Saturday 8 December 2012

Quiver Trees by Night 1, 2 & 3

I finally got around to completing my third Panorama of the Quiver Tree Forest, as well as reprocessing the first one to bring out detail in the shadow regions. The three images now form a pleasing triple:


Quiver Trees by Night 1 - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 6x30sec, f/2.8. ISO 3200, Nodal Ninja
Quiver Trees by Night 2 - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 12x30sec, f/2.8. ISO 3200, Nodal Ninja
Quiver Trees by Night 3 - Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16, 16x30sec, f/2.8. ISO 3200, Nodal Ninja


Notice the Magellanic Clouds in the third image.


You may want to compare the first image with this earlier version.

Niggles


There are still a few little incompatibilities between these three images, which I hope to rectify in the future. In particular, images 1 and 3 have a 5:2 aspect ratio, but image 2 is a bit wider. I could fix this by cropping images 1 & 3 a little. Alternatively, I might redo image 2 from scratch to include a bit more sky and foreground. This is would also resolve a slight difference in "look" to the images, which I suspect is caused by the fact that I use a little bit of Lightroom's fill light in images 1 & 3, but not image 2. See this older post describing how I made image 2. Let me know in the comments if you prefer the old look of image 2 or rather the new look of the other two.

In images 1 and 3 I also needed to cheat a little bit: I had to fill in some missing foreground with the clone stamp tool (can you spot it?), which means that there are certain competitions in which I cannot enter them. The lesson is: when making a panorama, shoot more than you think you need at the time!

Competition Blues


Speaking of competitions, I had a spot of drama in the Canon SA competition. The competition rules forbade the use of "composite or montage images, from more than one original image". When I entered, I was unsure if they would allow panoramas or not, but I gave it a try, thinking they probably meant to avoid things like this story. So I entered Quiver Trees by Night 2 into their "into the great wide open" category, and the judges chose it for the top ten in that category, which they posted on Facebook. The winner was then to be chosen by vote (not my favourite system - I dislike votes - but the prize on offer was too big to resist). Anyway, since the judges picked this image, as well as another panorama, I thought I had interpreted the rule correctly.

But then people complained, since panoramas clearly are composites of more than one image, and pointed out that many other panoramas (and HDRs) might have been entered but for the wording of the rule. Canon had no choice but to disqualify the two panoramas. You can imagine how upset I was, especially as the prize was a Canon 5D3! Anyway, Canon did send me an excellent CF card for consolation, and published my image, along with my blog entry as a Photoshop tutorial in their Click Magazine. So I didn't walk away empty-handed, but with dreams of what might have been.


51 comments:

  1. Very nice pictures. At what time of the night (compared to sunset) did you take the pictures?

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  2. Thanks! They were all taken between 04h20 and 05h00 local time.

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    1. thnks for your answer. I suppose sunrise is somewhat around 6.00am?

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    2. According to Stellarium, sunrise was around 07h30. Remember, June is winter in the Southern hemisphere...

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    3. Thank you again for your answer. I am amazed that you can get these amounts of color, so deep in the night.

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  3. Absolutely beautiful. Would it be possible to get a higher resolution picture so I could use it for my wallpaper?

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    1. You're welcome to download the version at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121212.html.

      Otherwise, blogger tends to resize large images that I upload, so I'm not quite sure how to make specific resolution images available. I'll see if I can figure it out. What's your screen resolution?

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    2. I have now created a page for downloading wallpapers. Could somebody please check if it works on other platforms? Thanks!

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    3. Downloaded wallpaper on my mac, works fine! Thanks!

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  4. These photos are just amazing. Absolutely breathtaking.

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  5. Really beautiful! Makes think about how small we really are! Thank you!

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  6. Could you send me a large file of this fabulous picture. I want to put this on the wall!

    Jim R.
    Atlanta

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    Replies
    1. I'm a bit reluctant to send out large files, but you can buy a print here: http://floriansphotographs.blogspot.com/p/print-pricing.html

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  7. Johann Krawczyk, XLAB, GoettingenWednesday 12 December 2012 at 16:56:00 GMT+2

    Hello Florian,
    really wonderful photographs!! Especially with the two Magallanic Clouds.

    Greetings from snowy Goettingen, Germany

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  8. Fantástico, maravilhoso, a mais imagem do ano. Parabéns

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  9. Hello
    Those are amazing images!
    How do you manage to stack all the images and avoid the sky to move respect to the ground and trees?

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    1. The shots are taken 30 seconds apart, and at this wide angle of view, there is relatively little change from one shot to the next, a few pixels at most. Hugin blends the images together in such a way that you won't notice (perhaps some stars are doubled? I haven't found any).

