Reading mode: Light Dark

News Reviews Articles Buying Guides Sample Images Videos Cameras Lenses Phones Printers Forums Galleries Challenges

Best cameras and lenses

Night work..

Challenge #64 in the Creative genius. series. Hosted by Frenchfx.

Challenge has finished

Show us your creative outside shots taken after dark.

Show full rules

submission
phase has

ended

94 entries

voting
phase has

ended

1999 votes

Slideshow 1 / 99 Full size Next Challenge Previous

Observation

by man4mopar

1^st place

3.519

low

high

Taken on Ross Island Antarctica, looking toward Observation hill. Light pollution on the right side of the image is from McMurdo station and US run science location. The heart of the Milky Way arching over Observation hill. To the left is the frozen ocean part of which is glacier and part to the right is more annual seas ice. Phoenix airfield is the small lights in the left side background. Above that is some aurora activity. Thank you for looking and hope you enjoy the image.

Camera:	Nikon D810
Lens:	Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm F1.4G
Submitted:	Thursday, 17th August, 2017 19:44 (GMT)
Taken:	Thursday, 22nd June, 2017
Focal length:	50 mm
Shutter speed:	4 sec
Aperture:	F4
ISO:	3200
Notes:	Focus stacked panorama. No paralax bracket used with remote shutter. All images taken from the same tripod location one exposure right after the other to be as true to scene as possible in the frame merges. Original file as cropped is 25854x12927 for a 334mp to be able to print large.
Views:	1170
Galleries:	View this photo in man4mopar's gallery

Provide complaint details

Your complaint (along with the complaints of others regarding this entry) will be reviewed by the challenge owner. Depending upon the nature and applicability of the complaint, the entry may be disqualified. In extreme circumstances the user who submitted the entry may receive a ban from the challenge or series in question.

Reason:

	Violates rules of the challenge
	Spam / Commercial
	Trolling / Abusive
	Sexual content / Not family friendly
	Other

Comments:

Saving ...

Complain

Keyboard shortcuts:

p previous n next c challenge f full size r retract vote # vote

Entry comments

All (10)

Most popular (0)

Editors' picks (0)

DPR staff (0)

Oldest first

emfor

While this image certainly shows quite some amount of technical perfection (focus stacking and related stuff), it does not tell anything to me.
IMO, from an artistric point of view, the image is nothing special at all. But I'm aware that artistic judgement, 1st seems to be not very important for most of the voters of DPR challenges, and 2nd it is always difficult to discuss - while I would not say it is just an opinion. BTW, I need to start voting again after I'm back to civilization (internet access).
man4mopar, no offence meant! I honor your images from a technical point of view, but I miss creativity.

Aug 29, 2017permalink

man4mopar

Art is in the eye of the beholder for sure. What is creativity in your opinion?

Aug 29, 2017permalink

emfor

Well, may be one approach to creativity is to say that it starts where cliche ends?

So I think the definition of 'cliche' helps: 'a phrase or an idea that has been used so often that it no longer has much meaning and is not interesting'. I have to admit that nowadays it may become quite difficult not to repeat sth - everything is in the web already.

Regarding this challenge, there are so many landscape plus milky way images out there that IMO it is not very creative to repeat it. Just look at the submissions of the challenge. #1 - #3 are landscape plus milky way images and among all submissions its more than a dozen. Are the voters (voting for 1-3) and photographers so uninspired?

On the other hand 'using my manually-operated home-made sky tracker' (#3) sounds quite creative :))

Aug 30, 2017*permalink

man4mopar

Thanks for your feedback emfor it is appreciated. You stated ", it does not tell anything to me." Hopefully this isn't true and you at least got a sense of what Ross Island Antarctica has as a view. Though I am fairly active on this site so maybe you already had that, I appreciate the critique to push creativity.

Cheers,
Josh

Aug 30, 2017permalink

curiousmike1300

4.0 seconds at f/4 is an incredible accomplishment. Beauty of a photo.

Aug 28, 2017permalink

man4mopar

Thank you for commenting Mike and glad you enjoy the image.

Would be very misleading to let you think this was all done at F4, so I apologize it appears that way. This is a focus stacked image using two different apertures. Looking at the files I used 60 exposures to make the pan. There are 3 focus positions in this image so 3 pans done and then alignment stacked and masked.
Once I planted the tripod down all exposures were taken one right after the other. First exposure was taken 6:21am and the last at 6:57am. A lot to cover in the method done but the short of it is I do identical pans so they align when stacked.

Aug 28, 2017permalink

man4mopar

For the sky to not have star trails and to have stars in focus I focus on a star and the settings were F1.4, 6seconds at ISO-3200.
The land has two focus points, settings were F4, 30 seconds at ISO-3200. F4 to get greater depth of field lessening how many focus positions I need to take.
When all the images are merged it keeps the data from one of the exposures. It kept the data of a bracket shot of the airfield on the left, small light output. For that to not be over powered light wise it was shot at F4, 4 seconds ISO-3200. Is the only bracket shot I took and interesting enough it used that exif data.
Getting this image at F4, 4seconds at ISO-3200 would be incredible and is not how I captured it. Don't want to mislead anyone, as this forum is a great place to learn and expand in photography. I know I have learned a lot and feel my photography skills progressed a good deal with the help of the great people on this website forums and challenges.

Cheers,
Josh

Aug 28, 2017permalink

curiousmike1300

Josh - thanks for the thorough explanation. It makes better sense now. :)

Aug 28, 2017permalink

RuthC

A magnificent image from your amazing gallery of pictures, taken under very difficult, freezing conditions.
RuthC :-)

Aug 28, 2017permalink

man4mopar

Thank you Ruth, great to hear you enjoy this! The morning of this shoot was a bit chilly but some other times out have been much harsher. If I was to guess the temps that morning I would say -25F ambient with very little wind. Today they are calling for -31F with 30knot winds windchill being around -66F.

Aug 28, 2017permalink


shoes by NEX51855 from Shoes	Nectar, nectar everywhere. by MikeKN from Amateur Photographer - Macro Challenge	Mother and Child by Kukla from SILHOUETTES, CONTOURS	That's the last we'll see of him... by pocoloco from What passes for normal [New Shot]	Desolation by stemcell from Urban Exploration - Urban Decay	door by Vygintas from I see red.	Abandoned Bus by Papa48 from Kodak - Specific Equipment Challenge

77	“8-25mm f/4.0 lens is coming soon”
70	Wildlife + Macro = Wrong Focus IMO
56	Does medium format film really equal 80MP digital?
54	Will Canon ever again make a camera just for photographers?
48	m4/3 just ain't cutting it
43	Nikon Z7 II Studio AF Issues
43	Do any of you still have your dSLR or a larger sensor camera?
42	what is this phenomenon called?
40	Focus point on my M50 is never where I left it 😩
40	Is this a scam? "Won" a bid on eBay for camera from Russia
39	Camera Recommendation
37	Nikon P950 for BIFs?
35	Merger/Acquisition - Fujifilm and Another Camera Manufacturer?
34	Your best images: behind you or ahead of you?
32	X-S10 IBIS with adapted lenses - does it function?
32	Best old Pentax body to get in 2021?
31	I am looking for places to talk with other women and/or LGBT people about photos.
29	Small bird photography
29	Some perspective on "is 20MP enough?"
28	Why price doesn't matter to many nature photographers