We asked ChatGPT for the five best night photography cameras

ChatGPT uses AI to offer information to responses — or sometimes create fascinating conversation. I asked ChatGPT what the five night photography cameras were. And it offered some poetry as well.

Just for fun, I decided to ask ChatGPT to offer an opinion about the top five night photography cameras. I’ll share how it responded after briefly describing ChatGPT.

What is ChatGPT?

Getting ready to help the public! Image generated by Dream. AI.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence deep learning program developed by OpenAI. And yes, our favorite Twitter guy, Elon Musk is involved. In 2015, Musk, along with Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever and Wojciech Zaremba, founded OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research organization.

ChatGPT is based on GPT-3, the third model of the natural language processing project. The technology uses GPT-3 architecture to scour an immense pool of internet data and sources to build its knowledge base.

The language model can answer questions, and assist you with tasks such as composing emails, essays, and code. Or give you hints on night photography cameras or write poetry, as it turns out.

OK, now let’s see what ChatGPT has to say about night photography cameras.

ChatGPT, what are the top five cameras for night photography?

Space alien robot. Night photo, Vasquez Rocks, CA.

As an AI language model, I do not have personal opinions or preferences, but here are five cameras that are often recommended for night photography based on their features and capabilities:

Sony Alpha a7S III: This full-frame mirrorless camera has excellent low-light capabilities with a high sensitivity range and impressive image quality, making it a popular choice for night photography.

Nikon D850: This DSLR camera features a high resolution and large sensor, along with advanced autofocus and noise reduction technology, making it a strong performer in low-light conditions.

Canon EOS R5: Another full-frame mirrorless camera, the Canon EOS R5 boasts impressive image quality and excellent low-light performance, thanks to its advanced autofocus and image stabilization technologies.

Fujifilm X-T4: This mirrorless camera is compact and lightweight, making it a great option for night photography on the go. It also features advanced autofocus and image stabilization technologies, as well as a high ISO range.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III: This mirrorless camera is another compact option with excellent low-light capabilities and advanced autofocus technology. It also features in-body image stabilization, making it easier to capture sharp images in low-light conditions.

It’s worth noting that there are many other cameras that are capable of producing excellent night photography results, and the best choice ultimately depends on your specific needs and preferences.ChatGPT

Observations

Two space alien robots and their space ships. Trona, CA.

What’s fascinating about the response is the additional information it provides about each camera. But also, these aren’t specifically canned responses. I asked this question again, and it gave me a slightly different answer. On the second list, the D850, EOS R5 and X-T4 were the same. However, the two other cameras were different. The conclusion was also slightly different, mentioning accessories and lenses.

And no, it didn’t mention the Pentax K-1 or Nikon Z9 during the first two attempts.

Is ChatGPT Sentient?

In a word, no. It’s programmed to generate responses based on patterns and algorithms from its enormous pool of internet data. I suppose what’s startling is how human it often seems and where it will go from here. After all, we’re in the infancy of AI.

Whether machines will gain sentience is up for debate. But certainly, we’ve seen some fascinating science-fiction depictions involving SkyNet, androids on “Star Trek,” and more. We’ve pondered this collectively for a while.

Poetry

Night photo of a strange robot monster in the Mojave Desert.

I promised poetry. And not to worry, you’ll get it. After all, you do turn to my Photofocus articles for all your photographic poetry needs, do you not?

Here, I asked ChatGPT to offer up some haiku.

You’ll notice my polite request. I realize ChatGPT is not sentient. But better safe than sorry.

ChatGPT, please write a haiku about taking night photos in the desert. Thanks.

Poetry in motion. Star trails over Joshua Tree National Park, CA.

In the desert night

Silent camera captures stars

Desert dreams in sightChatGPT

Great. I think ChatGPT writes haikus better than I do.

If you have opinions about artificial intelligence in art, ChatGPT and its abilities, AI in general, whether machines will ever become sentient, or night photography poetry, please leave them in the comments below. An actual sentient human will respond.

“I’m ready for all your chatting needs!” Image generated by Dream. AI.

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BOOKS AND PRINTS:
Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!

NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:

Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

How We Got the Shots: Five Photographers, Five Stories – Night Photo Summit 2022

VIDEO INTERVIEW:

Ken Lee’s Abandoned Trains Planes and Automobiles with Tim Little of Cape Nights Photography
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

ARTICLES:
A Photographer Captures Haunting Nighttime Images of Abandoned Buildings, Planes, and Cars in the American Southwest – Business Insider by Erin McDowell
A Photographer Explores Southern California’s Desert Ruins – Los Angeles Magazine article by Chris Nichols

Night Photo Summit 2023: Camaraderie, inspiration, and learning

The Night Photo Summit online event will offer three days of dynamic presentations from 35-plus world-class photographers, authors, artists, astronomers, and national park and dark-sky activists. And I am honored to be invited to speak for a second time.

