"The Post" - Part 3 - Milky Way Over Nelson

Hey everyone, here is the third and final instalment of my Milky Way over Nelson series of the "The Shot," "The Shoot & The Gear," and "The Post."

Here's a video on how I post processed my Milky Way images. Really simple processing using only Lightroom.



Cheers!

DC

"The Shoot & The Gear" Part 2 - Milky Way Over Nelson

Welcome back! Moving along with part 2 of this series is "The Shoot & The Gear." I was back in Las Vegas in early August for Photoshop World, my second year attending, and it was awesome...again!

One of the pre-conference workshops I attended was lightpainting with Dave Black. Basically, lightpainting is done in the evening when it's dark, where you hold a long exposure for the ambient light, then move off-camera and use an LED flashlight to "paint with light" on your subject. Check out Dave Black's site to learn more and get inspired to try it yourself.

I mention the lightpainting as it's germaine to how I got the image above. To lightpaint you use a long exposure with the following starting point of f8, 30 sec, ISO 500, and then you adjust as needed to get a decent overall exposure. This is all done on a tripod, obviously. While doing this for over an hour you get pretty comfortable with managing long exposures, and you can get pretty good at predicting how varying exposures will look.

As the workshop was winding down I headed back to the bus, and that's where I looked up and saw the Milky Way (everyone with me had already seen it and were shooting so I was kinda late to the party; I was shooting in the other direction for most of the night). So I set-up and began shooting away. As I mentioned in my original post I shot in both landscape and portrait orientation. Always good to do both just in case you don't make it back to that spot. That way you can decide later on which one you like best.

Here we go with the gear and settings:
- Nikon D810
- 24-70 f2.8 (version 1 since a new version with VR has just been released)
- 24mm, f2.8, 30sec @ ISO 2500
- This was all done in "Manual" mode

I also used the timer setting with a 5 second delay (I was already using that for lightpainting as I needed the 5 seconds to get off camera with my flashlight). However, you can use a cable release or a wireless remote just as well.

I set my focus mode to manual and then to infinity by turning my focus ring all the way to the infinity mark, and then back just slightly. There are a few different focus techniques for shooting stars and such that you can Google, but for this I chose set it to infinity.

Aperture - you always want to shoot with the widest f-stop as possible so you can capture as much light, and as many stars as you can. For me this was f2.8; however, if your widest f-stop is f4.5 then go with that.

Shutter Speed - a good starting point is always relative to your focal length. Basically whatever your focal length is that will be your shutter speed in seconds. In my case I was at 24mm so the closest shutter speed was 25 seconds, which is where I started. I ended up bumping it to 30 seconds as I got a bit more light, and the overall exposure looked better to me. Again, take a few different exposures so you have some options later on.

ISO - I set mine to 2500. Again you want to capture as much light as possible and this is a good starting point. However, if your widest f-stop is f4.5 you may want to push the ISO a stop or 2 higher than 2500. If you need to go higher after your first exposure then you bump bit by bit until you get something that looks good.

Remember, this is all about your exposure triangle of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. With your f-stop at its widest you only have shutter speed and ISO to play with to adjust your exposure. So start with some base settings and make adjustments along the way to see what works for you.

One last thing about trying to capture the Milky Way is that you really need to have a dark sky. I live near Toronto where there is a lot light pollution so I don't get to see the Milky Way a lot around home, if ever. However, Nelson is about 50 minutes south east of Las Vegas, basically out in the middle of nowhere...no cell service, and no light pollution. You could see the Milky Way with the naked eye, which was really cool! So basically get as far away from a major city as possible and you'll be in a good shape for some serious star gazing.

So that's it for "The Shoot & The Gear" in this series. Stay tuned for the final installment, "The Post," where I'll show how I post processed the final image.

Cheers!

DC

"The Shot" Part 1 - Milky Way Over Nelson

OK folks, time for another instalment of The Shot, The Shoot and the Gear, and The Post. This is where I post a photo, then follow up with the how I shot it and the gear used, and finally my post processing to create the final image.

In this instalment I actually have two shots, one landscape and one portrait. I like to shoot both sometimes and decide late which one I like better. In this case I'm leaning towards the landscape orientation as my favourite, as the foreground adds a nice element to the overall scene. But you can decide which one you prefer.

Stay tuned for the next post!

Cheers!

DC

Going to Photoshop World? Like HDR? Head to Nelson!

Continuing the lead up to Photoshop World 2015 in Las Vegas. I've posted before about checking out the Old Ghost Town in Nelson, Nevada. So if you're heading to Vegas for PSW2015 then definitely take the time to head down there, especially if you like HDR. Even if you don't like HDR there's a ton of shooting opportunities out there.

I'm a fan of HDR and the Old Ghost Town had been on my list for a long time. I finally got there last year for the first time, and I was like a kid in a HDR candy store! I was bracketing left, right and centre!! (I know, I know...insert groan here)

Tons of old buildings and run down cars & trucks, lots of texture, overall a fantastic setting to shoot. But don't forget, you won't be the only photographer there, so make sure you bring some patience and respect for others who are there to enjoy this place as you are.

Cheers!

