Goals of the Landscape Astrophotography Workshop
1. An understanding of the night sky as it relates to the earth (celestial movement, Earth’s Orbit, movement of the Milky Way, Moon Cycles…) 2. Planning the shot, understanding the relationship of the setting to the night sky (google earth and stellarium) 3. Basic camera exposure (Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, lenses) 4. The importance of ISO in night photography, ISO invariance 5. Night time camera focusing 6. Using your camera at night (Milky Way photography, composites, star trails, night panoramas, constellations) 7. Lighting the foreground via light painting and long exposure 8. Reducing noise (in camera, image stacking, tracking) 9. Photoshop skills, using curves and layer masks.
Things to Bring 1. A mirrorless or DSLR camera. A full frame camera (35mm sensor) is preferred for it’s high ISO abilities, but a cropped mirrorless or DSLR will suffice. Also bring extra batteries. 2. A wide-angle lens (24mm or less is preferred, however 35mm will work also) with a 2.8 or wider aperture. Camera lenses can be rented if needed. I’ve used the Samyang 14mm 2.8 frequently and it is very affordable, it’s available in Canon and Nikon and Sony. If only your kit lens is available we can make that work. 3. Intervalometer. We will use these for capturing star trails. Many times these are built into cameras. If one is not built into your camera a Nikon example can be found here. 4. A decent tripod. Heavy is good but it is not necessary to go overboard. I currently use a Vanguard ALTA PRO 263AT. This is plenty sturdy and cheap. 5. Headlamp and fully charged batteries! 6. Light painting tools. These are not completely necessary to bring. I will have some and we can share, but you may want to invest. I like the Goal Zero Lighthouse Micro USB Rechargeable Lantern and I use this spotlight but it may not be available any more, something like this should be suitable. I’ve also heard good things about the Lume Cube, which I plan on trying soon. It can be controlled via smartphone and reduced to 1 lumen, link. 7. If you have a laptop for post-processing that will be very useful. If you do not have a copy of Adobe Photoshop a free trial version can be downloaded here. I am currently using Adobe Photoshop CS6, off of which workshop power point presentations will be based. 8. Last but not least a good thermos, snacks and warm clothes! a. Clothing specifics: Down jacket, hat, double gloves, long underwear, hand warmers, heavy socks, too much is better than not enough!
Fitness All participants should have a modest amount of fitness. No extreme fitness is necessary, but the ability to hike 1-2 miles in some heat with some very easy scrambling while carrying all of your gear, food and water. All of the intended sites are accessible but will require some hiking and mild scrambling with no dangerous exposure.
Weather Weather may be an issue but it is generally reliable in the southern Utah desert. In the even of inclement weather we will try to work as long as it is safe for our equipment and ourselves. Sometimes clouds can produce interesting effects. In the event of complete overcast there are other aspects of night photography we can experiment with such as light trails, and example of one I did on a cloudy evening can be seen here.