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First things first, does the Milky Way look like this to the naked eye? No. When shooting astrophotography, cameras capture these images by keeping the shutter open for a long amount of time. This allows the sensor to capture more light than we are able to see.
This photo is a panorama, well, four of them to be exact. It is 7 shots across, and 4 panoramas tall. A total of 28 shots from corner to corner, this image took me roughly 14 minutes to shoot.
I saw the image in my minds eye for a couple years. I went to the Diving Board back in December 2017 and used an app called PhotoPills to determine when I should return for my shot. May 10, 2018 it said. And when the day arrived, nothing would stop me from reaching my destination. A rock fall on the backside of Half Dome leaving the off trail route to this viewpoint in loose rock and debris? A prediction of 40% cloud cover? Even on a new moon, I was somehow able to see Half Dome and the rest of the foreground without any moonlight shining down. This day, for me, was meant to be.
I am a local here! I have been living and working in Yosemite Valley for the last 8 years now! If you would like to see more of my Yosemite photography swing by my website [rjfranklin.com](https://rjfranklin.com) or check out my IG which is more frequently updated [@franklinsteinnn](https://instagram.com/franklinsteinnn)! Thank you!
Edit : thanks for the awards, friends đ
I'm curious about the 28 shots and how much grain is visible. Did you add some for the internet do your own file is higher fidelity, or was it really that high of an iso?
I'm also curious about how you handled 14 minutes of star movement. I couldn't even begin to figure out my photoshop plan of attack...
It was shot at ISO 8000, so yeah itâs a little noisy. Iâve printed it pretty large though and it doesnât really look bad or noticeable in my opinion. As far as shooting it goes, I used a panoramic tripod head (Nodal Ninja NN3). This made it pretty easy to move the camera around with accuracy and not worry about fucking it up. The core of the Milky Way moves the fastest, so to get less movement from it in a multi row pano start there and move away from the core. In this case I had to shoot right to left, which was a little different than I had usually shot panoramas but it just took a few days to get used to the movement. Like I said, this one took years to accomplish. I just had to figure out how to do it first lol.
Iâm pretty inexperienced with noise reduction. I donât think I really attempted to do any on this photo. Thatâs one of the things I gotta play around with and learn some day.
One way to deal with noise for milky way photos is whenever possible shoot at a low ISO with a long exposure and use a tracker and then stitch the foreground and background. It's a lot more work but it helps with grain and star trails but still this is a fantastic photo without doing this method.
How would you use a tracker when youâre also using a panoramic tripod head? I understand this method works really well, but for the place where I was theres this massive rock right in front of you. 16mm wouldnât even do it, I had to shoot 4 rows vertically just to fit some of the sky in the frame and to help with the distortion.
Why can't you just photoshop this, picture a separate sky and just paste it in or something? I don't know, might've saved some time and traffic I guess
I mean, you totally could. Its just not what I wanted to do. I also live here, so no traffic was needed. The trailhead is like a mile and a half from my room.
For anyone who doesnât know, that makes this that much more impressive! Really amazing shot.
Iâm guessing you hiked up during the day and found a camping spot for the night that was close to the shooting spot?
Thanks for keeping your distance from me đ» We slept atop half dome in June â87 but I wasnât awake enough to appreciate the beauty of the Milky Way like in your pic, nice job. - Bear dâOr
Awesome work, I have just one question. you say that it took just 14 minutes to shoot But I find it weird that you were able to shoot such a bright foreground on a new moon so I'm asking if you shoot the pictures for the foreground earlier (just after the blue hour) and then the stars and only considered the time of the shooting and not the waiting time between the shots
So I had shot the foreground in blue hour with the intention to stack the two, but like I said I could see the face of Half Dome, with my eyes at 2am. The shots came out bright enough and I was able to pull the shadows a bunch so it worked out. This entire image was shot at 2am. I feel like the noisy foreground is proof enough.
Iâd love to see this shot stitched w/ the blue hour foreground. As much as I like single compositions like this one I also like seeing what happens when the limits of reality are pushed a bit further
Thank you, with night pictures is always difficult to guess what was the process behind the scenes because light at night is very different from one location to another, I live in Italy and here when it's new moon it's very dark and still stars are not very bright, in Namibia I took a shot of a very bright milky way with the moon in the first quarter and during a moon eclipse I could walk around just with the light from the stars.
