Night sky, still experimenting

[Rick Nantais]

Beautiful black sky, Nikon Z8, Viltrox 20mm, ISO 2500, 20 sec F2.8. My question: is there a way to get more colors from the MW ? I've seen terrific shots and I wonder.

 

[JimFox]

You are on the right track Rick.

Be sure to list your equipment used and the settings you used with these.

But I will say overall, these are a great improvement. With Night time photography, it's baby steps each time.

You got the core nicely, so now it's just about getting out more and then honing your post processing to get the right look. I noticed you left all of the ground in these dark, which works fine here I think, though typically guys are blending in ground layers taken at twilight when they can be shot at a lower ISO and close down the aperture for some better corner detail. You can also do the same, or similar since it looks like you are moving around a lot, and probably are not just setup in one spot before sunset and not moving, you can just go to Bulb mode and shoot longer shutter speeds just for the ground. The stars will streak and the sky will start to blow out, but what you are after is a brighter ground layer to blend in with your Star images you take. The newer Nikons have a Longer shutter speed you can enable, I think it goes to 300 seconds, maybe even 900 seconds if I recall. Or just use Bulb mode, lock in the shutter release and then use a timer on your phone to time it out.

Again, I like the progress you are making.

 

[Rick Nantais]

You are on the right track Rick.

Be sure to list your equipment used and the settings you used with these.

But I will say overall, these are a great improvement. With Night time photography, it's baby steps each time.

You got the core nicely, so now it's just about getting out more and then honing your post processing to get the right look. I noticed you left all of the ground in these dark, which works fine here I think, though typically guys are blending in ground layers taken at twilight when they can be shot at a lower ISO and close down the aperture for some better corner detail. You can also do the same, or similar since it looks like you are moving around a lot, and probably are not just setup in one spot before sunset and not moving, you can just go to Bulb mode and shoot longer shutter speeds just for the ground. The stars will streak and the sky will start to blow out, but what you are after is a brighter ground layer to blend in with your Star images you take. The newer Nikons have a Longer shutter speed you can enable, I think it goes to 300 seconds, maybe even 900 seconds if I recall. Or just use Bulb mode, lock in the shutter release and then use a timer on your phone to time it out.

Again, I like the progress you are making.

Thanks !