Tracking Milk Over West Spanish Peak

People that know me know that I really like to revisit past efforts. It's a great way to look critically at my own work and say - you know, I just... more

by Mike Berenson

Title

Tracking Milk Over West Spanish Peak

Artist

Mike Berenson

Medium

Photograph

Description

People that know me know that I really like to revisit past efforts. It's a great way to look critically at my own work and say - you know, I just want to go back and shoot it again. I use different techniques and I almost always get interesting results.

I created this image from a spot near West Spanish Peak and La Veta, Colorado with the moon setting over my shoulder. In-fact, you can see the last of the moonlight hitting one of the so-called Great Dikes of West Spanish Peak shown in the foreground. Besides that, the super detailed stars above became the highlight of the image thanks to my tracking of the stars during the exposure. With celestial goodies like the Eagle, Omega, Lagoon, and Butterfly Nebulas, I'm already looking forward to seeing this printed big!

In doing some research about the area and the Great Dikes, I learned a lot about the area's unique topography. These Great Dikes were formed during the same volcanic period as the big mountain peak and they appear arranged in lines that radiate away from the West Spanish Peak. One of the more notable, longer dikes in the area is nicknamed Stairway to Heaven - which might just find its way into one of my images someday. For now, this dike will do just fine.

On this night, I ran into an especially interesting challenge that I thought was worth mentioning. The location I had picked for this image was up on a hill that gave a great perspective on one of the Great Dikes leading up to West Spanish Peak. I scouted the area on a few occasions in November 2013 and even captured two images from the area showing off Zodiacal Light in one and Comet ISON in the 2 more. When I went back a few months later shoot the Milky Way, I was surprised to find that a big brand new gate was now blocking the road up onto the hill. Apparently in those few months, home owners in the area had created a gated community� so for a few minutes, I considered going all the way back home empty handed. That's when I pulled out this backup location out to save the day.

How I Got The Shot
From the start, I knew I wanted higher quality than my previous effort and that meant less noise. I liked the lighting of the lunar alpenglow on my last effort so I looked for timing that would give me a similar opportunity. I wanted great Milky Way stars rising above West Spanish Peak illuminated by a setting moon. I knew that I wanted a blend of multiple exposures including a long-exposure, low ISO shot for the foreground to significantly reduce noise below the horizon. Then in the sky, I planned to make use of my iOptron SkyTracker to track the stars and keep them in position during the entire exposure.

To capture the frames I needed, I started by composing in the direction I had in-mind - accounting for rotation of stars over time. Then with the tracker running, I captured a couple of frames before turning it off and shooting a few more at a lower ISO. Even with the tracking, I like to use multiple exposures of the sky as this also helps to reduce noise.

On the post-processing side, I started by combining my two tracked images with sharp stars. Since the two images were both taken from the tracker while running, the stars were already perfectly aligned. So I just set the bottom layer to 100% opacity and the top layer to 50%. I then checked the top layer on and off to see the difference - a slight reduction in noise.

Then, I added the layer that showed the sharp mountain foreground to the top and masked out the sky using edge detection. Then, I gave the top layer a little nudging to get it in line with the mountain on the layers below with the tracked stars. After that, some curves and color balance adjustments led me to finishing touches with Nik's Color Efex Pro.


Photo Gear
� Camera Body -�Nikon D800 Digital SLR Camera
� Camera Lens -�Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G Autofocus Lens
� Tripod Head -�Acratech GV2 Ball Head / Gimbal Head with Lever Clamp�
� Tripod Legs -�FEISOL Elite CT-3472 Rapid Tripod Legs
� Tracker -�iOptron SkyTracker Camera Mount with Polar Scope (Black)
� Remote Trigger - Vello Shutterboss Version II Timer Remote Switch for Nikon with 10-Pin Connection

Exposure Settings - 3 exposures

Tracked Exposures (2 of them combined for noise reduction)
� ISO: 800
� Aperture: f/2.8
� Shutter Speed: 4 minutes

Foreground Long-Exposure (1 with tracker turned off)
� ISO: 400
� Aperture: f/2.8
� Shutter Speed: 4 minutes

Uploaded

July 17th, 2014