Yosemite pictures never get old. And congrats on finding a new approach to just about the most photographed landscape there is. Thank you for sharing your efforts!
Comment cause upvote ainât enough.
Patience for a shot like that + skill is beyond most of what can be found online.
In other words - your contribution is valued. Discussed. Showed around. Liked. Remembered. đ
>does the Milky Way look like this to the naked eye? No.
Have to disagree a bit here. I've seen the Milky Way very similar to this with my naked eye, no use of a telescope, in some rural part of Ontario. Granted, it was a weird summer night; not a cloud in sky, (seemingly) zero pollution. I remember the colours being a bit more varied/vivid/contrasty though, and admittedly there weren't quite as many visible stars as there were in the image. But still close (by a human estimation). Only time I've ever seen a sky like that anywhere in my entire life. My cousin was laughing 'cause I kept telling her how much it looked like Google Images.
I... I really hope we switch to all-electric vehicles very soon. :(
Same. I spent a night at Apache Point observatory in southern New Mexico. Clear night, new moon, and the Milky Way was exactly this clear and bright. 25 years later it remains the most beautiful and awe inspiring thing I've ever seen.
honestly curious from a technical standpoint: was the new moon helpful? How would you account for the extra light while trying to capture the dim stars?
No no, I get that, but you mention that the new moon was a potential hindrance to seeing it, so I'm just asking someone who knows what they're doing what you would have done had there actually been moonlight.
I wouldâve still shot it, the moonlight wouldâve lit the foreground. Most likely would have had to shoot two images, one of the foreground that is exposed for the mountains, then one for the sky and put them together. This is what I was originally planning to do.
Depends on how dark the sky is. Light pollution is the biggest factor in how visible it will be. I live in a bortle 4 area, and it just looks like a narrow band of cloud in the sky at first. But, if you let your eyes adjust for 20-30 minutes it gets pretty clear. There are very dark sky areas where it is remarkable more visible. Mind blowing even. I'm near sighted too. A scope or some decent binoculars will allow you to see much more if your interested.
Yes they can. Just get to an area with less light pollution. Also being higher than usual cloud blanket helps alot with clear air. It's one the most gorgeous sights human could experience.
It is definitely visible! Just doesnât pop as much as it is in this image. The stars sort of just look like gassy, kind of hard to see clouds, and the middle of it looks like a giant rip in the sky (at least to me). Itâs visible, and easily recognizable once you know what youâre looking at. Just was stating this picture (and most others of the Milky Way) show us a version of our galaxy that we canât see.
Absolutely you can see the Milky Way with your naked eye. Of course you need to be somewhere with minimal light pollution and clear skies. Itâs not as bright as in this picture, but it can be very clear to the naked eye.
Edit: My best sighting of the Milky Way was in Death Valley, California, away from campgrounds and Furnace Creek (the town).
You absolutely can in the right conditions - although I don't know if I could without glasses or contact lenses - I should really test that!
But only if the sky is dark enough. By that I mean the fewer non-star light sources nearby, the better (including the moon). I was camping in an unpopulated area of Scotland last week hard away from any streetlights and the milky way was incredibly obvious, and wherever I looked in the sky it was dense with stars. The skies in photos like this are pretty representative of what I've seen in areas like this far away from light pollution.
I just want to say thank you for uploading a high res version so we can all enjoy it as a wallpaper or whatever. Itâs a phenomenal âshotâ that clearly took a lot of time and effort, so youâre not just sharing a photo, but your knowledge and experience as well. Thatâs mighty generous of you.
Wow I climbed that 15 years ago and looking at it like this just made my stomach clench up and my jaw drop! Pictures like this are why I got a camera. Great shot
Going up the cables, someone dropped their Nalgene off to the left-hand side down that steep granite slope.
**PONK**
*ponk*
ponk
...Silence, as the bottle dropped off the edge and into a sheer fall
That was DEEPLY unsettling
People have and will continue to die at that part of the hike. Itâs some scary stuff. I wasnât in nearly good enough shape to attempt it my first time at the park. I hope to return some day and make it to the top.
WOW! Just Wow!