Abandoned airplane with the glorious Milky Way overhead. Cover for first book. — Abandoned airplane with the glorious Milky Way overhead. This is the cover for my first book.

What is it?

National Parks at Night holds night photography workshops that provide top-shelf education both in the classroom and in the field. They are arguably the best in the world at doing so. They have invited 35+ speakers to join in the fun of their Night Photo Summit.

The speakers at this online event will include night photographers, of course. Also speaking are authors, artists, astronomers and national park and dark-sky activists. They will speak about astronomy, dark skies, creativity and of course photo techniques — both in the field and post-processing. Presentations will include beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

Night photo with light painting in Nelson ghost town, Nevada, where we will be holding a night photography workshop in May 2023.

Who are the presenters?

I will be one of the presenters at Night Photo Summit, discussing publishing photography books.

The varied speakers for Night Photo Summit include Forest Chaput, Sherry Pincus, Royce Bair, Michael Frye, Katrina Brown, Joseph DePasquale, Albert Dros, Rachel Jones Ross, Rafael Pons, Alyn Wallace, Sussan Magnano and more. And of course, it includes National Parks at Night instructors Gabriel Biderman, Chris Nicholson, Lance Keimig, Matt Hill and Tim Cooper.

I will be offering a presentation entitled “Behind the Book: My Path to Publishing a Monograph.” This will be about publishing two books on history, stories and night photography of abandoned locations. Offering examples from several of my books, I will describe my initial contact and negotiations with a publisher. I will then will take you through the process of creating the initial concept for each book. I will also discuss how the book’s topical theme informs the way I go about planning long road trips and the sorts of photos I take.

Abandoned Planes, Trains and Automobiles: California Revealed by Ken Lee — “Abandoned Planes, Trains and Automobiles: California Revealed” by Ken Lee

When is it?

Night photo with light painting in a damp cold forest in Georgia!

The Night Photo Summit will run Feb. 3-5 from 11 a. m. to 7:15 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 6:00 on Sunday. There will also be an “after-hours” event Friday and/or Saturday nights.

How can I sign up?

Well, you know … go to their website! If you choose to sign up, I would greatly appreciate it if you use my Night Photo Summit 2023 affiliate link here. Thanks.

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

How We Got the Shots: Five Photographers, Five Stories – Night Photo Summit 2022

VIDEO INTERVIEW:

Ken Lee’s Abandoned Trains Planes and Automobiles with Tim Little of Cape Nights Photography
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

Why the Nightaxians shoot with it: Pentax K-1

Nightaxians YouTube Podcast Episode 7: Why We All Shoot With It: Pentax K1

The Nightaxians are all night photographers. And they all use Pentax K-1 full frame cameras. What is it about this camera that makes the it so compelling for the Nightaxians?

Night photo of abandoned mine. — Night photo at an abandoned mine in the Mojave Desert. Pentax K-1 camera.

Much of the camera industry has pivoted toward mirrorless cameras. However, there are compelling reasons why the Pentax K-1 an excellent choice. Find out about this unusual high-quality camera that often flies under the radar on the Nightaxians YouTube podcast.

Above: Joshua Tree National Park/Pentax K-1.

Above: An abandoned water park/Pentax K-1.

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

How We Got the Shots: Five Photographers, Five Stories – Night Photo Summit 2022

VIDEO INTERVIEW:

Ken Lee’s Abandoned Trains Planes and Automobiles with Tim Little of Cape Nights Photography
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

How to use an intervalometer for night photography

Intervalometers are inexpensive and invaluable, so why not throw one or two of these in your bag?

But what is it? An intervalometer is basically a remote shutter release that offers more controls. It allows you to tell the camera shutter when to shoot, how long the shutter should stay open and how long the shutter should remain closed until it opens again.

Night photographers use these to create star trails, time-lapse, a succession of images to “stack” to reduce noise in high ISO photos, and more while avoiding vibrations.

Intervalometers come in different forms, including wired and wireless, with some allowing you to control your camera using an app on your smartphone. I use a wired intervalometer because they are inexpensive and very reliable.

This is my trusty Vello Shutterboss II for my Pentax K-1, hence the punny “Kentax” name. Never run away from a great pun.

Understanding the settings of an intervalometer

Let’s go over some of the settings so we can better understand what they are and why we use them. I use a wired Vello Shutterboss II, and many wired intervalometers currently available have similar or identical controls. Look for the black horizontal line, which tells us which setting we are viewing or adjusting.

