skypointer2000
Tuscan Nights
During my May vacation, the weather in central Europe was as foul as it can get. Nothing but wind and rain in the forecast for a whole week.
After checking all my options, I decided to drive to central Italy, as Tuscany was the closest region, where the forecast at least showed a chance for clear skies.
I took the decision in the early morning and an 8 hours drive was needed to get there. My pre-planning was therefore marginal. After finding a place to sleep and having a (great) dinner, I headed to this famous spot and captured the rising Milky Way over Podere Belvedere - probably the most photographed farm in the region, if not in whole Europe.
I was very surprised that I was the only photographer doing nightscapes there and I took the chance to create this extensive focus stack. As light pollution was rather bad, I used my light pollution filter to increase contrast.
After finishing this shot, I headed to the famous group cypresses, where I found a real frenzy of activity. While setting up my gear next to some local astrophotographers, they started teasing me that I was late for the party. When I told them that I had been shooting the Milky Way over Podere Belvedere first, they chuckeled even more and told me that it was impossible to capture a decent Milky Way shot from there. Instead of arguing, I just showed them the RAWs on my cameras LCD. Now the chuckles were gone and they said "Oh, we'll have to try that as well..."
Lesson learned:
Sometimes, if you come to a place as a clueless outsider without extensively researching it, you might succeed in capturing a composition, because you had no idea that it was known to be impossible.
Prints available:
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
nachtlicht° light pollution filter
Foreground:
- 6 panel focus stack
- each panel a stack of 3 x 40s @ISO1600 f/1.4
Sky:
Stack of 5 x 60s @ISO1600 f/2.8, tracked
Tuscan Nights
During my May vacation, the weather in central Europe was as foul as it can get. Nothing but wind and rain in the forecast for a whole week.
After checking all my options, I decided to drive to central Italy, as Tuscany was the closest region, where the forecast at least showed a chance for clear skies.
I took the decision in the early morning and an 8 hours drive was needed to get there. My pre-planning was therefore marginal. After finding a place to sleep and having a (great) dinner, I headed to this famous spot and captured the rising Milky Way over Podere Belvedere - probably the most photographed farm in the region, if not in whole Europe.
I was very surprised that I was the only photographer doing nightscapes there and I took the chance to create this extensive focus stack. As light pollution was rather bad, I used my light pollution filter to increase contrast.
After finishing this shot, I headed to the famous group cypresses, where I found a real frenzy of activity. While setting up my gear next to some local astrophotographers, they started teasing me that I was late for the party. When I told them that I had been shooting the Milky Way over Podere Belvedere first, they chuckeled even more and told me that it was impossible to capture a decent Milky Way shot from there. Instead of arguing, I just showed them the RAWs on my cameras LCD. Now the chuckles were gone and they said "Oh, we'll have to try that as well..."
Lesson learned:
Sometimes, if you come to a place as a clueless outsider without extensively researching it, you might succeed in capturing a composition, because you had no idea that it was known to be impossible.
Prints available:
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
nachtlicht° light pollution filter
Foreground:
- 6 panel focus stack
- each panel a stack of 3 x 40s @ISO1600 f/1.4
Sky:
Stack of 5 x 60s @ISO1600 f/2.8, tracked