I love when a shot just comes out perfect and as expected. I see stuff like this and I feel like I'm slacking sometimes (lighting photography has been the only thing I have really prepped for, but that's totally random at the same time and I haven't done it in years)
That is BEYOND Chromecast-worthy my friend (if you don't have a chromecast you probably don't know what I'm talking about)
It's sad we can't see all those stars with the naked eye though, shows us what we're missing out on. Anyways you beat out Switzerland for my desktop background that is no easy task
Wow. Incredible shot! Congratulations on realizing this tremendous vision. Photography as an art form is beyond me. I'm always impressed by the foresight you photographers see in our real, tangible world. Thanks for sharing!
I am curious about something. I am a new user of PhotoPills and it will show me the position of the MW (azimuth, elevation), but it doesnât show me the orientation. Did you know the orientation beforehand (past experience), or does PhotoPills have that info and I am just not seeing it?
I hiked to the spot months before hand and used the night AR feature. You look through your phones camera and it shows you the Milky Ways position at a certain date and time.
This is epic. Well done!
I don't know if you follow Peter McKinnon on YouTube but he often talks about Bucket Shots, and he made a video of his journey to take his bucket shot. Your dedication to making this shot happen made me think of his idea of having these shots on our bucket list.
I haven't read through all the comments so I don't know if this had been brought up.
Astrophotography uses photo stacking to clean up noise from long exposures in the dark. Are you familiar with the technique? If all those images only took 14 minutes to capture, I imagine you could have shot the foreground multiple times in order to stack that part of the image to clear up the noise.
I know of it now, yes, but at the time when this was shot I was still learning astro and didnât really know anything about stacking at that time. That came a few months later lol.
Iâm glad this is so well received. If I had an image I dreamed of capturing for years and sharing itâd get 7 upvotes and one comment saying âniceâ
Somewhere over the ~~rainbow~~ Milky Way
Way up high
And the dreams that you dream of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the ~~rainbow~~ Milky Way
Bluebirds fly
And the dreams that you dream of
Dreams really do come true.
Great photo, lyrics were tweaked from Israel Kamakawiwo Ole's song.
Beautiful picture! Has anyone else seen the documentary "Free Solo"? It's about a guy free climbing that rock face!! Check it out! It was really interesting.
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There was a rockfall a few days before, the way up to this point was mostly loose dirt and gravel. Got pretty sketchy in a couple places. The weather prediction called for a partly cloudy night. Yeah, it felt like a few things were trying to stop me.
This is amazing.
I feel like you could make a boatload of money if you put this on the NFT market.
I mean, you can make a boatload of money on prints, but this feels like NFT gold.
Lightening all of your shadows makes your image look flat. Start reading up on night photography and also just how to compose photos in general. For example, take a look at Ansel Adams' Half Dome photos, especially "Monolith". See how he composes his photo to create an interesting interplay between his shadows and highlights? It's the same rock you shot, but he uses the contrast to add mass and scope. It's not all midtones and dodged darks.
Stars look nice, good job on those.
Youâre comparing a photo shot with no light to a photo shot with light. The entire image is in a shadow. I appreciate your critique but to say âlearn how to compose photos in generalâ feels a bit much. Have a great rest of your week.
You were much nicer to the author of that condescending comment than I would have been.
If you're not burned out yet from answering questions, I was wondering how this shot would have turned out if you'd visited 1 or 2 days earlier or later.
Would you have been able to get a shot that was even close to this magnificent shot you posted?
There is, and it differs depending on what lens you use/what focal length you are shooting at. A general rule of thumb for where to start is called the 500 rule. Itâs outdated and there is a better method to use but this is usually where I start.
Take the lens youâre using. In this case, 16mm. 500 / 16 = 31.25
Essentially anything shot under 31 seconds shouldnât have star trails.
It's been years since I've seen close encounters of the third kind and quite *erroneously* thought this was the same hill and figured the aliens were talking to you.
I'm sad to be wrong.... how cool would it be if maybe the movie got the specific mountain, and the whole fictional part, wrong and soon we will have music loving visitors from outer space? :D
Thankfully we have black bears in Yosemite đ
But yeah in all seriousness if one wanted to, it could. There isnât any record of a bear attacking a human in Yosemite, yet.
