After finally getting some clear skies, and waiting for the near-full Moon to set, I captured this spectacular suburban Milky Way image. The bright point stars, the concentration of dark nebulae, and the fuzzy concentrations of stars along the Milky Way formed a nice arc over the Great Cross. The fisheye lens imparted the opposite curve to the foreground elements, producing a pleasant balance to the composition.
There are two light beams directed straight up from the ground from slightly left of centre - these are coming from upward directed spotlights at Parliament House.
A layer of light fog/mist can be seen on the left edge of the image. A few minutes after making the exposures for this image, the fog from Lake Burley Griffin, 500m behind me, rolled in. Thus, in hindsight, I was lucky (and very relieved) to complete the acquisition.
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[ Location - Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ]
Photography notes ...
The photograph was taken using the following hardware configuration ...
(Year of manufacture indicated in braces where known.)
- Hasselblad X1D-50c Medium Format Mirrorless Digital Camera (Silver) - MFR # H-3013900 (2017).
- Hasselblad X1D GPS Module - MFR # H-3054772.
- Really Right Stuff BX1D-L Set L-Plate for Hasselblad X1D - MFR # BX1D L-PLATE SET.
- Novoflex Adapter Hasselblad V-Lenses To Hasselblad X-Mount (X1D) - MFR # HAX/HA.
- Hasselblad Carl Zeiss fisheye lens - F-Distagon 3.5/30 CF T* (1996).
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) TQC-14 Series 1 Carbon Fiber Tripod - MFR # TQC-14.
- Really Right Stuff (RRS) BH-30 Ball Head with Mini Screw-Knob Clamp - MFR # BH-30 PRO.
- Artisan & Artist ACAM-301N Silk Cord Strap (Black) - MFR # AAACAM301NBLK.
I acquired the 20 input photographs (8272 x 6200 pixels) with an ISO of 1600, exposure time of 16.0 seconds, and aperture of f/3.5.
Post-processing ...
Finder - Removed the UHS-I SDXC card from the camera and placed it in a Lexar 25-in-1 USB card reader. Then used Finder on my MacBook Air to download the raw image file (3FR extension) from the card.
[Stack the images to de-noise the sky region.]
StarryLandscapeStacker - Loaded the TIFF files.
StarryLandscapeStacker - Removed the stars that had been incorrectly identified on the foreground region.
StarryLandscapeStacker - Refined the suggested extent of the sky region.
StarryLandscapeStacker - Stacked the images using the “Median” option, during which the software made adjustments for the apparent rotation and translation of the stars from one frame to the next.
StarryLandscapeStacker - Output the result as a stacked TIFF file. Also saved the Foreground/Sky mask image. The stacking substantially reduced the random noise that forms a background to the stars.
[Remove gradients from the sky region and output a balance exposure.]
Photoshop - Imported the the stacked TIFF image produced by StarryLandscapeStacker into Photoshop.
GradientXTerminator - Selected background portions of the image (e.g., corners and borders of the image). (Filter / RC-Astro / GradientXTerminator) Applied this Photoshop plug-in that uses tension splines to remove gradients from the image, including any vignetting. Specified “Fine” for “Details”, “High” for “Strength”, and checked the “Balance Background Color” option.
GradientXTerminator - Output the image (without gradients and with balanced brightness) as a TIFF file.
[Enhance the lighting and color in the foreground image.]
Lightroom - Imported the TIFF image that was output from StarryLandscapeStacker.
Lightroom - Applied various basic lighting and color adjustments in the Develop module to produce a good balance for the foreground region.
Topaz De-Noise - Used this plugin to reduce the noise in the image.
Lightroom - Output the foreground image as a 16-bit TIFF image (8272 x 6200 pixels).
[Enhance the lighting and color in the sky region image.]
Lightroom - Imported the TIFF image that was output from Photoshop.
Lightroom - Applied various basic lighting and color adjustments in the Develop module to produce a good balance for the sky region.
Lightroom - Output the sky image as a 16-bit TIFF image (8272 x 6200 pixels).
[Prepare the foreground and sky images for blending.]
[I was having trouble with this, so I shifted the blend line away from the horizon into the sky and used a very wide blend width.]
Photoshop - Imported the sky region Lightroom TIFF image.
Photoshop - Imported the foreground Lightroom TIFF image.
Photoshop - Created a mask for the sky region using the Magic Wand selection tool.
Photoshop - Removed a few small holes in the mask due to bright stars using a pair of selection expansion and contraction operations.
Photoshop - Inverted the selection. Used the Selection/Expand option (201 pixels). Inverted the selection.
Photoshop - Applied the mask to the sky image - Select and Mask - using a Feather width of 201 pixels. Copied the selection.
Photoshop - Brought up the foreground image. Used “Paste Special / In-place” to add the masked sky layer to this stack.
Photoshop - Added a Hue/Saturation (Lightness) Adjustment Layer to the Ground image to adjust the lighting and color of the foreground image to smoothly blend it into the Sky image.
Photoshop - Flatten Layers.
Photoshop - Output the blended result as a TIFF file.
[Make final lighting and color adjustments to the processed image and output as a JPEG image.]
Lightroom - Imported the TIFF image.
Lightroom - Applied various basic lighting and color adjustments in the Develop module.
Lightroom - Output the image as a JPEG image using the “Maximum” quality option (8272 x 6200 pixels).
PhotoSync - Copied the processed image to my iPad Mini for any final processing, review, enjoyment, and posting to social media.
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #X1D #StarryLandscapeStacker #Photoshop #GradientXTerminator #Lightroom #PhotoSync #Sky #Night #Dark #Stars #MilkyWay #GreatRift #LargeSagittariusStarCloud #SmallSagittariusCloud #PtolemyCluster #DarkNebula #ThePipeDarkNebula #SouthernPointers #Pointers #SouthernCross #CoalsackNebula #CoalsackDarkNebula #TheGreatCross #Grasslands #StMarksNTC #StMarks #StMarksNationalTheologicalCenter #ACCC #AustralianCenterForChristianityAndCulture
