Originally posted by LensBeginner Thank! I asked because I had seen some shots on Flickr but was not completely sure.
I really like this lens, so the idea of being able to use it if I ever buy a K-1 is really nice
I have attached a blank blue sky pic to illustrate the vignetting on the DA40XS on K-1 in FF mode, this was taken awhile ago (was too cloudy today). I recall doing the shot for someone else on a K-1 fb forum awhile back, still had the image.
Originally posted by WPRESTO I found several of these images delightful, but I have a weak spot for kids exuding carefree youth, fun, happiness, totally lost in the joy of the moment.
Originally posted by pixie Sure.
1) I used a flashlight to illuminate the rocks. The A20/2.8 was at f6.7 for 8 minutes, ISO 100, focus at infinity, astrotracer off. I kept shining the flashlight all over the place for most of the exposure. This worked fairly well. I wish I would have turned the long exposure noise reduction on though, a lot of hot pixels everywhere.
2) Lens at f2.8, 90 seconds, ISO 400, focus at infinity, astrotracer on. This was not ideal, as you can see the results aren't the greatest. There are star trails clearly visible away from the center of the image. Next time I would go with higher ISO and shorter time. Again, I would turn the long exposure noise reduction on. But if I remember correctly, having it on will double the time for each shot (dark frame subtraction). I spent almost two hours on location even without having it on, ha ha. The good thing is that the Earth moves slowly so the Milky Way stays put to a degree. As for framing in the dark, I simply took super high ISO fast shutter shots to try to figure out the angles of the tripod ball head.
3) The astrotracer will blur the foreground in your sky shot. Topaz Remask seemed to be the easiest way to combine the two shots. But like I said this was my first attempt at this whole thing. I'm sure it can be done better in Photoshop.
Hope this helps.
This helps heaps, thanks for the detailed info.
My take has been to keep NR off for that very reason, doubling the take time is painful, would mean a 16min shot for just the rocks alone! I'd prefer to deal with noise in post. Now if 'hot pixels' is that thing where a few pixels just seem to be a very bright orange or red im amongst the black/dark, I find that pretty easy to fix in LR in post (I think I've had that occur when doing Pixelshift images that have black backgrounds for longish exposures). I didn't know the NR feature would help eliminate them, but tbh I'd rather do in post than wait the same exposure time all over again in the chilly dark (or whatever lol... boredom in the dark heh).
DO you feel the ISO 100 for the rocks was necessary? I can understand the f6.7, but could you have shortened the exposure time down to 4mins rather than 8 with ISO 200? Not much difference in IQ between 100 and 200 but you gain a massive 4 mins quicker shot (you can see I am super lazy and lack patience hehe).
I'll try and learn from your 'mistakes' (if you can all them that, I think the shot is fabby as is!), I might try ISO 800 or 1600 for the sky. If using a FA 50mm, 1.4, is it advisable to use f1.4-1.6 for the stars, or is that considered just too wide, and something like f2 recommended minimum I wonder...?
As for Remask, it sounds like it's just a masking tool rather than a special effect/filter, in which case I should be fine as I use PS for my masking jobs.
Once again, cheers for the breakdown, helps heaps as Astro is something I haven't really seriously done before and now I have a general jist of what to try.
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Here's a couple of shots of a street performer at Vivid this year, I'm calling her the "Golden Globe Girl'