Starry, Starry Night

Photo of the Day

This might be my favorite picture from my trip to Colorado. On one of my last nights staying there I got into a coughing fit that got me out of bed. I saw that it was very bright outside, and noticed that the entire landscape was being lit for me by the nearly full moon. I was just going to go back to bed, but I knew that I would not sleep until I made this picture. I set up my tripod and started shooting. I had the idea of trying to make a star trail picture, but a half hour exposure with noise reduction turned on set that plan back. My next time out there though I would like to try that. From my vantage point here north is right over Hahn’s peak which means that the swirl would start there. I think that would be an amazing picture. This is one of my favorite places on earth, and I am glad that I was able to make something that I am proud of from that night.

I took the title for this post from the Don McLean song “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night).” I have always thought that the song was beautiful, but it really means more when you know that it was about Vincent van Gogh. I don’t think that I am an artist on par with van Gogh at all. I do like his painting Starry Night though. Vincent also has another nice starry night painting called Starry Night over the Rhone. The night sky is something that can inspire anyone. van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime. I can relate to that for sure.

Technical Data

The only real trick here was something in camera. I was experimenting with the scene to make the best picture. I found that a thirty second exposure at f/4 with an ISO of 1250 produced the best result. I didn’t like using such a high ISO, but I love how this picture turned out. I moved ISO down to 100 and tried some longer exposures, but of course the stars moved too much. thirty seconds seemed to be the exact measure that I needed. In Lightroom the only real change here was to open up the shadows so that the cabin on the right was a little more visible. At first I brought the shadows up for the entire image. I was not happy with what that did to the sky though so I used the brush in Lightroom to adjust for just the cabin. I am happy with the image overall. The only other way to get this image without the motion of the stars would have been HDR. Maybe next trip I will try that. I also used the lens correction feature in Lightroom to correct a little bit of the distortion caused by using an ultra wide angle lens. I didn’t think it was too bad, but I liked the photo after I applied the change.

SmugMug

I have started a new gallery on my SmugMug page for the shots that I took in Colorado. This is the first image that I have posted in there. Over the next few days I will start adding to that gallery. If you click on the image below you will be taken directly to that gallery.