When you are in L.A., take a free trip to Griffith observatory. The view is stunning. Bring your tripod and be ready to take a shot with long exposure. Here I set the ISO really low to minimize noise so the exposure was super long. That made those people waiting for the telescope show some motion. I did not forget to capture the city nightscape on the background. (Nikon D800E, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm. f/8 for 25 sec. ISO = 200 with tripod)
0 Comments
Got this shot at Bad Water, Death Valley. From the parking lot just off the highway, it's about 10 minute walk toward the salt plane in pitch dark. The moon light and flashlight are the only help to find a way (Don't forget your flash light fully charged!). Looking north to get this circular star trails with 10-minute exposure. Alternatively, you can combine multiple 30 sec exposures on Photoshop, but the air in Death Valley is so clean that the longer exposure is possible without getting too much noise.
In the foreground, I used the flashlight to "paint" the hexagonal salt, crystal-like pattern on the ground. You have to find a right setup with the manual mode. Because it's dark, the camera won't focus with the auto-focus. You can use your flashlight to manually focus your camera to about 1/3 from the bottom of the picture. You really need to play with ISO and aperture. I like around 400-800 on ISO and 4-8 on aperture. I broke my lens protector filter, dropping my camera in the dark, but this was worth it. I wish I did longer exposure for trails of the stars. (Nikon D800E, Nikkor 16-35 mm, ISO=400, RAW, 10 minute exposure, foreground artificially painted with a flashlight, tripod, f/4) |
Archive
November 2016
Categories
All
|