Self (self-timer delayed-release)

The first setting is the self-timer. This allows you to set the amount of time it takes for the camera to initiate the sequence you have programmed into the intervalometer.

This helps us with anything from doing selfies to getting into position to light paint a tree or abandoned building. This intervalometer allows you to set the time anywhere from one second to 99 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. Wow! Below, it is set to 0 seconds, so the camera will start clicking right away.

Long (timed exposure length)

How long do you want each exposure to be? Right here is where you set it! This one is set for two minutes. This is especially handy because most cameras have a maximum exposure length of 30 seconds and offer a limited amount of long exposure times.

Intervalometers allow you to specify a shot between one second and 99 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. And yes, that means that you cannot photograph anything shorter than one second.

Interval

The interval setting allows you to control the time period between two or more shots. If you want to do time-lapses, perhaps you might want some time to pass between shots. On the other hand, if you want to do star trails for “stacking” later, you want the shortest possible time between shots.

The interval shown below is set to one second, the shortest time between shots possible on most intervalometers.

No. (Number)

The number simply stands for how many photos you wish to take in your sequence of shots. Below, I have this set for 10 consecutive shots. You may set it anywhere from 1 shot to 999 shots. After running the sequence, the camera will stop unless set it to infinity. This is typically signified by two dashes (—). On this setting, your camera will shoot and shoot and shoot …

How night photographers use an intervalometer

Now that we know what the four basic settings are (I’m not going to go over whether you want a beep or not), let’s apply this to some real-life night photography scenarios.

Star trails

Many night photographers love to show the perceived movement of the stars caused by the earth’s rotation of long periods of time. Taking a succession of shots and “stacking” them together for post-processing is a great way of achieving this while minimizing noise.

In the photo above, I set my intervalometer at four minutes and photographed the starry night sky for two hours in total.

The settings would have looked like this:

Self (Self-Timer Delayed Release): 0 seconds
Long (Timed Exposure Length): 4 minutes
Interval: 1 second
No. (Number): 30

Stacking to reduce noise for milky ways

Many night photographers use intervalometers to take 15-20 photos in succession to reduce noise for their high-ISO Milky Way photos. For the above, I set my intervalometer to take photos for 20 seconds each.

For this photo, the settings are:

Self (Self-Timer Delayed Release): 0 seconds
Long (Timed Exposure Length): 20 seconds
Interval: 1 second
No. (Number): 31 (the slightly strange number tells me that I most likely set the device to click away on “infinity” while I grabbed a snack!)

Never dangle your intervalometer

I’ll leave you with this important bit of advice: Never let your intervalometer dangle from your camera. Several things may happen — none of them good!

The intervalometer jack may get pulled out of the camera

This may stop the entire shooting process you’ve set into motion. You don’t want that to happen, do you? No. No, you don’t.

The intervalometer may swing

This isn’t so great either. It doesn’t take much wind to get your intervalometer to start tapping against the tripod and cause shakes and vibrations.

The intervalometer cable will weaken

This occurs over time when the cable gets increasingly stressed. As it is, this is a common point of failure for intervalometers, so why hasten its death?

Pro tip: Velcro to the rescue!

I would never leave you hanging (apologies for the pun). There’s an easy solution, and it’s called Velcro. Yes, that’s right, add a strip of Velcro to the back of your device and to your tripod leg. No more swinging.

I hope this helps. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below!

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

How We Got the Shots: Five Photographers, Five Stories – Night Photo Summit 2022

VIDEO INTERVIEW:

Ken Lee’s Abandoned Trains Planes and Automobiles with Tim Little of Cape Nights Photography
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

Fun, Friendly Night Photography Workshop in a Nevada ghost town!

Interested in three nights in an amazing, weird and fun location filled with old cars, trucks, buses and buildings? Join host Tim Little and I as we explore this small Nevada town under moonlight!

Nelson ghost town workshop, May 4-6 2023. Photo by Tim Little.

We are teaching a night photography workshop in the amazing Nelson ghost town near Las Vegas, Nevada. The workshop will cover the basics of night photography, composition, creativity, tips, techniques, star trails and more.

This is THE workshop for anyone who wants limitless photography opportunities with the safety of a group environment while learning a lot along the way!

What is Nelson Ghost Town?

Nelson is easily one of my favorite places to photograph. Whether it’s vintage cars, gas pumps, old Western buildings, soda machines, creepy dolls, a spectacular airplane “wreck” or phone booths, enormous post-apocalyptic “Mad Max”-style vehicles, vintage signs and more, you will have no shortage of fascinating subjects to photograph. This is, in short, a night photographer’s paradise.

