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I’m planning a Milky Way shoot 16th August from Beachy head if anyone is interested in joining me. Let me know leaving Croydon at 18:00 getting back to Croydon early hours of the 17th.
Looking at the Photopills (PP) app and the predicted weather forecast it looks like the best time is going to be the evening/night of the 16th. The journey time is around 1:40 to 2hrs depending on traffic etc. I’m thinking of getting there before sunset and shooting through till the Milky Way lines up with the lighthouse which should be around 00:38
Frank – this sounds interesting. I seldom do night photography especially looking straight up. I could be persuaded!
Great! You will need a wide angle lens, torch, preferably a head torch and a red filter to preserve our night sight. If you haven’t got a red filter/film treat yourself to some chocolates (Quality Streets or the like) and use the plastic wrapper from the sweets. Warm clothing, sturdy tripod, spare batteries, memory card, something to sit or kneel on. You may want to pack a snack and drink. Weather forecast is looking good, I’m waiting for a few others to confirm they will be coming and I will email out meetup time and location.
I joined Frank, Rebecca and Andrew on their trip tp Beachy Head. We were in time for some sunsets and golden hour shots and then we waited for darkness to fall (we adjourned to a local hostelry for some refreshments and arrived back at our chosen spot just after ten). I had trouble attaching my camera to my tripod (difficult thing to do in the dark!). Then I had trouble with settings but fortunately Frank (thanks Frank) helped me sort these out and I was soon shooting stars. We left just after 1:00 in the pitch black arriving back in Croydon around 3:00 in the morning.
It’s a shame we have to go so far outside of London to see the stars (the celestial ones
)There’s just so many of them, it is truly a wondrous sight!
This is just an update and hopefully an encouragement to other CCC members to take the opportunity to try something different. You never know you may well fall in love with a new genre!
This was my first star shoot, I used my go to app for planning Photo Pills (PP). It was also my first time using the Sony for long exposure at night.
You will have seen David’s post already, this is the second time I’m writing this one as the first disappeared into the ether when I submitted it!
It was an update giving you my thoughts on the lessons learnt on this shoot, because just like the first post didn’t go to plan likewise there were elements of the evening/night shoot that didn’t quite go to plan.
First lesson unless you have recent pictures of the destination you are planning to shoot, assume that what you are going to find is not going to be as is. Point in case when we arrived at the pin drop place designated PP as the place to setup for the shot we were after. We found that we could not get access as a large swathe of the hilltop was roped off due to erosion of the cliff top. Long story short we had to find another place from which to shoot, we didn’t get that perfect shot! Lesson: always have a plan B
Second lesson, It’s a lot easier to figure things out in the light than when you are in an almost pitch black environment. I struggled for about half an to figure out why my camera wasn’t producing sharp images. I thought I had already set everything up ready to shoot the stars, forgetting I had changed the settings to shoot blue hour shots but not changed it back after. Lesson: get to know your camera.
Third lesson, The photo below made me smile! I had composed the shot then went to paint the lighthouse, and ended up spoiling it with a hand and torch (torch borrowed from David) in frame and an over-bright foreground. Lesson: we don’t always get it right, but even being out there and seeing it in person is a reward in itself!
Hope to see you on the next shoot!
Lesson Learnt I tried to post the image in the same post as the txt, but as with my first post it didn’t post (just disappeared!) I then post them separately seems to work. Lesson: Draft in a word app that saves your content so you don’t have to retype. (Tip courtesy of Paul) Then just cut and paste your content into the post.
Or just be more succinct!
Yes. To reiterate what Frank said, ‘get to know your camera’! Stupidly left camera on Auto ISO before realising. I’d also say that a fast, wide lens is essential. I had a 24mm which converts to a 35mm (approx) on a full frame and I struggled to get the lighthouse and Milky Way in my shot (see our FB page) or even good pics of the general night sky. The lens was also F4, which, I think wasn’t wide enough. I also think, though this could just me my ( and Nikon’s) problem, that my APS-C Z50’s ability at high ISOs wasn’t great so I’d be interested to know if anyone else has problems or good photos using APS-C size sensors. Note that I haven’t got any fancy software so my image has only been amended in ACR.
But despite all that, the fun thing was we went out as a group and had a great, if very tiring, time.
My camera of chose was a Canon 1DX (the mark 1). This is a full-frame camera and gave me more pixels to play with. I attached a Canon 24-105 f4 but I think my 8-15 (Fisheye) might have been a better choice (unfortunately I hadn’t taken it with me). The first shot above was taken with my ND1000 filter attached – it allowed me to look straight into the sun!
I took 51 images, deleted a few prior to post processing and finished up with 42 after post processing. Not one of my most prolific shoots but it was a good
daynight out nonetheless.Again, thanks to Frank for the invite.
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