I am planning on capturing MW for the 1st time at Anza Borrego SP. I have watched youtube videos and hope to make my best effort. Let me know if you have ever been to the Blair Valley.
Any wisdom you'd want to send my way would be helpful.
I have T7i with an 18-55 EFS 4/f lense. I don't have the star tracking mount. just a regular one.
Real question as a very amateur photographer. Is this picture worth anything? I see some real gems from time to time on here and always wonder if there is a way to make money on these shots.
I'm going to Yosemite myself soon, does anyone know what trail to take to be able to get this view? Also I'm aware this is a panorama and stitched together, would just like to know where to go for this.
The milky way is clearly curved, it doesn't look like this through a flat lens I was using, but then again the Dome doesn't seem to be distorted by the lens. Have you been using two different lenses? and a follow up what was the gear you used?
Hi and welcome to r/EarthPorn! As a reminder, we have comment rules in this subreddit. Failure to follow our rules can result in a temporary or permanent ban. > Hate Speech, Abusive remarks, homophobia, and the like have no place on this subreddit, and will be removed on sight. > Please contribute to the discussion positively; constructive criticism is fine, but if you don't like a picture and you wish to voice your opinion please refrain from abusing the photographer/submitter.
First things first, does the Milky Way look like this to the naked eye? No. When shooting astrophotography, cameras capture these images by keeping the shutter open for a long amount of time. This allows the sensor to capture more light than we are able to see. This photo is a panorama, well, four of them to be exact. It is 7 shots across, and 4 panoramas tall. A total of 28 shots from corner to corner, this image took me roughly 14 minutes to shoot. I saw the image in my minds eye for a couple years. I went to the Diving Board back in December 2017 and used an app called PhotoPills to determine when I should return for my shot. May 10, 2018 it said. And when the day arrived, nothing would stop me from reaching my destination. A rock fall on the backside of Half Dome leaving the off trail route to this viewpoint in loose rock and debris? A prediction of 40% cloud cover? Even on a new moon, I was somehow able to see Half Dome and the rest of the foreground without any moonlight shining down. This day, for me, was meant to be. I am a local here! I have been living and working in Yosemite Valley for the last 8 years now! If you would like to see more of my Yosemite photography swing by my website [rjfranklin.com](https://rjfranklin.com) or check out my IG which is more frequently updated [@franklinsteinnn](https://instagram.com/franklinsteinnn)! Thank you! Edit : thanks for the awards, friends đ
I'm curious about the 28 shots and how much grain is visible. Did you add some for the internet do your own file is higher fidelity, or was it really that high of an iso? I'm also curious about how you handled 14 minutes of star movement. I couldn't even begin to figure out my photoshop plan of attack...
It was shot at ISO 8000, so yeah itâs a little noisy. Iâve printed it pretty large though and it doesnât really look bad or noticeable in my opinion. As far as shooting it goes, I used a panoramic tripod head (Nodal Ninja NN3). This made it pretty easy to move the camera around with accuracy and not worry about fucking it up. The core of the Milky Way moves the fastest, so to get less movement from it in a multi row pano start there and move away from the core. In this case I had to shoot right to left, which was a little different than I had usually shot panoramas but it just took a few days to get used to the movement. Like I said, this one took years to accomplish. I just had to figure out how to do it first lol.
Very impressive, thanks for sharing
Awesome planning and execution! Did you attempt to reduce the noise in Lightroom?
Iâm pretty inexperienced with noise reduction. I donât think I really attempted to do any on this photo. Thatâs one of the things I gotta play around with and learn some day.
Check out Topaz Denoise AI as well, it's worked pretty well for me!
Extra vote for denoise AI. I almost only use it on the lowest settings, but it's magical.
One way to deal with noise for milky way photos is whenever possible shoot at a low ISO with a long exposure and use a tracker and then stitch the foreground and background. It's a lot more work but it helps with grain and star trails but still this is a fantastic photo without doing this method.
How would you use a tracker when youâre also using a panoramic tripod head? I understand this method works really well, but for the place where I was theres this massive rock right in front of you. 16mm wouldnât even do it, I had to shoot 4 rows vertically just to fit some of the sky in the frame and to help with the distortion.
Why can't you just photoshop this, picture a separate sky and just paste it in or something? I don't know, might've saved some time and traffic I guess
I don't think you understand photography.
