Advice Needed - LR5

I'd appreciate any advice you guys could give me on my Milky Way shots. I have played around with them quite a bit in both LR5 and PSE11, but I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks in advance.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/sorenhedberg/9​322830935/

My non-expert opinion says perhaps ISO too high (10000), and perhaps too much of the clarity slider and/or vibrance slider in LR5? There seem to be halos around the trees.

Looking at where you're located, you should have pretty darn black skies. So unless you're looking for a lighter-sky look, I'd say you could back the ISO down as far as 3200 to cut the noise some, while keeping your exposure time at 15s (to avoid star trails?). It's hard to do much NR on lightroom on a starry sky, it's tough to tell hot pixels from stars.

Did you use long-exposure noise reduction for this shot?

--Greg

gmikol wrote in post #16136450
My non-expert opinion says perhaps ISO too high (10000), and perhaps too much of the clarity slider and/or vibrance slider in LR5? There seem to be halos around the trees.

Looking at where you're located, you should have pretty darn black skies. So unless you're looking for a lighter-sky look, I'd say you could back the ISO down as far as 3200 to cut the noise some, while keeping your exposure time at 15s (to avoid star trails?). It's hard to do much NR on lightroom on a starry sky, it's tough to tell hot pixels from stars.

Did you use long-exposure noise reduction for this shot?

--Greg

Yeah, the high ISO was an experiment, I saw a really nice Milky Way shot that was ISO 20000 so I thought I'd give it a try. Will keep it lower in the future.

No long exposure noise reduction... just messed around with NR in LR.

Hello,

When taking pictures of stars you are recording low light and noise. To reduce noise you need several exposures to be stacked, then processed.

ISO should be as low as you can, you get more dynamic range and colorful stars. If the individual exposures lack detail, increase the number of frames, not the ISO.

Have fun.

ecce_lex wrote in post #16136899
Hello,

When taking pictures of stars you are recording low light and noise. To reduce noise you need several exposures to be stacked, then processed.

ISO should be as low as you can, you get more dynamic range and colorful stars. If the individual exposures lack detail, increase the number of frames, not the ISO.

Have fun.

Ah ha! Thanks for the tips, I'll give it a shot.

ecce_lex wrote in post #16136899
Hello,

When taking pictures of stars you are recording low light and noise. To reduce noise you need several exposures to be stacked, then processed.

ISO should be as low as you can, you get more dynamic range and colorful stars. If the individual exposures lack detail, increase the number of frames, not the ISO.

Have fun.

Lowering the ISO is only going to work if you have a tracking mount as you will need to leave the shutter open longer with this approach.

ecce_lex wrote in post #16136899
Hello,

When taking pictures of stars you are recording low light and noise. To reduce noise you need several exposures to be stacked, then processed.

ISO should be as low as you can, you get more dynamic range and colorful stars. If the individual exposures lack detail, increase the number of frames, not the ISO.

Have fun.

That is not really true. That would only be the case if he had a tracking mount and even then you have to have your ISO in the mid ranges. Tracking mounts aren't practical if you're also shooting a land-based foreground. His equipment list says he has a 6D, so he should have no problem shooting at ISO 6400 comfortably. That, along with a f/2.8 lens and a 20-25 second shutter speed on a wide angle will give great results in dark skies.

What most people don't realize about shooting the Milky Way is it can take a lot of processing to coax the data out of the RAW image. It takes a long time to get a good workflow down that can accomplish this. For me, it took over a year of shooting the night sky to really start to see good results.

For RAW processing, you really need to concentrate on a few key items:
- Correct white balance (original image is way too far on the cool end)
- High contrast in the sky area
- Push the highlights brighter using tone adjustments or curves
- Manage the clarity settings (often, less is far better so the stars don't overwhelm the Milky Way)
- Don't get crazy with the saturation or vibrance sliders.

huzkerpride wrote in post #16137807
That is not really true. That would only be the case if he had a tracking mount and even then you have to have your ISO in the mid ranges. Tracking mounts aren't practical if you're also shooting a land-based foreground. His equipment list says he has a 6D, so he should have no problem shooting at ISO 6400 comfortably. That, along with a f/2.8 lens and a 20-25 second shutter speed on a wide angle will give great results in dark skies.

What most people don't realize about shooting the Milky Way is it can take a lot of processing to coax the data out of the RAW image. It takes a long time to get a good workflow down that can accomplish this. For me, it took over a year of shooting the night sky to really start to see good results.

For RAW processing, you really need to concentrate on a few key items:
- Correct white balance (original image is way too far on the cool end)
- High contrast in the sky area
- Push the highlights brighter using tone adjustments or curves
- Manage the clarity settings (often, less is far better so the stars don't overwhelm the Milky Way)
- Don't get crazy with the saturation or vibrance sliders.

Thanks, will give this a shot.

I have the 6D as well and shoot the Milky Way at 14mm f/2.8 ISO 3200-6400 for 36" seconds with absolutely no star trails. Here's a quick equation for you to use if you're trying to figure out how long you can expose without noticing star trails. 500/14mm(focal length) = 35.71" seconds. You could use 600/focal length, but I like to be a bit more conservative. Also don't forget to set your lens to MF and focus to infinity. The picture I have attached was shot at 14mm for 36" seconds f/2.8 and iso 4000. Hope this helps.

A lot of good points said earlier.
All I want to add for this cool image, that is on Kelvin Scale in addition to what cool means, though quit artificial for a trained eye, because is so different from what you normally see, is appealing to me. Wish is to avoid the halo.
Then you have a significant vignette. That can be both good or bad. If you are using a FF sensor, be more careful of that and you can let in camera or pp take some care of it, if not try cropping.

samsen wrote in post #16151193
A lot of good points said earlier.
All I want to add for this cool image, that is on Kelvin Scale in addition to what cool means, though quit artificial for a trained eye, because is so different from what you normally see, is appealing to me. Wish is to avoid the halo.
Then you have a significant vignette. That can be both good or bad. If you are using a FF sensor, be more careful of that and you can let in camera or pp take some care of it, if not try cropping.

Yeah, I had never realized just how bad the vignetting on my 16-35 was until this night.

I appreciate all the advice, I'm hoping for another clear night so I can try this again.

You are welcome.

DSS has a feature to correct Vignette while performing stacking. That is called "Flat frame".
LINK
Also you can take care of vignetting in camera by turning the appropriate mode on or in post processing but easiest is to crop the periphery of image if needed.

BTW this weekend is one the best occasions to have a touch of deep sky or dark sky shooting as apart from being free during weekend night, being the end of moon cycle, night is going to be jet black for most part and therefore best opportunity of shooting. That is only if clouds permit.
So be prepare for this weekend and have a happy shooting.