The moon was new during our visit to the park, and I was fortunate that on both nights during our trip, the skies cleared from evening thunderstorms after sunset.
Both shots were taken at 24mm, 30 seconds, f/2.2, and ISO 3200.
Canon 40D, 17-40mm f/4L
40 minutes, f/5.6, 17mm, ISO 200 (and then pushed 1/3 stop in RAW processing)
40 minutes later (actually 80 due to the NR cycle), this magnificent spinning sky spun up on my LCD. Damn, I was happy. A little disappointed too. The dark skies that we have at the High Lonesome Ranch aren't that dark after all. There's light over the north horizon polluting the sky. I could just barely see it with my naked eye, but I'm surprized how brightly it showed up in these long exposures.
Here are two more:
Canon 5D, 24-70mm f/2.8L
30 sec., f/2.8, 24mm, ISO 1600 (and then pushed 1.3 stops in RAW processing)
This next shot was taken just inside a tree line. I took my first steps towards designing a real landscape/starscape shot. The break in the trees frames the "cloudy" band of the Milky Way. I love the look of leafless trees silhouetted against the starry sky. This is the sort of shot I ultimately want to produce, having components of the land with a sky full of bright stars.
It's difficult to compose shots because of the darkness. Even an f/2.8 lens on a full frame camera does not transmit enough light to see and compose the scene through the viewfinder. Keep in mind this is under a moonless sky.
I also get frustrated because I have to alternate between using a flashlight to move around and manage gear and then getting my eyes to adjust to the dark to compose shots. I've more than once flashed my eyes while fumbling with gear thus having to sit there for a minute or two waiting for the light spots to go away :-)
I also borked up a few shots 'cause I had to flip on the flashlight during an exposure to check and see what was lurking in the dark. I'm not alone out there. Most noises turned out to be birds or raccoons. I definitely do not want to have a close encounter with a large boar in the pitch black.
Regarding composing the shots, I tried shining a flashlight on the trees while looking through the viewfinder, but that only helped to compose the near to mid-positioned landscape elements. Anything far away, and also the sky, was still dark. Plus it was a little difficult to hold the light and reposition the camera sitting on a ballhead. I need three hands.
Trial and error shots still work best. But at several minutes per shot (30 sec. exposure + 30 sec. noise reduction + time to evaluate the LCD and reposition the camera + time for eyes to adjust to the dark), it takes a while to make a few test shots to fine-tune the composition. I suppose I could shut off the long-exposure noise reduction and bump the ISO to 3200 and take 15 seconds shots, but that requires changing settings and diving into the custom menus, and that takes time too even in broad daylight.
Plus I was shooting in the cold, so operating the camera and managing gear with gloves on adds an extra level of frustration and difficulty.
On this last outing, I brought along my fast 50. I really wanted to see what the view was like through an f/1.4 lens, and it's a very nice, noticeable difference over an f/2.8 lens. Composing scenes is just possible through the viewfinder if your eyes adjust to the dark.
However, 50mm is a little too long for what I want to do, and the DOF at f/1.4 to f/2.0 apertures is too shallow to make the fore/mid-ground objects acceptably sharp. Anyway, I had some fun with it.
Here's a shot looking up at the sky only. I was blown away by how bright the photo was and how many more stars appeared as compared to my shots with the f/2.8 lens.
Canon 5D, 50mm f/1.4
15 sec., f/1.8, ISO 1600
Here's another with the 50. A little bit of reddish/purplish color showed up in the middle of the frame. I hope that's natural, and not some weird noise pattern/amp glow crud from the sensor.
Two weekends ago, I was hunting in the Texas Hill Country in a location that has little light pollution. I took several shots one evening about 2 hours after sunset and about 30 minutes before moonrise (the moon was waning and about 90% full, so if I tried shooting after moonrise, the sky would have been too light).
Canon 5D + 24-70mm f/2.8L
30 sec., 24mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600 (and then pushed +1 stop in RAW processing)
And here are two more shots taken at about the same settings as stated above:
The greenish light on the trees is from a sodium vapor light on a nearby cabin. The light streak in the photo just above (left) is from a couple of guys on 4-wheelers passing by.
Getting a shot like this is difficult given the limitations of the equipment. Exposure times are limited to 15 to 30 seconds because the goal is to NOT have star trails. With a reasonably wide focal length (24mm in this case), star trails will just start to become noticeable around 25 - 30 seconds exposure time (actually, it depends on the final output of the photo; for web-sized images you could probably go 60 seconds, but my ultimate goal is a nice, largish print: 8x10 or even 11x17).
I shot wide open (f/2.8) at ISO 1600. I found that the resulting exposure is still a little too dark. I pushed the exposure +1 stop during RAW processing, but that increased the digital noise in the file to a point where it greatly degraded image quality. ISO 1600 looked pretty good, but ISO 3200 (effectively) did not. Post-processing noise reduction works well, but it also kills the fine detail (there's an amazing amount of tiny stars visible in the sky, and that's the fine detail I want to see in the final print).
The exposure that worked out best (providing the best-looking sky) from my series of test shots was this: 30 sec., ISO 3200, f/2.8. However, ISO 3200 is not really usable and 30 seconds is just a little too long (star trails).
So, I'm going to have to get a faster lens or a camera that is better at very high ISO :-)
Before the hike, I decided to keep things as simple as possible and take only one camera body, one lens, and no tripod. We didn't have a lot of time for the hike which meant that I didn't have too much time for quality photography. Covering 11+ miles takes a while, especially when it's hot and humid. At least the trail was fairly level!
I took my versatile, beater lens - the Canon 28-105mm f/3.5 - 4.5 USM II. I've blogged about the merits of this lens before - it's a great all-purpose, lightweight, and relatively small lens that provides pretty good results (especially at f/8). I wish it was just a tad wider (24mm would be perfect) but I really like the zoom range, close focusing distance, and having just over 100mm at the long end.
Canon 5D, 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM II
f/8, 28mm, 1/25 sec., ISO 800
James took me to a special spot to visit a mighty oak that spanned a creek. We spent some time exploring and photographing the old tree. At this point of our hike, I really wished that I'd brought my tripod.
This photo was taken hand-held with me squatting down and bracing the camera with my legs. I fired several bursts - a technique that's good for this situation. Usually, in a burst of 4 or 5 shots, the second, third, or fourth shot will be sharpest. (the act of pressing and the releasing the shutter button on the first and last shots often adds a little extra camera movement and blurring of the photo) It worked out fairly well, and I got a reasonably sharp image. I did have to shoot at ISO 800, but the 5D produces acceptable noise levels provided the image is well exposed. Shooting at f/8 was necessary to get the depth-of-field I wanted. I had brought a polarizer, but took it off for this shot to get the fastest shutter speed I could, and that was a compromise.
Canon 5D, 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM II
f/8, 28mm, 1/25 sec., ISO 800
This shot was taken a little later in the hike, just after we crossed the East Fork of the San Jacinto River. I used the same technique as described above, except this shot was taken with me holding the camera atop my hiking stick. I usually take a 4-foot long wood dowel that serves as an impromptu monopod when needed.
I wished I could have used my polarizer (and also a lower ISO). The filter would have helped to cut the white glare off the surface of the leaves and really show the beautiful green glow that the forest canopy generates. Next time I'll definitely bring the tripod.
hike info
Double Lake Recreation Area and Big Creek Scenic Area are located just south of Coldspring, Texas inside the Sam Houston National Forest. I made a custom map (1 MB) of our route and plotted GPS waypoints. The GPS data was made before the hike using software, i.e. they're not real points taken in the field. However, during the hike, I found that those pre-plotted points were accurate.
