Processing nightscapes is a challenge that every nightscape photographer faces. Nightscape photographers spend hours under the dark sky capturing the beautiful night sky and spend more hours processing it. Unlike most landscape photos which are shot at faster shutter speeds and do not have noise and darker foregrounds, nightscape images are polluted with noise, dark foregrounds and so many other artifacts that are caused by long exposures. Recently, I attended an astrophotography camp organized by Horowhenua Astronomical Society with Jonathan Green as volunteers for AstroNZ, where i gave a presentation / talk on processing nightscapes. My talk included topics on: 1) Gear required 2) How to capture 3) Post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop. As, this talk was focused on nightscape processing, I also included panorama stitching and processing. Here is the presentation that was a part of my talk at the astrophotogtaphy astrophotography camp.
After attending the astrophotography camp at Foxton, organized by the Horowhenua Astronomical Society. Jonathan and i decided to stop at Opotaka, which is an historic maori site in New Zealand in the Tongariro national park, also called the land of two dwellings. Last time we were here, we had amazing clear sky and was hoping for the same. We got our camera and other gear setup and were waiting for sundown. As, the sun went down the clouds started rolling in and we thought we might have to call it a night, but luckily the clouds cleared up and we were back in business. I recently bought an iOptron ZEQ25 mount from AstroNZ and was eagerly waiting to use it. After a while and bit of challenge to get the balance right, the mount was ready to track. I looked around and the only patch of clear sky was overhead around the LMC and SMC (Large and Small Magellan Clouds). so, i pointed my camera overhead and started shooting, but unfortunately before i could get enough shots the clouds rolled in and we had to call it a night. I ended up getting 5 amazing 2 minute exposures of that […]
