The Shot
This was taken from the side of the Caldera Colorada volcano, near
Masdache, Lanzarote. There is a 45 minute walk round the base of the
cone. One side is an unusual rich red, made up from cinder, rich in
iron oxide.
There is a story associated with this image. I had finished one hour 44 minutes of 2 minute Star Trail exposures. I put the lens cap on and did a 2 minute dark exposure for noise reduction. Then I tripped and fell against the Tripod, grabbed it to try and save the camera but over it went with me on top of it. The amazing thing is there was not a scratch on Camera or lens and both work perfectly. I was also holding a smartphone using the torch app and that was undamaged. I had only a few minor cuts. You might say I had an argument with a Tripod and the Tripod won. I think the day was saved by the Camera falling on loose gravel rather than the many hard rocks around.
I had with me an HTC Android Smart Phone with the Google Sky App. This
enabled me to locate the pole star while there was still light. The
foreground comprises an HDR image taken while there was still light.
With the Camera and Tripod locked in position the star trail images
were taken later when the stars were out.
I used my Interval Timer and set the camera at ISO 200 and bulb and
the timer at 2 minutes at f3.5. The lens was a Samyang 8mm fish eye.
I set the timer to take images for 1 hour 44 minutes. I use software
to stack the star trail images. There are a number of free programs
available though I use www.startrails.de/html/software.html
In the end there was too much light in the first 10 minutes of exposures. I used 47 images or 1 hour and 34 minutes worth. There was still enough light to get a little blue in the sky which I wanted.
Note that here is distortion in the image due to the fisheye lens pointing up which curves the landscape up from the sides. This was exaggerated with the processing where I used the clone tool to add to the curve on the right to remove light from a town and also on the left to remove an over bright area in the sunset direction.
I took a dark frame. This has to be taken at the same time and place.
The reason is that with long exposures the sensor will produce hot
pixel noise which will be the same for the star trail images if taken
for the same length of time and crucially at about the same
temperature. The stacking software can then automatically subtract
that noise from the final blended image.
I was on site for 3 and a half hours altogether for this picture. Not
really a problem. I brought a picnic supper, read an eBook on my
smartphone and looked at the beautiful night sky.
For further information on taking Star Trail images see the my Blog
Entry for the earlier Star Trails image edwinjonesphotography.com/blog/2013/1/crater-floor-star-t...
Full details of the processing of this image together with before and
after images are on my Blog see Edwin Jones Photography Blog
For Galleries, Prints and Licences see Edwin Jones Photography
Partha S. Mandal, and 42 other people added this photo to their favorites.
View 20 more comments
snowyturner 4 months ago | reply
Amazing work - very martian looking!
Eric Adeleye Photography 4 months ago | reply
Outstanding!
djshoo 4 months ago | reply
Awesome landscape,nice work.
Eric Goncalves 4 months ago | reply
Stunning work!
StevieC-Photography 4 months ago | reply
Out of this world Edwin, bravo on this masterpiece.
SequentialMacro 4 months ago | reply
Amazing!!
wei W 瑋瑋 4 months ago | reply
That is stunning!
ATSICHLAS (Busy) 4 months ago | reply
What can i say? you are a great master !
Mohammed Al Mahdi 4 months ago | reply
Amazing shot !!!!!
Sparklietrees 4 months ago | reply
You really are SO awesome at these :)
ArtHakker HDR Photography 4 months ago | reply
cool capture!
Felix Schmidt Photography 4 months ago | reply
Wow!
Michal Sleczek 4 months ago | reply
excellent and unique capture !
neimon2 (too busy, sorry for my temporary silence) 4 months ago | reply
very beautiful image and... thanks for the excellent process description!
Napatu 4 months ago | reply
que buena!! gran trabajo
Len.Randall 4 months ago | reply
Brilliant Shot.
glosszoom 4 months ago | reply
stunning work
The Surveyor 4 months ago | reply
Pretty darn awesome.
Gonzalo M. Lagar 3 months ago | reply
acojonante esta foto
lance mills 3 months ago | reply
Amazing work! This is truley amazing shot, really is a masterpiece