The brightest night in 60 something years? The supermoon lights up the land at night. I certainly don't want to miss this opportunity. Here I took one pic of the landscape with a 18 mm fast lens and combined it with a supermoon pic I took with my 500 mm lens. The pond is beautifully lit by the supermoon. The golf course is decently visible with the natural light from the moon as well. With a high ISO and somewhat long exposure the landscape is reasonably lit. But, when I do this, the moon appears too bright to show some details. Therefore, I took the moon picture with a different setting separately with a lower ISO and shorter exposure. These two pics are then combined in Photoshop. Oh yeah, I'm holding a flashlight with my mouth. (Sony a7RII, The moon: Sigma 150-500mm at 500 mm, f/5.6. 1.6 sec, ISO 50. The rest: Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2 at f/5.6, 4 sec, ISO 6400) Difficulty: 6
0 Comments
To get this shot, it's important to do a lot of homework. A lot of elements have to be just right. First, you need to know where the milky way will be. It has to be near the object to get both of them in one picture. You can use an app like PhotoPills to find out exactly where the milky way will be at what time (obviously it has to be at night). The app also tell you where the galactic center will be. The galactic center is very photogenic. You also need to be aware of the moon. If the moon is too bright, this doesn't work well. Weather is the final element. Obviously the sky needs to be clear. When these elements are in place, you can now worry about the camera setting. You need a camera which allows adjustment of shutter speed, a relatively fast wide-angle lens and a tripod. You need to manually focus on the stars. It's usually the shorter end of infinity (if you focus at the longer end of infinity, the stars won't be in focus!...unless you are in extreme temperature). Crank up the ISO up to wherever your camera allows without producing too much noise. And, shoot with long exposure. Too long of exposure will make star trails, so I usually want to keep it below 25 seconds. You can always refer to the 500 rule (500 / lens mm on a full frame camera = Exposure time in seconds). (Sony A7RII, Zeiss Batis 2.8/18 at f/2.8, 20 sec, ISO = 6,400). Difficulty 8. Shibuya Score: 8/10
Yosemite Valley (which is only 3% of the whole Yosemite National Park) is kind like a loop. You drive in on the right (south) side of the valley and come out on the left (north) side. Before you come back to where the loop splits on Northside drive, right on the Merced River, there is a parking lot on the left hand side. This is a popular angle and spot to take pictures but on internet it wasn't clear exactly where it was. No hiking required. This is right off the parking lot.
For this shot, I wanted to do a long exposure shot to make the water smooth. In the bright sun, I lowered the ISO all the way, use in camera and external neutral density filters and of course a tripod. (Sony A7RII, Zeiss FE 16-35 F4 ZA OSS at 20 mm, 1.5 second, ISO = 50, f/22, ND filter). Difficulty: 4/10, Shibuya Score: 8/10 Don't neglect the State Parks. Some State Parks are better than some of the National Parks. Valley of Fire State Park is one of those. Only 1-2 hours from Las Vegas, you are in this incredible landscape. From the visitor center, drive north. You will drive through this narrow valley with steep red walls. The leading pass, good contrast with the background mountains with different color/mineral content and awesome clouds made this pic unique. (Sony a7RII, Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS at 200mm, f/7.1, ISO = 2000, 1/250). Difficulty 6/10. Shibuya Score: 8/10 (what is this?)
|
Archive
November 2016
Categories
All
|