It is 1:30 a.m, and the alarm goes off on my phone. I told my wife I might want to drive to see if I could see any of what’s left of the Camelopardalid meteor shower. I said, “I’ll set my alarm, and I’ll either wake up and say “Oh – hell no” or I’ll get up and do it.” The problem is, there aren’t any good viewing spots close to home. It requires a bit more of a commitment than just rolling out of bed and looking outside. We are thoroughly contaminated by light pollution in the Metro-Detroit area. It is at least an hour and a half drive with zero traffic to get far enough away. I did get up after a few rehits of the snooze button. I left my house at 2:00 a.m.
Lately, I have read a little about night photography and have only attempted it once unsuccessfully in the past. Conditions were looking much more favorable this time around. With Michigan being pretty flat, the best places I know for the best view of sky to horizon are on the Great Lakes. The closest accessible dark sky spot I know of is on Lake Huron. I arrived there at 3:30 am. Astronomical Twilight starts at 4:53 am and Nautical at 5:33, leaving me a good hour and a half or two hours to bumble my way around trying to take any photographs.
Some helpful articles on night photography:
How to pick the best lens for Milky Way Photography @ Petapixel
The sky was beautiful, only hindered by a set of powerful flood lights on at this park. So much for complete darkness. But later, I would find those flood lights would help in some ways. I could make out the Milky Way as it created an arch over me running from the Northeast to the Southwest. I just watched for meteors for a while and only saw one.
My first photos were pretty dark. I knew from the material I read that I should try to keep my shutter speed to around 20 seconds to prevent streaking from star movement with my combination of camera and lens (Nikon D800 / Nikon 14-24 f/2.8). Some articles mentioned up to 30 seconds should be OK. Since this was with my lens wide open at f/2.8, and my photos were still dark, I started cranking up the ISO. According to my meter reading, I saw better results when I was overexposed by about 2 stops. It became more evident with practice in the field, just as the articles mentioned, that the more light-sensitive you make your camera setup, the more stars you will pull in. It seems to be much more than you can see with your own eyes.
I had already imagined this composition since I was familiar with this location and these dock pilings. I didn’t know how the sky would be aligned or how I could get enough depth of field to get both the pilings and the sky sharp and let in enough light. It took a bit of trial and error to reach a compromise on where I set the focus. The resulting image, when I started processing it, was pretty decent, but it lacked the definition of the Milky Way that I had hoped for. I found I was able to get better definition by creating 3 separate virtual copies in Lightroom, each varied by +/- 1.5 on exposure, and then merge those together. That flood light causes the green color of the pilings I mentioned. The camera was much more sensitive than my eyes for the red color at the horizon because I never saw any of it.
I played with this section of the sky a bit, and then the moon began to rise, right on the horizon aligned with the dock. While this may seem cool, given the moon was just a sliver of a crescent, all it did was create a bright distraction and corresponding distracting reflection across the water.
I moved to another section of the sky, facing more along the southern view of the shoreline. Here it was difficult not to get some lights from houses in the frame, as well as city light pollution to the south. But the more detailed part of the Milky Way was in this area. One thing I found in the various frames I looked at after being home was that the camera captured a lot more of the meteor shower than I saw. In this instance, you can see one of them in the top third of the frame, pointing toward the 5 o’clock position.
I was pleased with a few shots from this quick trip in the middle of the night. It allowed me to experience creating and processing night sky images. One more fascinating part was looking at the photographs fully zoomed in.
The Cosmos has always held a great sense of wonder for me, and to explore part of it within my photographs lets my imagination roam far, far away. In the more literal sense, one can appreciate what Dorothea Lange stated so profoundly:
“While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us … there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.”
Indeed.
Nice post
Exceptionally great work, Mark. Night photography is something I simply haven’t attempted to handle .I have also read that the Polaroid sensor grabbed more of what we don’t see, yet didn’t understand precisely the amount. I really very motivated by your work results.
Thank you for sharing.
Awesome I images. I’m also pleased with your results. I’ve not tried many night images but have it on my list. You do wonderful work.
Thanks Monte. With the longer days of summer, and the need for really dark skies (ie. the wee hours of the morning) – it does take a loud alarm clock. 🙂
Interesting images. I like the one with the green dock in the foreground. This is an area I plan to learn more about at some point.
Thanks for your remarks David. The two articles I linked to are pretty good starts for anyone wanting to try this out.
haha Cedric – thanks very much. 🙂
Brilliant work Mark. Very engaging and beautiful. You are a photographic super… well, you know… star 😉
Excellent first results, Mark. Kudos! I’d love to experiment in this area but haven’t been adventuous enough to take the plunge. It is amazing to discover what the camera sensor picks up that we take no notice of. So you’re on the land, under the ocean and now in space…your everywhere! 🙂
Well, still on land technically Earl. 🙂 I had read that the camera sensor picked up a lot of what we don’t see, but didn’t realize exactly how much. Thanks for your remarks.
Beautiful images, wonderful colors. The Milky way looks splendid…
Thanks Tom.
Very nice work, Mark. Night photography is something I just haven’t tried to tackle. Check out Kevin Adams…he’s a North Carolina photographer whose current passion is all things in the dark. He’s written some good articles on his blog and has a newsletter for those who can’t sleep. 😉
I’ll be sure to look him up Tom. Thanks!
Wow so cool! Yes I give you props for getting up that early 😉 but so worth it! Those colors are amazing, from the purple of the sky to the green of the pilings. How long were your exposures?
Hi Alanna, thanks. Exposures were 20 seconds. My understanding is that you start to get star movement at over 30 sec with the lens I was using. It varies by lens and camera crop factor.
Beautiful shots, Mark, and what a great adventure. I virtual pat on the back, all the way from Charlotte, for rolling out of bed, driving 90 minutes, waiting, experimenting, and coming home with the shots! Bravo!
I’ve never seen the Milky Way, save for in photos. Perhaps it is an experience that I need to have. Where did you find the light pollution map? Maybe I can find some nook in NC, way outside of Charlotte, that is not so polluted.
Thanks Paul. I think you should definitely put it on your to do list. No photograph quite matches the experience of being in a dark sky spot. In the caption of that light map there is a link to Blue Marble, which has the light pollution maps for all over the world.