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    2. Oh, you're right.
      Keep on your wonderful work!

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  10. I saw your photograph on Astronomy Picture of the Day today and was in awe of this gorgeous image, it's incredible! I love trees and to capture this night time photo of the trees and the sky....pure genius! I'm re-posting on my plant blog, rainyleaf.com. Thank you!
    Elaine

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  11. Hi All, and thanks for the comments. Here is a particularly thoughtful blog worth reading: http://bicycleastronomy.org/2012/12/13/the-wonder-of-it-all/

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  12. Hi, can i know in which software you merge all expositions??

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    Replies
    1. I use Hugin, which is somewhat temperamental, but free: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

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  13. Hello, may I use this wonderful picture as my facebook cover image? I'd give proper credit with source information in the image-description for sure.

    Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Hi there! Yes, you are welcome to use my image so long as you attribute it correctly.

      Enjoy!
      Florian

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  14. I've never seen anything more beautiful, amazing, breathtaking. It's so moving. Incredible. Congratulations. It's the most beautiful image I've ever seen (and I've seen tons!)

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    Replies
    1. Wow, this is the highest praise I've ever heard, thanks! Just hope my head won't swell too much ;)

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  15. muy buenas fotos, esta muy bien el cielo x ahi, se ve todo!, genial..

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  16. Hi,
    Is it ok to upload one of these pics as cover photo on FB, mentioning the title and URL of this post as the cover description? And position the cover photo so that the name of this blog is also visible in the lower right hand corner?

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    Replies
    1. Hi there. I have updated my wallpaper page for this. Yes, you're welcome to use these images as Facebook banners. You don't need to position it in such a way that the watermark is visible, since clicking on the banner will reveal the complete photo. Of course, please do not crop the image...

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  17. Really wonderful pictures..congrats!
    Clear Skies
    Marco

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  18. These are one of the most beautiful "space" photographs i've ever seen. Thank you a billion times!

    Please do us the favor and provide us with a 1920x1080 wallpaper resolution.

    And just out of curiosity, what's exactly the original image resolution?

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    Replies
    1. Hi there, I can email it to you, just drop me a line.

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  19. Florian, this is an amazing stunning and absolutely beautiful picture...keep up the good work, I want to see more photos like this!
    Do you have the link of number Quiver Trees by Night 1 so I can download on my destop background?
    Eve

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Eve!

      You can download wallpapers here: http://floriansphotographs.blogspot.com/p/download-wallpapers.html

      Best regards,
      Florian

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  20. Oh wow what an amazing picture it is

    I have enjoyed it to max

    but

    Its been too frustrating for me too :).......I also have 40d and I was unable to shoot noise free and gorgeous coloured Starry night like you.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/emaad/7695892946/in/photostream

    Frustrating because I am asking myself why cant I do that :) I always found excuse that you need 5d II for that. Thanks for showing it to. Now plz guide me how can I get better starry images......low noise and colourful.

    Emaad
    imme81@yahoo.com

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    1. Hi there,

      who said anything about noise free? ;) If I showed you 100% crops of the original exposures, you'd see a lot of noise. But since these are panoramas, each individual exposure is reduced in size, so you don't notice so much. I guess shooting on cold nights also helps a bit.

      Stop worrying about noise, it's not all that distracting, especially when photographing grainy things like sand or night skies.

      Don't let the camera-marketers get to you, your 40D is fine :)

      Nice pictures on your photostream, BTW.

      Florian

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  22. Thanks Florian. Plz share some shooting tips, time, exposure and how to plan these lovely shots.

    I agree with you.......panoramas are huge and noise effect is not highlighted. I am a panorama man too and I will shoot it in Panorama. I could only get few minutes time of clear sky and than clouds covered sky :)

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  25. Great Image dude. Love the color, details and composition...unfortunately here not seen at all. KUDOS!!!

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  26. Hi there Florian, Do you have a higher image of number 3 that we could purchase? as large as possible?

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    Replies
    1. Hi there, unfortunately I do not sell printable files, but I do sell prints in a range of sizes. Have a look at my "purchase prints" page, or if you want a different size or framing or something, drop me an email and we can work something out.

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  27. We are a printing company in England and are looking to do a mailer to express the new qualities of our new kodak nexpress printer. The image is perfect for the design we are looking to create. It is a 6 page A4 Roll fold and would look fantastic on the page. would you kindly pop me an email to talk further. my email is daniel@fullerdavies.com.

    Thank you.

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