I’ve described at length many of the techniques I use to shoot nightscapes. In this tutorial series, I’d like to keep things much shorter and pick apart some of my photos with minimal step-by-step instructions. The shot we’ll be going over this time was taken at 11,000 feet in Carson National Forest.
Continue reading Anatomy of a Nightscape, Episode IV: Tracked Sky, Stacked Foreground
I’ve described at length many of the techniques I use to shoot nightscapes. In this tutorial series, I’d like to keep things much shorter and pick apart some of my photos with minimal step-by-step instructions. The shot we’ll be going over this time was taken in the Pecos Wilderness of north-central New Mexico.
Continue reading Anatomy of a Nightscape, Episode III: HDR and Focus Stacking
I’ve described at length many of the techniques I use to shoot nightscapes. In this tutorial series, I’d like to keep things much shorter and pick apart some of my photos with minimal step-by-step instructions. The shot we’ll be going over this time was taken near Cabezon Peak in the New Mexico desert.
Continue reading Anatomy of a Nightscape, Episode II: Smartphone Scene Lighting
In previous posts, I’ve described at length many of the techniques I use to shoot nightscapes. In this tutorial series, I’d like to keep things much shorter and pick apart some of my photos with minimal step-by-step instructions. The shot we’ll be going over this time was taken on the Santa Barbara River in New Mexico.
Continue reading Anatomy of a Nightscape, Episode I: In the River at Midnight
One of the more challenging aspects of nightscape photography is getting the foreground to appear as striking as the background stars in the image. While it’s possible to shoot both in the same exposure, I’ve found it easier to shoot them with separate exposures and merge them in post. In this article, I share my process for exposure compositing.
In past tutorials, we’ve discussed planning imaging sessions, taking into account the weather and positioning of celestial objects. We’ve talked about how to properly expose the sky while avoiding star trailing. What we haven’t talked about yet is the other half of a nightscape; the foreground. In this tutorial, I share six techniques I’ve learned over the last couple of years that you can use to ensure your foregrounds compliment the starry skies in your images.
Continue reading How to Expose the Foreground in a Nightscape
Capturing our place among the stars in a photograph can be one of the most rewarding experiences for any astrophotographer. It can also be one of the most frustrating if you don’t put some thought into it ahead of time. Here are a few things you can do to minimize frustration and get the most out of your imaging sessions. Continue reading How To Plan An Imaging Session
In last week’s First-Timer’s Gear Guide, I mentioned that your camera can take hundreds of times longer to properly expose a scene at night than it might during the day time. It’s all too easy to open your shutter long enough that the stars in the scene will start to trail. In this article, I explain how to avoid star trailing when shooting from a fixed tripod.
So you’ve decided you want to try your hand at shooting the stars. You go outside, whip out your smartphone, and take a couple shots. You’re left with a mostly-black screen, with a big bright blurry circle in it if the moon was anywhere in the frame. How in the world do you take half-decent pictures of the night sky, anyway?
