Milkyway nightscapes

Damn near froze myself solid getting the shots for this one, it was 13 degrees up in the Uinta Mountains (Utah) when I finished up, but I told myself this year I wasn't going to pass up any opportunities to go out shooting if the skies were clear. So I sucked it up and threw all my gear in the car at 2 am, drove an hour into the mountains, and shot for 3 hours. Luckily I had ~40 minutes of dark sky after the moon set and before the sun started coming up:

Awesome work, Eric! The MW looks nice!

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17940971
Damn near froze myself solid getting the shots for this one, it was 13 degrees up in the Uinta Mountains (Utah) when I finished up, but I told myself this year I wasn't going to pass up any opportunities to go out shooting if the skies were clear. So I sucked it up and threw all my gear in the car at 2 am, drove an hour into the mountains, and shot for 3 hours. Luckily I had ~40 minutes of dark sky after the moon set and before the sun started coming up:

This is a 8 shot pano, 4 shots for the sky with my Nikon D600 and Rokinon 24mm f1.4 on the iOptron Skytracker mount, then I turned off the mount and shot 4 images for the foreground. Unfortunately the foreground shots were taken as the sky was really starting to get light so I had a hell of a time blending the transition between the pine trees on the left and the sky (each exposure was 2.5 minutes so by the time I got to imaging those trees it had been nearly 30 minutes). This is something I really need to work on this year since I'm using the skytracker so much now.

Wow totally worth it! Excellent shot

Finally got to test out the Tamron 35mm ƒ1.8 lens in the weekend

View at 35mm:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Fjvm​gA

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ExFj​kT

3 shot composite (2 for the sky panorama and 1 for the foreground):

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/EyyD​q5

Spectacular, as always! Really liking the longer lenses more and more for those shots.
I got myself the Samyang 24mm 1.4 recently. I haven't had the opportunity to test it yet. No clear sky... I'm so impatient!

Coma looks really good on this lens, have you shot it wide open yet? Not sure what it is with these semi-wideangle lenses and the crazy chromatic aberration.

A quick one from the other night

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Ha, awesome composition, where was that taken?


Not sure how everyone feels about star trail pictures, I hardly ever make them (not really my thing), but I thought I'd try using some of the frames from a timelapse I did the other night/morning. I used the very first image for the foreground since the moon was still up and lit everything very well. Then I used the middle 50 frames to stack and create the star trails (total exposure ~25 minutes).

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17942282
Coma looks really good on this lens, have you shot it wide open yet? Not sure what it is with these semi-wideangle lenses and the crazy chromatic aberration.

Yeah it's not too bad at ƒ1.8, still sharp but coma and CA is noticeable.

virginie24jb wrote in post #17942174
Spectacular, as always! Really liking the longer lenses more and more for those shots.
I got myself the Samyang 24mm 1.4 recently. I haven't had the opportunity to test it yet. No clear sky... I'm so impatient!

Thanks! Oh you will love that lens once you have stretched it's legs

A new creation:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/EBvy​Sq

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17943913
Ha, awesome composition, where was that taken?


Not sure how everyone feels about star trail pictures, I hardly ever make them (not really my thing), but I thought I'd try using some of the frames from a timelapse I did the other night/morning. I used the very first image for the foreground since the moon was still up and lit everything very well. Then I used the middle 50 frames to stack and create the star trails (total exposure ~25 minutes).

Each frame taken with my Nikon D7000 and Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lens, 30 second exposures, ISO 1600, f2.8, 11mm. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop, the stacking was done with StarStax.

Thanks, that was at Anza-Borrego NP.

I like star trails, I've never had the MW show up as clear as yours did tho.

@NCHANT...

I have to say I find your shots very inspiring... so much so I have just bought a 6D to replace my trusty 50D/24mm f2.8 pancake setup I have been using for starry pics...

I have got a Samyang 24mm f1.4 on its way as I can't use the EF-S 24mm on the 6D but have seen good reviews concerning the Sigma 24mm f1.4 ART and wondered if you have an opinion of this over the Samyang at all as the reviews suggest its sharper at the edges than the Samyang wide open and overall IQ appears to be better...

I'd rather buy the right lens now than later

<tuffty/>

NCHANT wrote in post #17943922
Yeah it's not too bad at ƒ1.8, still sharp but coma and CA is noticeable.

Thanks! Oh you will love that lens once you have stretched it's legs

A new creation:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/EBvy​Sq 'Night Fury' by Mikey Mack, on Flickr

That is one heck of a composite Mike! You have the patience of Job and equal skill!

tuffty wrote in post #17949187
@NCHANT...

I have to say I find your shots very inspiring... so much so I have just bought a 6D to replace my trusty 50D/24mm f2.8 pancake setup I have been using for starry pics...

I have got a Samyang 24mm f1.4 on its way as I can't use the EF-S 24mm on the 6D but have seen good reviews concerning the Sigma 24mm f1.4 ART and wondered if you have an opinion of this over the Samyang at all as the reviews suggest its sharper at the edges than the Samyang wide open and overall IQ appears to be better...

I'd rather buy the right lens now than later

<tuffty/>

Before I bought my Rokinon 24mm I did a bunch of research and what I saw was that the Rokinon is significantly better than the Sigma 24mm and the Canon or Nikon 24mm lenses. The coma on the Sigma/Canon/Nikon lenses is really poor, especially wide open, you basically have to shoot at f3-f4 to get acceptable levels of coma which defeats the purpose of the lens unless you are using a tracker. Plus the Rokinon is cheaper than all the others, I'd recommend getting it over any of the other 24mm f1.4 lenses.

The Sigma Art 35mm f1.4 is probably the best overall lens for full frame cameras, it collects the most light and has fantastic coma control. It's bizarre that the 35mm f1.4 is so good and the 24mm f1.4 is so poor.


Finally got around to processing a bunch of the timelapse shots I had taken the last few weekends, poor together a short clip of what I've done so far this year:

(make sure you set the quality to 1080p)

^ What he said

I haven't tried the Sigma 24mm lens at all, and to be honest I am so happy with the Samyang that I won't bother buying another one, unless reviews absolutely blow the SY out of the water.

I do however, really enjoy using the Tamron 35mm ƒ1.8 lens, that one is pretty darn good!

Thanks both of you for putting my mind at rest... Samyang it is...

Will post up my efforts soon hopefully...

<tuffty/>