jadewolf
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- Mar 7, 2021
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- 2012 JK Sport (sold), 2021 JL Rubicon
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Thank you!!After seeing a few of your photos I have to say your photography skills are amazing!
Yeah, that whole stretch of 395 is one of my favorite places in the state! I go up there a bunch.love the Alabama Hills, discovered them on our way back from picking up the JLUR in Idaho...
Can't believe I never stopped by there after taking 395 to Tahoe for years!!!
beautiful pics!! what are you using and how the hell do you get those night sky shots like that???
As for the photos, I shoot primarily with a Nikon D500, with an old couple of Nikons as backup bodies. These shots were with a wide zoom lens, a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. Just recently picked that one up and really liking it so far. I use a Manfrotto BeFree tripod w/ball head, with the plate swapped for an Arca-Swiss plate and an RRS L-bracket on the D500. I haven't ponied up for the super expensive tripods yet, nor for a fancy star-tracking rotator mount. They're out of my budget when I've still got Jeep parts to buy, lol. If I ever want to get serious, though, that's probably something to consider.
Astrophotography is tricky business and I'm still perfecting my skills, but there's a couple key things. First, is calculating the proper shutter speed / aperture. Old school is the 500 rule, but modern techniques are updated and can provide better results: https://photographylife.com/500-rule-vs-npf-rule Either way, I'm shit at math, though, so I use the PhotoPills app to calculate it for me. Super easy.
The other trick.. the one nobody tells you about at first.. is doing multiple exposures and then compositing them in post. The Jeep / Milky Way shot was multiple photos. First I did one, exposed for the Jeep and foreground. Then, from the same position on the tripod, I did another couple that were exposed for the stars. In post processing, you layer these together and use layer masks to blend the exposures together.
This is especially important for astrophotography, as you can clear out a lot of the heavy grain by stacking multiple exposures. It'll help clean up the image a lot. It's a ton of work, though, and requires very precise manual adjustments to get the stars in all exposures lined up right. But very rewarding in the end!
Hit me up via DM and I can go into more detail, if you want. Don't want to clog up the thread here with photography lessons, but happy to share what I know!
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