Given its proximity to Las Vegas, it’s also quite accessible. The area is frequently used for movies, TV shows, music videos, commercials, wedding ceremonies and much more. However, we’ll have it all to ourselves.

What will you learn?

Quite a bit if you wish. You may learn various light painting techniques, night photography, composition, creative and practical techniques, star trails, light painting techniques and more, presented in a very accessible manner in a fascinating space.

You’ll also be among numerous creative photographers, giving you the opportunity to make friends, work together on photos, and share in the experience in a safe environment.

Furthermore, this isn’t one of those workshops where the instructors are inaccessible in the field. Both of us will be available throughout the evening to help if you need to. We will issue small 2-way radios for ease of communication, whether asking for help or coordinating with others.

Timothy Little

Timothy Little is a gifted nighttime landscape artist based on Cape Cod. Since 2006, he has used his moonlit and starlit photographic art to connect the natural beauty of “the Cape” with the inherent solitude of night. His portfolio is exclusive to night photography making him the only area artist specializing in this genre. He also specializes in photographing abandoned scenes in the southwest United States.

His work has been featured on Space.com, the Cape Cod Times, Cape Cod Life, Visit Massachusetts and several other New England based publications.

In addition to creating art, he shares his knowledge through group workshops and guided night tours.

Ken Lee

I am devoted to teaching night photography, light painting, star trails, and Milky Way photography. Whether that has been through the Night Photo Summit, my own workshops, or writing here at Photofocus, I hope to help you on your journey through night photography.

My photos have been featured in National Geographic Books, Omni Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Westways Magazine, and numerous other publications.

When is the night photography workshop?

The Nelson night photography workshop will be three nights: May 4-6 2023 under the beautiful Nevada desert moonlight. We will be staying in nearby Boulder City.

Find out more about our Nelson Ghost Town workshop here.

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

How We Got the Shots: Five Photographers, Five Stories – Night Photo Summit 2022

VIDEO INTERVIEW:

Ken Lee’s Abandoned Trains Planes and Automobiles with Tim Little of Cape Nights Photography
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

What are the best camera settings for Milky Way photography?

What are the best camera settings for Milky Way and “astrophotography”? We offer this and some tips to make it easy for you.

Arches National Park, Utah Milky Way — Double Arch in Arches National Park in Utah. Camera settings are 20 seconds f/2.8 ISO 4000.

Is offering camera settings meaningless?

Some night photographers argue that offering camera settings for Milky Way photography is useless. In a way, they’re right. There are so many variables. For instance, it depends on what kind of lens. The larger the aperture the lens has, the more light it lights in. The wider the focal length, the longer the amount of time you can set your camera’s exposure length. Then there are atmospheric variables, light pollution and more that affect the settings.

A discussion about settings could take up quite a lot of space in a book. However, I’ll try and give you starting points.

Assumptions before giving camera settings

To stop the variables from spinning out of control, we are going to assume that you have a relatively modern digital camera and an ultra wide angle lens with a focal length of about 14mm or 15mm since that seems to be the most commonly used. We will also assume that you are not using a star tracker, and that your camera is simply mounted on a tripod.

Starting camera settings for Milky Way photographs

I like to begin with a 20-second exposure, an aperture of f/2.8 at ISO 3200 or 4000.

Exposure

20-second exposures are typically long enough to gather light, but short enough that your stars register as relative pinpoints of light. If you can reduce this further, great. If not, this should be a good starting point for a lens with a focal length of 14mm or 15mm.

Aperture

If your lens has a larger aperture than f/2.8, such as f/2.0 or f/2.4, try to use it. However, some lenses have distortion in the corners if you photograph “wide open” (at the largest aperture). Look for things such as “angel wings” or “UFO”-looking stars in the corners. If there are none, great. If there are, reduce the aperture back to f/2.8 or until that stops.

ISO

Boosting the ISO to 3200 or 4000 should be bright enough to adequately capture the Milky Way without blowing out the highlights.

Arch, Mojave Desert, Southwest Milky Way — A hidden arch in Mojave Desert, Southwest US. This is admittedly “stacked”. However, the settings for the sky are 15 seconds f/2.5 ISO 4000. I was able to drop the exposure down to 15 seconds because my lens could be opened up to f/2.5.

Adjusting from the beginning camera settings

Just like you would with a day photograph, all your camera adjustments are the same.

“My image is too dark!”

This is the most common thing people encounter. If your image is too dark, you can make it brighter by lengthening the exposure, opening the aperture (if that’s possible), and/or increasing the ISO.

Each has trade-offs, of course. Sometimes, lengthening the exposure might turn your stars as pinpoints into elongated trails. