Of the heavens and the earth

[DurtGurl]

I'd like to share some of my recent star shots taken with the new 5D Mark III. I am approaching this astro-landscape interest completely by trial and error, which is made possible by the instant feedback of the DSLR. During this learning process, I have found that (unlike the T3i) no long-exposure noise reduction is needed with the 5D3. As for high ISO NR, I'm not sure yet. Thus far, I am not using it. I welcome all tips and critiques on my images!

The first one was taken just east of Phoenix looking south over Picketpost Mountain during the Oct new moon. ISO3200, 32sec, 14mm Rokinon at probably f/5 or 7.



Second shot was taken on the same night from the same spot, but looking north. ISO500, 31min, 14mm at probably f/11 or tighter.



Third snap was taken on the eastern flanks of the San Francisco mountains near Flagstaff AZ on a crystal clear new-moon night in Sept. ISO1600, 30sec, 14mm, f/2.8.



Finally, I grabbed this next image on the same night shooting just above the southern horizon. The "star trails" had me really perplexed once I got home and uploaded all the photos to the Mac. Since I had been pointing the camera to the south, the trails just didn't make sense. I did finally figure it out.... Anyone want to take a stab? What I absolutely love about this new photography habit of mine (especially night photography using manual everything) is that it really makes you think!

[draymorton]

Love #s 2, 3 and 4. #3 is the fave.

Was fill flash used to light the foreground in #1? Light painting? Whatever the case, the light is too bright and/or too flat for my taste. But the sky itself almost makes up for the rest.

The 5d3 does such an amazing job at 3200. I want one, dammit.

[LeeIs]

I love #3 also. You can clearly see the milky way. awesome. The first one, the light is too much. it looks like you fired the flash. I also like #2 and the light streaks. Why not shoot landscape?

[Don Schaeffer]

Absolutely amazing shots!

[Franglais]

Are the "star trails" in the last one satellites? The rest of the sky doesn't seem to be "moving" so the only things than can be moving are aircraft/UFO's, satellites and meteorites.

[DurtGurl]

Interesting that I've got two negatives for the lighted foreground in Pic #1. I used an iPhone flashlight app (my flashlight was too bright) to do light painting, no flash. Number 3 is also my favorite of this bunch due to composition and the great colors in the sky resulting from faint Flagstaff light pollution. But I've been wanting to bring in more foreground to my night shots - not just have dark horizons. Sounds like I overdid it on this one, therefore I'll keep working at it!

As for pic #4... Franglais - I also thought the trails must be satellites... maybe a satellite cluster was passing by? But when you zoom in on the photo, everything has a trail! I'll hold off on the answer and see if anyone else can guess.