DC

Photoshop World 2015 is Almost Here!

Last year was my first Photoshop World in Las Vegas. There was so much that I missed as there was so much to do. At the end of the conference I mentioned this to Scott Kelby and he looked me right in eye and simply said…”dude, come back next year!”

 

There's also a bunch of Pre-Conference workshops and I attended the Concert Photography workshop with Alan Hess (an amazing concert shooter), and Scott Diussa from Nikon Professional Services (also an amazing concert shooter). You get some classroom learning first and then the really cool part…you get to shoot a real band! Yup, you get the whole experience with a live band, a loud band, lights, dry ice, like you’re at a real concert, and basically you are albeit a private concert for photographers only. The band last year was called Rebel Soul, a classic rock band with a great sound who totally rocked it. It was hard to separate my wanting to shoot, and my wanting to just sit back and enjoy the show.



The other really cool part was after the workshop all participants were asked to submit 1 photo of the shoot. The instructors would then choose the top 3 images to be presented at the Keynote Address (yeah the one that kicks off Photoshop World that everyone attends) for a chance to win great prize from Nikon, thanks to Scott Disussa and the NPS Team. The crowd cheers would choose the winner. To my total surprise my image (at the top of this post) made the top 3! Unfortunately, I didn't win, but I got a tremendous amount of positive feedback from so many people. It was an amazing experience.

The Pre-Conference workshops fill up fast, however, it looks like the Real World Concert Photography workshop still has some openings so definitely check it out.

The whole conference was a great experience. I learned a lot and made some new friends.

You can check out all of the details and register here:

Photoshop World 2015 – Las Vegas

Cheers!

DC

Ghost Town - Nelson, Nevada (Part 3 "The Post")

The third, and final part in this series is the "The Post." The following video tutorial walks through how I created the final image. It goes from Lightroom to HDR Efex Pro 2 over into Photoshop CC, and back into Lightroom.

Cheers!

DC

Ghost Town - Nelson, Nevada (Part 2 - "The Shoot & The Gear")

Following up from my previous post "The Shot" (above). This time I'll walk through the "The Shoot and The Gear."

After we arrived and got checked in at Nelson this was the first spot I saw that I wanted to shoot. It might have been the big Coca~Cola sign that drew my attention, it may have also been the overall shape of the barn. As soon as I looked at it I saw a very simple composition.

I knew I wanted to put the peak of the roof in the upper left hand third, which meant positioning myself on the right. I started with my tripod in it's full height position, but after trying a few test shots I lowered it by about a third. This gave me a bit of an upward looking view, which put the peak of the roof where I wanted it in the frame.

It was just past 6:00 pm so the light was beginning to fade, so it was a great time of day to shoot. I knew even before coming to Nelson that I was going to be bracketing every shot and have a little HDR'fest. Even if I wasn't going to do any HDR, but just single exposures, I still would have bracketed multiple shots. I didn't know when I was going to be back so getting a range of exposures provides some latitude to play around with in post.

As you can see from the above image I shot a 7 bracket set (-3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3) and I've highlighted the exposure value for each image. You'll also notice that these are NEF's so I was shooting in RAW, which provides for maximum flexibility in post. Again, I didn't know when I'd be back so I wanted to give myself the best chance for the best outcome in post.

You can also see that the +2 and +3 images are really blown out, but look closely inside the open door of the barn. In the other exposures there is no detail to be found, but at the high end I was able to get some of that interior detail. Also, check out the sky in the -3 shot. This has a nice natural gradient as the light was fading. So basically I chose 7 shots because I thought that would give me enough range to grab all of the detail from the shadows and highlights.

There's so much really cool stuff to shoot there that I could have stayed a lot longer, but it was getting dark, and our stomachs told us it time to feed them! ;)

The Gear - I was shooting with a Nikon D810 fitted with a Nikon 16-35mm f4. Shot in aperture mode, 16mm @ f6.3. This was my first real outing with the D810 and I'm very happy with how it performs.

Stay tuned for Part 3 - "The Post", where I'll walk through how I mashed all 7 exposures together to create the final image.

Cheers!

DC

Ghost Town - Nelson, Nevada - Part 1 "The Shot"

While I was attending Photoshop World 2014 in Las Vegas last September I finally got the chance to head down to the old Ghost Town in Nelson, Nevada. However, if you punch "Nelson, Nevada" into your GPS you'll get nothin'! Good thing I had a travelling companion that day who told me it was actually called "Searchlight, Nevada" ...thanks +Deb Uscilka! Punched in "Searchlight" and away we went!

If you do go, and it's your first time, be sure to sign-in at the main store. There was $10.00 charge, which is really nothing compared all of the great photo opportunities there. And believe me when I tell you we were not the only ones there that Friday night.

After we checked in this was this first location that I set-up to shoot. As the post title says this is Part 1 "The Shot". I'm going be trying something new here on the blog where I'll take one image and follow it with a 3 part series. I'll walk through "The Shot", "The Shoot & The Gear" (what I used and how I got the shot), and finally "The Post" (post processing to make the final image).  So stay tuned for Part 2 shortly where I'll talk about how I got the shot.

Cheers for now!

DC