Milky Way as seen from the John Muir Trail in California

[Badger49456]

Just got back from hiking the John Muir Trail out in California and had a couple nights that weren't too cold to take some pics.

There's something funny going on in the corner of the first one, I'll throw up a revised edition later but wanted to share it now anyway. The first one is actually a pano stitch of a couple images into one, and I think the stitching might have gone awry towards the top as well. I'll have to work it out later.

Tamron 28-75 at 2.8, ISO 1600 and I believe 20 second exposures. Maybe 5 or 6 images taken and stitched together. This was taken at Thousand Island Lake, and that's Banner Peak under the Milky Way.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2533/3890172582_fd0f80e7fb.jpg

This next one was taken from atop Forester Pass along the John Muir Trail at 13,200 feet :eek: I used the Tamron 28-75 at 28mm and 2.8, ISO 1600, and I believe a 23 second exposure.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2181/3890172652_6d13f31e5a.jpg

[painful100]

those are very crisp for 1600 ISO. How do you cut down on noise, graininess?

[Scoobs]

Great shots, I look forward to trying this out somewhen

[ady.space]

badger, there stunning pics mate ,im to far north to see that part of the milky way but went to india last year at a dark location its was truly amazing to look at

[Kevarcen]

I love these pictures. I find it very hard to take pictures of the sky at night.

[Badger49456]

Thank you very much, everyone!

those are very crisp for 1600 ISO. How do you cut down on noise, graininess?

I used the camera's long-exposure noise reduction for these. The RAW files still had a bit of noise when viewed in Picasa, but I edited these in Adobe Camera Raw which took out almost all of the noise. I didn't have to do any additional noise reduction beside the defaults in ACR, and I didn't run them through any other noise-reduction programs.

Great shots, I look forward to trying this out somewhen

Thank you!

badger, there stunning pics mate ,im to far north to see that part of the milky way but went to india last year at a dark location its was truly amazing to look at

Thank you very much, I appreciate it! These skies were dark, but I still think the darkest skies I've ever seen were at the Grand Canyon.

I love these pictures. I find it very hard to take pictures of the sky at night.

Thank you!

[Badger49456]

Here is a 9 image rework of the first:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2608/3896357985_bc53b38280.jpg

[Tdragone]

Here is a 9 image rework of the first:


Truly AWESOME!
Thanks for the pictures..
Now I REALLY want to go back to Death Valley and try this!

[Badger49456]

Thank you so much!

If anyone has any tips for printing images like these, let me know! I want to print some 36"x24"s but I'm unsure how well the color and sharpness will turn out.

[Tdragone]

Are you or any of your friends Costo members?
I'd try that first!