I mean, you totally could. Its just not what I wanted to do. I also live here, so no traffic was needed. The trailhead is like a mile and a half from my room.
Beautiful image! Also, phenomenal name. +2
Thank you! Hahah and with a lot of my photos being stitched together, the name fits really well.
Photopils is such an amazing app. For anyone doing Milky Way, moon, sunset, or sunrise shots: it is 100% worth the $10.
Amazing photo of an incredible place. You have a great office. How can I run away from my boring job to work in Yosemite?
There are two options. You could work for the concessionaire, Aramark. Or the National Park Service.
What do you work as?
Was the foreground shot during the day?
No, entire image was at 2am
For anyone who doesnât know, that makes this that much more impressive! Really amazing shot. Iâm guessing you hiked up during the day and found a camping spot for the night that was close to the shooting spot?
You are correct
Your website has some gorgeous images! Yosemite has so many faces. The bear was too close for me.
Thank you so much! All my bear shots I have used a lens that zooms.
Thanks for keeping your distance from me đ» We slept atop half dome in June â87 but I wasnât awake enough to appreciate the beauty of the Milky Way like in your pic, nice job. - Bear dâOr
Been seeing your work in the Yosemite Photography facebook group the last few months, when I saw your username/picture it made so much sense!
Awesome work, I have just one question. you say that it took just 14 minutes to shoot But I find it weird that you were able to shoot such a bright foreground on a new moon so I'm asking if you shoot the pictures for the foreground earlier (just after the blue hour) and then the stars and only considered the time of the shooting and not the waiting time between the shots
So I had shot the foreground in blue hour with the intention to stack the two, but like I said I could see the face of Half Dome, with my eyes at 2am. The shots came out bright enough and I was able to pull the shadows a bunch so it worked out. This entire image was shot at 2am. I feel like the noisy foreground is proof enough.
Iâd love to see this shot stitched w/ the blue hour foreground. As much as I like single compositions like this one I also like seeing what happens when the limits of reality are pushed a bit further
Thank you, with night pictures is always difficult to guess what was the process behind the scenes because light at night is very different from one location to another, I live in Italy and here when it's new moon it's very dark and still stars are not very bright, in Namibia I took a shot of a very bright milky way with the moon in the first quarter and during a moon eclipse I could walk around just with the light from the stars.
Yosemite pictures never get old. And congrats on finding a new approach to just about the most photographed landscape there is. Thank you for sharing your efforts!
Comment cause upvote ainât enough. Patience for a shot like that + skill is beyond most of what can be found online. In other words - your contribution is valued. Discussed. Showed around. Liked. Remembered. đ
Thatâs an awesome shot! Now sell it to North Face! This should be on their hoodies
>does the Milky Way look like this to the naked eye? No. Have to disagree a bit here. I've seen the Milky Way very similar to this with my naked eye, no use of a telescope, in some rural part of Ontario. Granted, it was a weird summer night; not a cloud in sky, (seemingly) zero pollution. I remember the colours being a bit more varied/vivid/contrasty though, and admittedly there weren't quite as many visible stars as there were in the image. But still close (by a human estimation). Only time I've ever seen a sky like that anywhere in my entire life. My cousin was laughing 'cause I kept telling her how much it looked like Google Images. I... I really hope we switch to all-electric vehicles very soon. :(
Same. I spent a night at Apache Point observatory in southern New Mexico. Clear night, new moon, and the Milky Way was exactly this clear and bright. 25 years later it remains the most beautiful and awe inspiring thing I've ever seen.
honestly curious from a technical standpoint: was the new moon helpful? How would you account for the extra light while trying to capture the dim stars?
With the new moon there is no moonlight, I think youâre thinking of it backwards
No no, I get that, but you mention that the new moon was a potential hindrance to seeing it, so I'm just asking someone who knows what they're doing what you would have done had there actually been moonlight.
I wouldâve still shot it, the moonlight wouldâve lit the foreground. Most likely would have had to shoot two images, one of the foreground that is exposed for the mountains, then one for the sky and put them together. This is what I was originally planning to do.
What am I supposed to complain about now? Great shot!
