My Grand Canyon trip was scheduled to coincide with the new moon so we could do some night photography, and there are so many stars visible in the Grand Canyon. It was truly amazing. On this night, we were able to get a campsite that faced south down the river, so we set our alarms for 1:30am to photograph the core of the Milky Way over the canyon.
This is a composite of three images, two taken after sunset for the cliffs, and another for the sky. I set up this comp in the evening, then thought that the image would need some texture in the cliffs. I’ve never done this kind of image, and I knew it would be a challenge to get it to look reasonably “natural,” even though I was totally unable to see any detail in the cliffs at night. I’ve seen images like this that work, and many more that don’t, so hopefully this one is OK. I don’t know if I will continue to do this type of photography, but I enjoy this image at least as a document of the experience of stargazing in the Grand Canyon.
Left side cliffs
5D2, 24mm f1.4
f/1.4, 1/13s, ISO100
Right side cliffs
f/1.4, 0.3s, ISO100
Sky:
f/1.4, 20s, ISO1600
If it was a Gary Hart workshop, you just knew the Milky Way would be involved somehow. Craig, I think the composition works great. I love how the diagonal of the Milky Way leads to the X shape of the canyon and its reflection. These are very graphic and powerful design elements.
The challenge with these time-bracketed and blended exposures is keeping it looking like a night shot, and avoiding the temptation to show too much detail in the land. So I prefer the darker look that you have here in the canyon. There is some halo-ing in your blend, most noticeable on the left canyon rim. I would try smoothing that blend out a bit more, and maybe slightly dropping the luminosity of the left canyon wall to make it easier to do. But if this is your first attempt at Milky Way shooting you did very well overall, the sky looks great.
Thanks Ed. He does love the Milky Way. Right after I posted this yesterday, I went to his blog and he had posted the image he took that night. We all lined up along a small section of beach at this camp, so all the images are probably pretty close to identical, except in the processing.
Anyway, thanks for the comments. I’ll take a look at the blending again.
Craig, I took a workshop with Gary Hart about 6 years ago, and still get emails from his blog, So I actually saw his version of this scene just after reading your reply to my comments. His halos are much worse than in your image, in comparison yours are barely noticeable. I also think he went too bright with luminosity especially in the river. However I do like what he did with color, sky a bit bluer, canyon more red and less magenta.
