{"id":10433,"date":"2016-12-30T09:13:10","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T22:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexwisephotography.net\/blog\/?p=10433"},"modified":"2016-12-30T09:13:10","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T22:13:10","slug":"before-and-after-under-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexwisephotography.net\/blog\/2016\/12\/30\/before-and-after-under-the-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Before and After – Under the Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sitting<\/a>
Sitting under the stars in Pimba, South Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the last few years I’ve been in awe of the work by Michael Shainblum<\/a> who is just one of the many people  upping the game when it comes to silky clean milky way and star photographs. I have to admit, milky way photography has never been one of my strongest points and I’ll often blame the age of my Canon 5D Mark II being limited in lowlight as an excuse to not get out and shoot milky ways. With a recent trip I was keen to challenge myself with this photograph titled Under the Stars<\/em> which features me, sitting on a hammock attached to a tree wrapped in fairy lights under the milky way with a fully stoked fire keeping us warm. The end photo required a few shots at varying exposures to bring it all together which I’ll look to walk you through in this post.<\/p>\n

Challenging your in camera and post processing techniques<\/h3>\n

On a drive from Melbourne to Perth (50 hours of driving) I was keen to explore some of the night skies in the middle of nowhere and add a couple of milky way shots to my gallery. Yes, the Canon 5D Mark II struggled at ISO 3200 but unless you’re looking close, it’s not too noticeable (well I think so anyway..!)<\/p>\n

[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]My Melbourne to Perth roadtrip<\/a> post has more photos from this trip where I explored some of the best parts of Australia[\/box]<\/p>\n

This is one of my favourite photos of the trip and is something that was just a concept I was keen to try. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off in getting the right exposures and post processing it correctly but I’m pretty happy with the end result. <\/p>\n

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The hammock wasn’t just for decoration and was the perfect way to kick back before the sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coming up with a concept that’s outside your comfort zone and giving it a go is the only way to really push your development in hands on photography and post processing. There were other concepts that I toyed with while we were away and you know what? They didn’t come off. But it was fun taking them and giving them a try. Next time you’re planning a photography outing, why not set yourself a lofty goal and see how you go executing it? If you fail, you’ll learn so much on how to do it different next time. If you succeed, you’ll no doubt pick up on things you can do better next time while learning little techniques that you may not normally use in your normal post processing workflow.<\/p>\n

[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]I recently bought a new travel tripod and compared the 5 most popular tripods on the market. Give my travel tripod guide<\/a> a read if you’re looking for a lightweight tripod for your next trip![\/box]<\/p>\n

About the photograph<\/h3>\n
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Unglamorous camp photo. I couldn’t resist and camped without my tent cover. Sleeping under the stars was something amazing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For this photograph, Under the Stars<\/em>, we were camping in Pimba, South Australia which is basically in the middle of no where. As we were driving around the area looking for somewhere to set up our tents for the night, we found this secluded part located just off the salt lake and surrounded by this tree you see in the photo. Straight away we knew where we were camping for the night. It was perfect, silence that was almost eerie and skies that were darker than some of my brother’s music tastes in high school (really dark! Sorry Rich \ud83d\ude09 ) <\/p>\n

After shooting the sunset and then shooting the milky way down at the salt lake for a few more hours, we eventually headed back to our tents but were still keen to shoot for a while longer to make the most of the dark skies.<\/p>\n

With a hammock already in the tree from some lazy beers in the sun earlier and the fire lit to warm up, we decided to pull the solar powered fairy lights out of the car which we had bought on the first day of our trip and neglected ever since. I knew they would eventually come in handy..!  <\/p>\n

[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]Interested in landscape photography? My guide to landscape photography<\/a> shows you how to get started in this fun part of photography[\/box]<\/p>\n

Taking the photograph<\/h3>\n
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The final photo was a mix of 4 images with the other 6 very loosely used where required (i.e. detail in the tree or fire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When experimenting with an image concept I have a habit of going overboard with my image brackets. Throw in the poor performance of the Canon 5D Mark II and you have 10 bracketed images. Ok ok. I probably could have got by with less but better safe than sorry right? <\/p>\n

There is some reasoning to my madness with the need for having 10 different images coming from:<\/p>\n