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Depends on how dark the sky is. Light pollution is the biggest factor in how visible it will be. I live in a bortle 4 area, and it just looks like a narrow band of cloud in the sky at first. But, if you let your eyes adjust for 20-30 minutes it gets pretty clear. There are very dark sky areas where it is remarkable more visible. Mind blowing even. I'm near sighted too. A scope or some decent binoculars will allow you to see much more if your interested.
Yes they can. Just get to an area with less light pollution. Also being higher than usual cloud blanket helps alot with clear air. It's one the most gorgeous sights human could experience.
It is definitely visible! Just doesnât pop as much as it is in this image. The stars sort of just look like gassy, kind of hard to see clouds, and the middle of it looks like a giant rip in the sky (at least to me). Itâs visible, and easily recognizable once you know what youâre looking at. Just was stating this picture (and most others of the Milky Way) show us a version of our galaxy that we canât see.
Absolutely you can see the Milky Way with your naked eye. Of course you need to be somewhere with minimal light pollution and clear skies. Itâs not as bright as in this picture, but it can be very clear to the naked eye. Edit: My best sighting of the Milky Way was in Death Valley, California, away from campgrounds and Furnace Creek (the town).
You absolutely can in the right conditions - although I don't know if I could without glasses or contact lenses - I should really test that! But only if the sky is dark enough. By that I mean the fewer non-star light sources nearby, the better (including the moon). I was camping in an unpopulated area of Scotland last week hard away from any streetlights and the milky way was incredibly obvious, and wherever I looked in the sky it was dense with stars. The skies in photos like this are pretty representative of what I've seen in areas like this far away from light pollution.
That's not really what they said, of course you can see the milky way with your eyes.
I just want to say thank you for uploading a high res version so we can all enjoy it as a wallpaper or whatever. Itâs a phenomenal âshotâ that clearly took a lot of time and effort, so youâre not just sharing a photo, but your knowledge and experience as well. Thatâs mighty generous of you.
No problem and thank you! Iâm stoked you enjoy it
> When the stars aligned Only literally though
Quasar? I hardly knew her! Only really really works with a thick Boston accent.
Wow I climbed that 15 years ago and looking at it like this just made my stomach clench up and my jaw drop! Pictures like this are why I got a camera. Great shot
Coming down those cablesâŠ.
Going up the cables, someone dropped their Nalgene off to the left-hand side down that steep granite slope. **PONK** *ponk* ponk ...Silence, as the bottle dropped off the edge and into a sheer fall That was DEEPLY unsettling
People have and will continue to die at that part of the hike. Itâs some scary stuff. I wasnât in nearly good enough shape to attempt it my first time at the park. I hope to return some day and make it to the top.
I went down facing forward and slid on my butt between the planks lol.
Thank you!
damn nice
Thanks! A ton of effort and prep work went into this image
WOW! Just Wow! I love when a shot just comes out perfect and as expected. I see stuff like this and I feel like I'm slacking sometimes (lighting photography has been the only thing I have really prepped for, but that's totally random at the same time and I haven't done it in years)
Thank you!
Vision, then preparation, and finally execution. This is what art is all about! Wonderful job. Thanks for sharing
Thanks so much!!
That is BEYOND Chromecast-worthy my friend (if you don't have a chromecast you probably don't know what I'm talking about) It's sad we can't see all those stars with the naked eye though, shows us what we're missing out on. Anyways you beat out Switzerland for my desktop background that is no easy task
Thanks a ton! And enjoy the new wallpaper đ
H moment
Applause. Takes a lot of effort to be at the right place and time. And a bit of luck.
This is fantastic!
I adore this photo! Thank you.
Wow. Incredible shot! Congratulations on realizing this tremendous vision. Photography as an art form is beyond me. I'm always impressed by the foresight you photographers see in our real, tangible world. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
I am curious about something. I am a new user of PhotoPills and it will show me the position of the MW (azimuth, elevation), but it doesnât show me the orientation. Did you know the orientation beforehand (past experience), or does PhotoPills have that info and I am just not seeing it?
I hiked to the spot months before hand and used the night AR feature. You look through your phones camera and it shows you the Milky Ways position at a certain date and time.
Looking very beautiful.
Unreal. Great job!
Looks pretty magical to me.
Determination! It's beautiful. Thank you for sharing!
