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The stars twinkle in eternal silence...
The stars twinkle in eternal silence...
DrAchoo


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2010-08 (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM
Location: Dee Wright Observatory, OR
Date: Aug 31, 2010
Galleries: Landscape, Astrophotography
Date Uploaded: Aug 31, 2010

 This is a composite of four photos. Three for the sky to reduce noise and one for the lava field so it wasn't pitch black.

One of the secrets to the success of this picture is the sky is truly dark. The bortle scale is 2 which is getting rarer to find these days.

The sky exposures were 6 seconds at f/2.8 with ISO 3200. I tried another bracket of three exposures which were 25 seconds but finally went with these. The benefit was sharper stars which were easier to realign between the three shots. The drawback was more low frequency noise due to the underexposure. Low frequency noise is hard to remove.

Statistics
Place: 7 out of 360
Avg (all users): 6.8264
Avg (commenters): 8.3333
Avg (participants): 6.7660
Avg (non-participants): 7.0370
Views since voting: 3261
Views during voting: 244
Votes: 121
Comments: 19
Favorites: 12 (view)

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AuthorThread
 09/17/2010 05:12:08 AM
The sky looks so magical. It's crazy that so many people have never seen this is real life because they live in a town with more than 10 people who have lights on their houses and streets.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/16/2010 04:45:35 PM
a stunning visual experience
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/09/2010 10:48:58 PM
Amazing job given how short your exposures were. Nice job in post to maximize your return on the investment of seconds. I'd love to see how this holds up at full res for larger prints. Nice work Doc!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/09/2010 05:36:08 PM
WOW! Spectacular...wish I could do this one day
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/09/2010 07:34:49 AM
Congrats on the top 10!! Who says DPC doesn't like star shots? :D
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/08/2010 07:33:59 PM
marvelous technical achievement, faving for future reference!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/08/2010 02:17:06 PM
Really nice work. Thanks for the explanation. You had to be in the middle of nowhere to capture this sky.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/08/2010 12:40:43 AM
WOW. I look forward to hearing how you got this. High ISO?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
09/07/2010 10:58:36 PM
I love the barely visible but highly textured detail
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/07/2010 04:46:22 PM
Stunning. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/07/2010 02:07:38 PM
Wow, very nice!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/06/2010 01:01:29 PM
Outstanding shot, and reminiscent of jlanoue's shots (before he left DPC).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/04/2010 10:55:11 PM
Wow, this is mind boggling! Truly wonderful. A 10 and a fav
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/03/2010 07:27:37 PM
I've tried night shots before and I've no idea how to capture milky way like you did. Would love to see the exif. Good foreground intrigue as well. Hope to see this in top 10.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/03/2010 02:03:52 AM
Beautiful image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/02/2010 09:36:40 PM
Holy Cow!!!!! What a fantastic night sky. Exceptional. I'm not as wild about the ground (very eerie gray tones) but I understand that it's the nature of HDR. Pretty amazing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2010 11:03:04 PM
wow
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2010 04:07:41 PM
Well, that can only be one place; Dee Wright Observatory up-top ol' 242. I've driven through there at night years ago, but that was before I was really a photographer so I didn't think of stopping. Actually the last time I was there it was sunny and warm down in the Willamette valley and a blizzard up top. I'll never forget fighting the howling winds to hold the bathroom door closed. Oh, and the freezing updraft on my toosh. Ahh, good times.

I don't recall seeing any lights mounted in the observatory, so I assume you popped a flash or lantern of some sort in there? That was a nice touch. Other than the blizzard day every time I've been there it's been perfectly blue skies. Nice, but very boring to photograph. A night shot was a great idea.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2010 02:09:04 PM
simply amazing!
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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