This is my first post to the site. I am very excited to be a part of this community. It was a clear night at Mount Rainier recently so I decided to go out and work on some landscape astrophotography. With a 3/4 moon shining brightly I knew that the sky would not be as dark as it can get up there. The upside, however, is that the moonlight can illuminate the mountain and the foreground which can result in some intriguing images. I love how the mountain is so bright with the light of the moon reflecting off the snow.
Specific Feedback Requested
I would like to get some advice on what I might be able to do to improve the look of this image.
Technical Details
The photo was taken with a Canon R with manual settings of f/5.6, 15 sec., ISO 3200 at a focal length of 85mm. The photo was post processed in Lightroom.
Really nice looking image here - I too enjoy making images with a brighter moon at night.
I think you did a great job with this image especially since it was captured at 85mm. I know how hard that can be to focus! =)
The colors and processing all look great to me, personally. If there was anything to nitpick it would be the slight star trail you have going on with the stars due to shutter speed.
I know there are better methods of calculation for shutter speed to freeze stars, but I still find the 500 rule to work pretty nicely in the field for easy math. In your case, it would be 500 / focal length = shutter speed (in seconds) = 500/85… which is just 6 seconds… I am guessing that the image would not have been super possible unless you jacked up your ISO to 6400 or 10,000 and the loss in noise could be detrimental. Anyways, it seems you may have picked the best of both worlds here in your compromise. Another way to go about this could be to stop up to like f/4 or f/2.8… but you might have to focus stack at that point.
Welcome to NPN! Glad to have you here and what a great first image to kick things off.
A terrific night sky image. Wonderful conditions to get the moonlight on Rainier AND get a decent image to include the stars.
Agree with Matt, the colors and processing look quite good. The night exposure on the mountain and forest are excellent.
The stary sky looks great at the posted size, but then we start to see the challenges of stary sky images as this gets enlarged. I’ve had success at 15s and that’s usually my go-to shutter speed - but alongside Matt’s tip/forumula… that 15s works with 24mm and wider! But still came out pretty well. If anything, you might look in to Topaz Denoise AI or even some start-stacking apps to reduce the noise. Granted, it’s not bad at all really and this came out quite good.
Composition wise, I like this as presented. An alternative might be to crop closer to square and eliminate the lighter trunk on the right. Actually, it’s framing the scene nicely with the trees on the left, so I’m just putting that out there as an alternate thought.
Thanks for posting. We look forward to more images and for your participation in the forums and galleries!
Hi Ted, welcome to NPN. This is terrific first image, can’t wait to see more of your work.
I think this looks good as presented. @Matt_Payne and @Lon_Overacker offered a few tips on the astro side of things. My only recommendation (and this is really a personal preference) would be to darken the sky a bit more…would love to see those stars against a darker background. Again, just personal preference. I really like your image here.
Thanks so much for the feedback Matt. I routinely photograph these night sky scenes at the widest focal length and then crop if necessary. I shot this at 85mm because there were some distractions to the left and right that I did not want in the shot, hence the slight star trails at this shutter speed. I’ll keep the 500 rule in mind the next time I go out shooting the stars. Thanks again.
Hi Lon:
Some really good advice here. I do use Topaz Denoise on a lot of images, especially wildlife, but chose not to use it here. I think I will reprocess the image using it and see how much of a difference it makes. Looking forward to posting more images and being an active participant in the NPN community.
Thanks David. I am going to reprocess the image and take your advice on darkening the sky a bit. Also try Topaz Denoise and see what I get. I am very excited to be part of this community of nature photographers, and am looking forward to posting more images real soon.
Hi Ted! Welcome to NPN! This is a very nice first post. I think Lon and David gave good advice on improving this image. If you are a Windows user, you can try a free program called Sequator. Here’s the website. I believe there is a similar program for the Mac. This is a stacking program for astrophotography that allows you to take several quick shots at normal ISO, such as 16 shots at f2.8, 6 secs, ISO 800. I plan to give it a try in a couple weeks. I usually use the 500 formula Matt listed so it will be interesting to compare the results.
Again, welcome! I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work.
But still came out pretty well. If anything, you might look in to Topaz Denoise AI or even some start-stacking apps to reduce the noise. Granted, it’s not bad at all really and this came out quite good.