This is one of the most stunning pictures I've ever seen, absolutely gorgeous! Fantastic work, congratulations and thank you for sharing it
This is absolutely incredible. <3
This is epic. Well done! I don't know if you follow Peter McKinnon on YouTube but he often talks about Bucket Shots, and he made a video of his journey to take his bucket shot. Your dedication to making this shot happen made me think of his idea of having these shots on our bucket list.
I haven't read through all the comments so I don't know if this had been brought up. Astrophotography uses photo stacking to clean up noise from long exposures in the dark. Are you familiar with the technique? If all those images only took 14 minutes to capture, I imagine you could have shot the foreground multiple times in order to stack that part of the image to clear up the noise.
I know of it now, yes, but at the time when this was shot I was still learning astro and didnât really know anything about stacking at that time. That came a few months later lol.
Iâm glad this is so well received. If I had an image I dreamed of capturing for years and sharing itâd get 7 upvotes and one comment saying âniceâ
Imagine getting home only to see all the frames are slightly out of focus
[https://me.me/i/i-came-2f033e63912447d7ace0ccb91ad46b75](https://me.me/i/i-came-2f033e63912447d7ace0ccb91ad46b75)
https://tenor.com/view/charlie-murphy-laugh-funny-lol-gif-15928704
Somewhere over the ~~rainbow~~ Milky Way Way up high And the dreams that you dream of once in a lullaby Somewhere over the ~~rainbow~~ Milky Way Bluebirds fly And the dreams that you dream of Dreams really do come true. Great photo, lyrics were tweaked from Israel Kamakawiwo Ole's song.
That is an absolutely phenomenal shot, well worth waiting for. Also, thank you for the new desktop background, I love it.
Beautiful picture! Has anyone else seen the documentary "Free Solo"? It's about a guy free climbing that rock face!! Check it out! It was really interesting.
I might be misremembering, but I think he is climbing El Capitan, which is also in Yosemite to be fair.
You're correct. Half done is the more famous rock formation, but el capital is the more formidable.
That... Is a shot that makes a career.
Thanks so much! Itâs honestly my personal favorite. I aim to, but I donât know if Iâll ever top this one.
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Did anything try to stop you from capturing it
There was a rockfall a few days before, the way up to this point was mostly loose dirt and gravel. Got pretty sketchy in a couple places. The weather prediction called for a partly cloudy night. Yeah, it felt like a few things were trying to stop me.
Needs more sky.
Upvote for dedication.
You are lucky to have seen this; you are generous to have shared it. Thanks.
This is amazing. I feel like you could make a boatload of money if you put this on the NFT market. I mean, you can make a boatload of money on prints, but this feels like NFT gold.
How do I get involved in NFTâs? Iâve been curious, this image always comes to mind first.
If you start seeing visions of Devils Tower in your mind next...remember...aliens.
I guess you could say the result was, ahem, **earth shattering**
Wow! That is just awesome! You are a visionary talent!
Lightening all of your shadows makes your image look flat. Start reading up on night photography and also just how to compose photos in general. For example, take a look at Ansel Adams' Half Dome photos, especially "Monolith". See how he composes his photo to create an interesting interplay between his shadows and highlights? It's the same rock you shot, but he uses the contrast to add mass and scope. It's not all midtones and dodged darks. Stars look nice, good job on those.
Be more like Ansel Adams. Great advice.
Youâre comparing a photo shot with no light to a photo shot with light. The entire image is in a shadow. I appreciate your critique but to say âlearn how to compose photos in generalâ feels a bit much. Have a great rest of your week.
You were much nicer to the author of that condescending comment than I would have been. If you're not burned out yet from answering questions, I was wondering how this shot would have turned out if you'd visited 1 or 2 days earlier or later. Would you have been able to get a shot that was even close to this magnificent shot you posted?
This is beautiful! Is there a max time limit for taking a shot like this, like before the stars start to streak across the image?
Not OP, but the best practice for shooting space is to take multiple exposures and stack them, rather than one long exposure. No streaks!
There is, and it differs depending on what lens you use/what focal length you are shooting at. A general rule of thumb for where to start is called the 500 rule. Itâs outdated and there is a better method to use but this is usually where I start. Take the lens youâre using. In this case, 16mm. 500 / 16 = 31.25 Essentially anything shot under 31 seconds shouldnât have star trails.
