A7RII Milky Way

[txwhitacre]

Long Exposure milkyway with my a7rii

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[SAR_admin]

Did you put the light behind the tree?

[txwhitacre]

Yes. It was light painted with a flash light during the exposure. I did run lenr in this shot because of how long it took to paint the tree. I found if I shorten the shutter and increase the ISO then turned off lenr I had equal results.

[miran]

Hmmm, this doesn't looks very good to me. Very blotchy, especially in the lowerpart of the sky. Is the A7RII having problems with long exposures or is it just poor technique?

[txwhitacre]

Hmmm, this doesn't looks very good to me. Very blotchy, especially in the lowerpart of the sky. Is the A7RII having problems with long exposures or is it just poor technique?

There was quite a bit of wispy clouds passing through, not sure if that has to do with what you are talking about. Here is a link on flickr if you want to look more. I updated the editing a bit. I suspect it has to do with my processing technique. I'm pretty inexperienced with this type of photography. 

 

 

[miran]

Hmm, at ISO 800 I really wouldn't expect to see such ugly colour blotches. Like artefacts from noise reduction on a very noisy image. Did you shoot in raw or jpeg? Pushed contrast much in the sky? I ask because I get cleaner looking sky with my old NEX-6 at ISO 1600 or even 3200. The only condition is I shoot raw and there must not be much light pollution and the air needs to be as clear as possible (the Milky way must clearly be visible to the naked eye).

[Guest all8]

I wish I could get photos of the stars like that where I live. It is blotchy around the light areas, orange blotches all over, what did the raw file look like before processing?

[txwhitacre]

Hmm, at ISO 800 I really wouldn't expect to see such ugly colour blotches. Like artefacts from noise reduction on a very noisy image. Did you shoot in raw or jpeg? Pushed contrast much in the sky? I ask because I get cleaner looking sky with my old NEX-6 at ISO 1600 or even 3200. The only condition is I shoot raw and there must not be much light pollution and the air needs to be as clear as possible (the Milky way must clearly be visible to the naked eye).

 

I wish I could get photos of the stars like that where I live. It is blotchy around the light areas, orange blotches all over, what did the raw file look like before processing?

 

 

Here is a link to the ARW file if you would like to look and see. I probably pushed the processing to much, but let me know. It was not a real clear night. There were thin tails of clouds moving by. Thanks for the comments.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g54589nu4qnuc1c/DSC01511.ARW?dl=0

[miran]

Oh wow, I think you had less than ideal conditions, a lot of light pollution, probably quite underexposed shot (for the stars) and you did well to get the colours and the contrast you have.

[Guest all8]

I could get the blotchy stuff if, after getting an image half as good as yours, I turned up the saturation all the way. Thanks, that was interesting to try out.

[txwhitacre]

Oh wow, I think you had less than ideal conditions, a lot of light pollution, probably quite underexposed shot (for the stars) and you did well to get the colours and the contrast you have.

 

I could get the blotchy stuff if, after getting an image half as good as yours, I turned up the saturation all the way. Thanks, that was interesting to try out.

 

 

Thank you both for the critique. I'm very new to night photography. I really appreciate it. 

[that1guyy]

Just curious. You say you're new but how did your photo get so popular on Flickr? A lot of views and faves. When I post pictures nobody sees them at all.

[tellure]

Thanks for posting the RAW file, it was interesting to check out.  I actually don't see any of the blotchy's even when I crank the saturation to +100.  Not sure how you got all the purples and oranges in your jpg output though, maybe you could describe your post processing technique.

[txwhitacre]

Just curious. You say you're new but how did your photo get so popular on Flickr? A lot of views and faves. When I post pictures nobody sees them at all.

 

I am pretty active on Flickr and consumes part of my evenings to be active in looking at other members photos. I comment on the ones I like and have built a small network of friends. 

[txwhitacre]

Thanks for posting the RAW file, it was interesting to check out.  I actually don't see any of the blotchy's even when I crank the saturation to +100.  Not sure how you got all the purples and oranges in your jpg output though, maybe you could describe your post processing technique.

 

To start I pushed the dehaze tool in lightroom a good bit, maybe a bit to much, I set my highlights all the way down and boost the whites. I paint in shadow and contrast to the dark areas and warm the milky way up to about 3300 to 3800K. 

[txwhitacre]

Another shot from on a different date and much better location. 

 

[lacroix]

Hi, 

Did you upgd. the firmware on your camera to 1.10? Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me but there are some suspect hot pixels.  

 

Were you too close to the rock? it seems a bit out of focus to me.

 

What lens and aperture are you using?

 

I do like that this photo has no light pollution; good work!

[txwhitacre]

Hi, 

Did you upgd. the firmware on your camera to 1.10? Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me but there are some suspect hot pixels.  

 

Were you too close to the rock? it seems a bit out of focus to me.

 

What lens and aperture are you using?

 

I do like that this photo has no light pollution; good work!

Yes the firmware is upgraded. Those are stars and the processing just made them pop, perhaps a bit much. You can tell they are stars because they do have a bit of "stretch to them".

 

I used LENR on that shot. I have found the hot pixels are not an issue with LENR. I was pretty close to the rock compared to the being manual focused on the stars. F2.8 20 sec exposure at ISO 1600. 21mm was the focal length. The lens was the sony 28mm F2 with the 21mm F2.8 attachment. 

 

Thanks for the comments. 

[Tim Schallberger]

Hi Txwhitacre,

 

You have a great RAW file to play with.  Here is a quick :30 process I did in Camera Raw using the settings I like (and then I head to Photoshop for fine tuning)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1yna41o8uaz35x/DSC01511.jpg?dl=0

 

The fine folks over at Lonely Speck published a pretty good Milky Way processing Tutorial using Lightroom just last week that might be worth taking a look at if you are a Lightroom user.  

 

Thanks,

Tim

[txwhitacre]

Hi Txwhitacre,

 

You have a great RAW file to play with.  Here is a quick :30 process I did in Camera Raw using the settings I like (and then I head to Photoshop for fine tuning)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1yna41o8uaz35x/DSC01511.jpg?dl=0

 

The fine folks over at Lonely Speck published a pretty good Milky Way processing Tutorial using Lightroom just last week that might be worth taking a look at if you are a Lightroom user.  

 

Thanks,

Tim

Thanks alot Tim, Ill check it out. 

[nismailm]

Hi! Thanks for sharing the RAW file. I've yet to shoot the milkyway with this camera. Here's my version of your milkyway shot. 

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[albertdros]

Decent image. Here's my latest Milky way shot with the a7rII

 

A7RII, Zeiss 55mm f1.8 @ f2, ISO 12.800, 4 images stitched

 

 

For the specs and story behind this image, check my facebook page on www.facebook.com/albertdrosphotography

[Xfour00]

i am stunned at everyones work in here!

 

id love to try some astrophotography, but not only has the weather been horrible for it, in the evenings here, but i'm also in quite a light polluted area :/ 

 

an acquaintance of mine shot this with his a7r2 of andromeda

 

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Senna4ever/media/Photos%20III/_DSC0681_zpsk9kevn60.jpg.html

 

 

hopefully i'll be able to do as well as all of you one of these days :/ i'm still awaiting my first FE lens! (still using my aps-c lenses)