Finally got somewhere dark enough worth shooting some long exposures. So we headed an hour east of Lubbock, Texas, to where it is virtually pitch black. The moon was 1 day past new so it was ideal. Only thing that could have been better was the time of year, the brightest part of the Milky Way is only visible during the summer (in the Northern Hemisphere anyways). And it was in the 20's with wind chills near zero, but for 5 hours me and a buddy shot almost nonstop. I shot a time lapse with the 5D3/14LII/Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly, still working on that. Set up my friend with the Zeiss 21mm f/2.8/5D2, adjusted settings and he took it from there and actually got some great shots. I was shooting with another 5D3/24LII and 16-35mm f/2.8. Keep in mind these are individual exposures, most of the really insane pictures of the Milky Way you see are a bunch of stacked exposures, but I don't have a tracking mount yet so I couldn't do that.
Here are a couple of ones I liked from the first batch of shots I processed:
24mm f/1.4L @ f/2, ISO3200, 20 Seconds (That little bright disc to the left is a Galaxy!)
16-35mm f/2.8L II @ 22mm, f/2.8, 30 seconds (Little bit too long for focal length, but it turned out ok)
I know alot of astronomy buffs may be sickened by these, but the general public love shots that look like this. It was a learning experience and I'm thrilled to have had the chance to finally get some shots like these. I'm going back in the summer since that's when the brightest part of the Milky Way is visible.
Edit: I posted these a few pages up, figured I'd move them here:
16-35L II, ISO3200, f/2.8, 30 seconds (Used a Night Sky preset and exported to show you, post processing a bit too much for me, but you get the idea).
Here is one with nothing in the foreground, so kinda boring, but lot of cool stuff is visible
24LII, ISO3200, f/2, 20 seconds.
Here are a couple of ones I liked from the first batch of shots I processed:
24mm f/1.4L @ f/2, ISO3200, 20 Seconds (That little bright disc to the left is a Galaxy!)
16-35mm f/2.8L II @ 22mm, f/2.8, 30 seconds (Little bit too long for focal length, but it turned out ok)
I know alot of astronomy buffs may be sickened by these, but the general public love shots that look like this. It was a learning experience and I'm thrilled to have had the chance to finally get some shots like these. I'm going back in the summer since that's when the brightest part of the Milky Way is visible.
Edit: I posted these a few pages up, figured I'd move them here:
16-35L II, ISO3200, f/2.8, 30 seconds (Used a Night Sky preset and exported to show you, post processing a bit too much for me, but you get the idea).
Here is one with nothing in the foreground, so kinda boring, but lot of cool stuff is visible
24LII, ISO3200, f/2, 20 seconds.