red airglow is.

did you try the half speed option? you could have done a 1 minute exposure at half speed and not noticed any more trailing of either stars or foreground than in a normal 30 second exposure. you'd have kept greg and colin happy and saved yourself the processing hassle? of course that's one stop less exposure than what you got but still pretty good..

and i question (again) this notion that one day technology will make today's 2 minute shot possible in 30 seconds. what is the limiting factor in these shots.. i'd say shot noise rather than 'noise' internal to the camera (which used to be the case). is technology going to increase quantum efficiency by a factor of four? (and yes.. i do have a chip on my shoulder about this! ).

great shots (from the whole trip really!) and an interesting thread.

Phil

[colinmlegg (Colin)]

Originally Posted by philiphart

and i question (again) this notion that one day technology will make today's 2 minute shot possible in 30 seconds. what is the limiting factor in these shots.. i'd say shot noise rather than 'noise' internal to the camera (which used to be the case). is technology going to increase quantum efficiency by a factor of four? (and yes.. i do have a chip on my shoulder about this! ).

Of course there's still that untapped technology going on inside your head, Phil.
Copying that should get some pretty incredible images with a 30 second integration.

[gregbradley]

What about using a physical mask over the lens that you hold in place with your hand so the foreground exposure is controlled to be about 20-30 seconds and blocking out the sky then turning the polarie on and masking the foreground section.

Haha ! A true authentic photo Octane grad filters style!

Greg.

[CapturingTheNight (Greg)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

What about using a physical mask over the lens that you hold in place with your hand so the foreground exposure is controlled to be about 20-30 seconds and blocking out the sky then turning the polarie on and masking the foreground section.

Haha ! A true authentic photo Octane grad filters style!

Greg.

That idea is actually not that dissimilar (apart from the tracking component) from the technique know as the "magic glove" that I use to get images like Rising Tide http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=91345

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks H and Phil.

Phil, I didn't try the half-speed option. That would still be a compromise and would end up with slightly trailing stars and a slightly blurry foreground.

I can see it would be useful for those times where a composite isn't practical or possible - maybe the foreground would be too hard to mask or whatever other reasons.

[Analog6 (Odille)]

Fabntastic shots, Mike has said straight up front they are composites so why all the debate in the first pkace? This is more an image in stacked style than an obvious 'insert'.

Anyway, I came to ask Mike if this is just with the basic Polarie. Does one need the $200 fine tracker Polar Axis Scope? I plan to shoot wide shots, not tele lenses.

I do plan to get one soon and try for some good star shots. On that note, at the moment I will be using either Canon 1DsMkII or 40D body with 17-40 f4 lens. Now I realise f4 is not ideal but can't shell out for the 16-35 till I sell the Blad and it is not shifting, I think it likes me and wants to stay here LOL.

What exposures wpuld I be looking at with an f4 lens for these type of scenes?

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Odille

You don't need the polar scope. I didn't have the polar scope for any of these shots. Just aligned south with my iPhone compass, and set the latitude (on a very rough scale) to the latitude I was at.

At f/4 you'll need around 1min exposures, which is more than possible with the polarie when aligned. You'll want to use ISO1600 on your 40D. Not sure about the 1Ds.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Great shots, and I think the gentle exageration of the nightscape with some layering of shots is fine.

Greg - I'm largely in agreement with your rule set, but I would be slightly more restrictive on point 2 and demand that all images are taken in a single session (which may be a long one!)

Maybe we take a little lesson from the US National Press Photographers Association: "Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects."