[Erictator]

Odds and ends from first outing...

HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/10.0 410.0 mm 1/2500 iso1250


HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/10.0 450.0 mm 1/2500 iso800


HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/10.0 450.0 mm 1/2500 iso800

[normhead]

From this last evening ,
K-1 and FA 50 macro

[wtlwdwgn]

That garage again

Nice drop shot! I suppose the garage is upside down because you're "Down Under?"

[fs999]

K-1 • FF Mode • 100 ISO • Tamron SP AF Di 90mm F2.8 Macro

[fs999]

K-1 • FF Mode • 100 ISO • Porst Tele 1:1.8/135mm MC AUTO E

[fs999]

K-1 • FF Mode • 100 ISO • Pentax FA 35mm F2 AL • Hoya HD nano CPL polarising filter

[DimC]

Odds and ends from first outing...

HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/10.0 410.0 mm 1/2500 iso1250


HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/10.0 450.0 mm 1/2500 iso800


HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW ƒ/10.0 450.0 mm 1/2500 iso800

Wow, you started your journey with this lens with some superb shots Eric, very well done.

K-1 • FF Mode • 100 ISO • Tamron SP AF Di 90mm F2.8 Macro

Really nice colors rendition mate, I like it very much.

[DimC]

Last Saturday I went on a trip about 3 hours from Paris and away from Light pollution especially.
Very quiet place, about 1000m altitude and the weather was great, no clouds, not much haze and no Moon either.

The Galactic center was visible only for 90 mins, not really high in the sky but I wanted to try it anyway.
I've been using Photopills app to help me prepare my night, it is an invaluable tool for photography in general but of course especially for AstroPhotography.
The Night A.R is indeed very useful, I could easily pick up a location in the afternoon and be sure the MW would be in my shot where I wanted to be.

I placed the branch in the shot, it was lying there waiting for a photo I guess
I took about 80 shots, on and off Astrotracer, from ISO 800 to ISO 3200 and from 20sec to 80 seconds.
Lens is the IRIX 15mm /f2.4.
I tried some light painting but I was not confortable with it, so in the end I used a foreground shot illuminated by a car passing by.

If you look carefully you will see headlight and tailights from cars around, and also some dude playing around with a red helmet light or something like that.

As far as PP, I struggle a lot to be honest. I've been watching tutorial but I think my initial shots were not that great, not enough light IMHO. Also my sensor is suffering the white dot issue so I can't go past a certain limit of exposure time.
At the same time I think I didnt really master the astrotracer function, couldnt calibrate despite many efforts, far away from tripod, rocks etc. I tried at least 6 or 7 different calibration but was disapointed each time. I've read the PF tutorial a lot before actually trying the calibration.

So in the end Im using 3 shots for this composite :
Foreground is 30 sec exposure at /f2.8, ISO2000 astrotracer OFF.
MW is is 30 sec exposure at /f2.8, ISO2000, astrotracer ON.
Headlights and redlights is 20 sec exposure at /f2.8, ISO1600, astrotracer OFF.

PP using Lightroom and composite made with ON1 2018.

It has been a marvelous night, I was not alone and we drink some nice Rhum after the Galactic center disappeared

[repaap]

one less so serious one with *70-200

[jbinpg]

@DimC - Sometimes you will not be able to do a Precise Calibration depending on the mineral content of the underlying rocks. High iron locations can be bad. But your image is great anyway!

[BruceBanner]

Some shots of Eurama Castle ruins in the Blue Mountains (more shots to follow);

[DimC]

@DimC - Sometimes you will not be able to do a Precise Calibration depending on the mineral content of the underlying rocks. High iron locations can be bad. But your image is great anyway!

Thanks mate.
That might be the case here I don’t know but I do think I am not great at precision calibration as I’ve suffered failure in the past as well.

[Erictator]

Wow, you started your journey with this lens with some superb shots Eric, very well done.


Really nice colors rendition mate, I like it very much.

Thank DimC! It's been a lot of fun. New toys...heh.
Eric

[Erictator]

Last Saturday I went on a trip about 3 hours from Paris and away from Light pollution especially...

So in the end Im using 3 shots for this composite :
Foreground is 30 sec exposure at /f2.8, ISO2000 astrotracer OFF.
MW is is 30 sec exposure at /f2.8, ISO2000, astrotracer ON.
Headlights and redlights is 20 sec exposure at /f2.8, ISO1600, astrotracer OFF.

PP using Lightroom and composite made with ON1 2018.

It has been a marvelous night, I was not alone and we drink some nice Rhum after the Galactic center disappeared

This is a great piece of work, thanks for the how-to stuff also.
Eric

[sbh]

Quite a challenge editing this. It still has issues, but for now this is all I can do. I've been working too long on this and probably over-cooked it already. But I decided to put it out anyway. It was a nice trip to Italy.

DFA 15-30 @ 20mm Pixelshift.