In late August of 2015, after midnight, I stepped outside the cottage to yet another stupendous view of the night sky. The Milky Way was surprisingly noticeable on this night. Enough so that I fetched my camera. Working at ISO's from 3200 to 128,000, I made several exposures right from the deck. As per usual, I processed the images in Lightroom.
And then, apparently, completely forgot about the images.
I rediscovered them recently, as I was searching for other images and, well, I literally stop dead, staring at them.
It didn't take me long to realize I had to get the selects posted here, and then Flickr. But I always start on Behance; I like telling my story - even a short one - in this venue.
My processing treatment is much the same here as with other night sky shots - tungsten white balance, additional Clarity, Vibrance, minor Dehaze and the use of dual radial filters to accentuate the MIlky Way.
Enjoy!
This image was captured at ISO 128,000 (just, well, BECAUSE). Exposure time was 10 seconds but based on the exposure compensation in Lightroom, likely should have been longer. Despite the noise, or perhaps because of it, I love the almost painterly feel to this image.
Roughly the same composition but this time at ISO 3200 for 30 seconds. Look closely and you'll notice a slight blur to the stars. Between 15 - 25 seconds is optimal for me to retain the stars as pinpoints of light.
