Rodney Campbell's Blog

More Over – Mercator Projection

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

I know I’d mentioned previously that I had taken eight (8) exposures of each of the ten (10) frames for this panorama. Consisting of two rows of five vertical overlapped frames to cover the entire milky way arch

When shooting my original intention was to star stack the sets of eight common frames to reduce noise. Previously I just chose the best exposure from each set and stitched them

This is the result of stacking each set of 8 frames and then panorama stitching the ten stacked compositions

For the star stacking for noise reduction I used a software package on my Mac which is more automated (than using Photoshop layers). For this I recently purchased Starry Landscape Stacker which appears to work very well

There is one other difference with this panorama (besides having considerably less noise across the image – especially in the background sky). In my previous stitching I used a spherical projection for the panorama. This gave it a wider more vertically squashed view. However it also introduces a problem of heavily stretched and smeared stars across the top portion of the frame that you have to crop out. This is because this area forms the top of the spherical projection

With this panorama I used a Mercator projection which produces much less star distortion across the top portion of the frame. Which basically means I get nice sharp stars right up into the corners of the frame

Churchlight

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Whilst I was staying in Orange a friend had arranged for me to give a talk and tutorial shoot on star trails (and astrophotography in general) to members of the Orange Camera Club

So a group of us met for dinner in town on the Saturday evening. I gave a bit of an impromptu presentation in the restaurant. We then ate, chatted and asked questions and prepared ourselves for the cold night ahead 🙂

Unfortunately once we were on location and started shooting it became apparent that quite a lot of whispy cloud was moving in

Still we spent some time practicing shooting, and hopefully most people got a good grasp on the fundamental techniques

A few of us die hards started some star trails and sat in the car chatting for about an hour before calling it a night

Besides the clouds sweeping through making havoc of the trails frames I also tried something new this time. Two minute frames (instead of my usual one minute in darkish skies)

Besides creating half as many images to deal with in post processing and storage (the upside). It was likely to have the potential effect of brightening the ambient background of the sky. Leading to not as much contrast between the stars and the sky (especially for the dimmer stars). I was expecting the effect on the moving clouds to be even more disruptive. However I’m actually pleasantly surprised with the result and will likely try this again. Particularly when I’m under the very dark skies of northern Australia very soon

Us and Them

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Visual interest almost anywhere…

Farmers Eye

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Another clear day, another opportunity to practice flying the new drone

Even a farmers dam can be interesting if shot from an interesting and unusual angle

These are the star trails I was aiming to photograph whilst staying on our friends property. One which would include the little vineyard they have on site

Heaven’s Vineyard

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

They have a neat paddock of wine grapes planted, and one of the rows is directly in line with my favoured lone tree on the hill

It was a perfect location and a perfect night for shooting these trails. Very clear skies, no clouds, almost no light pollution and it wasn’t to freezing 🙂

Even better I only had to shoot the test shots, the light painting frames and then start the trails shots. I then went inside to the warmth of an open fire and had dinner. All I had to do was come out just over two (2) hours later to collect the camera. The perfect way to shoot startrails if you ask me 🙂

I’m about to head off into very dark skies territory on a ten week trip through north west Australia. It’s an ideal opportunity to shoot as much astrophotography as I can sensibly fit in :). So here I’m getting a little practice in with the new camera (Nikon Z7) and lens (Samyang 14/2.4). So far I’m quite happy with the combination and the results

Last time I went on a trip like this (4 years ago) there were a few key things I didn’t have or take. This time I’m taking my Novoflex Pano Rails (which will make taking angled panorama’s much easier and multi row pano’s possible). I’m also taking the Star Adventurer Mini star tracker (for some tracked astro shots)