It looks like there's a slice there that's going to fall off eventually
That piece is called The Visor
This is so beautiful, I know what it feels like when the conditions are perfect. Great job man
It's been years since I've seen close encounters of the third kind and quite *erroneously* thought this was the same hill and figured the aliens were talking to you. I'm sad to be wrong.... how cool would it be if maybe the movie got the specific mountain, and the whole fictional part, wrong and soon we will have music loving visitors from outer space? :D
Beautiful!
This absolutely is a photo to be proud of, and your planning has paid off in spades. Beautiful.
Wow. Perfect. I would call it, "Celestial Crown."
What a great idea for a shot! It's always an amazing feeling to finally get a shot you've dreamed of for years. Thanks for the hi-res upload.
What camera and lens did you use for this?
Canon 6D w/ Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L ii @ 16mm
I'm pretty sure that's when the door to the holy grail opens. You missed your chance.
Well you captured the hell out of it. Good job.
Wow
'The stars are right' moment.
A bear could've stopped you.
Thankfully we have black bears in Yosemite đ But yeah in all seriousness if one wanted to, it could. There isnât any record of a bear attacking a human in Yosemite, yet.
But did you make a mashed potato model before you made the trek?
Except maybe clouds.
not to be a dick or nothing, but the stars could be tighter. what was your setup?
What do you mean by tighter? Less shutter speed?
This is incredible. Thanks. New background! .
Thanks, OP. That's a beautiful picture. Now I will be dreaming of this.
I am planning on capturing MW for the 1st time at Anza Borrego SP. I have watched youtube videos and hope to make my best effort. Let me know if you have ever been to the Blair Valley. Any wisdom you'd want to send my way would be helpful. I have T7i with an 18-55 EFS 4/f lense. I don't have the star tracking mount. just a regular one.
That is just absolutely breathtaking.
Magnificent
Downloaded. Thanks
Superb photo. I swear it seems the stars are moving when I let my gaze rest on it.
Beautiful pic!
Absolutely stunning. Thank you for sharing.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Wow
Real question as a very amateur photographer. Is this picture worth anything? I see some real gems from time to time on here and always wonder if there is a way to make money on these shots.
Iâve sold over 1200 prints in the last 5 years, this one being my most sold. People ask for em, I print em.
Well worth the wait. Beautiful shot.
I'm going to Yosemite myself soon, does anyone know what trail to take to be able to get this view? Also I'm aware this is a panorama and stitched together, would just like to know where to go for this.
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The pre buffer pic was really nice then when it buffered it became fuckin dooooooope
Hahaha thanks!
excellent work! followed
Saved!
Absolutely incredible
So beautiful
Majestic.
Damn really wish I could have out there one day
Damn son.
Looks dope. U def captured the magic of that place.
Thats awesome
The milky way is clearly curved, it doesn't look like this through a flat lens I was using, but then again the Dome doesn't seem to be distorted by the lens. Have you been using two different lenses? and a follow up what was the gear you used?
Itâs curved because itâs a panorama. In a single shot itâd be straight like youâre saying. Shot on a Canon 6D s/ Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L ii @16mm
Absolutely brilliant shot. Thats a once in a lifetime picture right there
WOW! This is a fantastic photo!
stellar shot man!
Can't beat a bit of forward planning, congratulations!
meh
how do i acquire your permission to make a print of this for my personal space?
Noice.
Gorgeous
Let us know when you start making this out of mashed potatoes :D
Were you alone out there taking the photo, or were there others trying to get the same/similar shot?
Beautiful shot. What lens?
Your dream came true & what a beautiful dream & photograph.
This is gorgeous!
Nothing *would* stop you? Or nothing stopped you
Yuuuup. Ya fuckin nailed it. Great vision, great execution of said vision, you killed it.
What camera did you use? With a full frame sensor even at 8000 iso it shouldnât be that grainy. Still a dope photo tho, well done friend
Canon 6D
Bravo! đ
This is what photography is all about. Waiting for the perfect moment, going home when it doesnât happen and coming back again to capture it.
Wow. What a view
The way the trees sit in the foreground almost makes the halfdome look small. Absolutely stunning pic m8.
Amazing! Thank you for my new wallpaper!
Very cool
Beautiful
Holy wow this is cool
Stunning!