Gulch and Milky Way at Night
Nikon Z7, Nikkor 14–24mm f/2.8 ED-IF: ISO 12800, f/2.8, 30 sec and ISO 1600, f/2.8, 16 minutes — all with the lens at 14mm’s
This image was captured on my second night at this spot on this particular trip. The previous night was a bust because of clouds and fog. That’s the way this night started but I had a feeling things would work out. They did!
Before I got this image, I already shot at two other locations and almost called it a night when I noticed something about the fog and clouds while standing in the parking lot trying to figure out what to do. The stars looked like they Were beginning to appear. At 2 o’clock in the morning, I took a chance, and hiked up to this gulch.
When I got there, it was foggy and overcast like the previous nights. The one thing I learned this trip was things change. Also, when waiting for the sky to clear, collect data because you never know. That means take your long exposure foreground shot, the part of the image you mostly don’t care the sky can’t be seen. Because, if the sky clears, you are ready for the shorter sky shots.
I took a 16 minute foreground shot at ISO 1600. Yes, I needed 16 minutes to get what you see here. It was really really dark.
Almost on cue, when done with that foreground capture, the stars began to appear because the fog was moving off. Unlike during the day when you can “see” the clouds, at night, you only don’t see stars when fog or clouds are present. You don’t see fog when it’s this dark. I couldn’t see this first hand, but the clouds were rolling in and out over the next several minutes when I was capturing about 15 images of the Milky Way at 20 seconds each. This meant I could see the Milky Way for a few minutes only to lose it again with the fog rolling through.
This image has a little bit of that fog — you can see a substantial mist at the horizon in this image. Out of the 15 sky files I captured, I kept about 10, deleting those with too much cloud and not many stars. As it is, the final image has a very soft mysterious feel to it.
I struggled a little bit with the color change between the foreground and the sky. The foreground is mostly blue. The sky has a warm feeling. I think most people prefer a consistent color theme in their images — i.e. warm or cold. Mixing warm and cold themes is a bit rare and likely only believable under special conditions. I struggled because I wasn’t sure this image had one of those believable special conditions. If you didn’t know, I do try to make my images represent nature or a natural reality. I’ll leave that to you to judge if I made the right choice.
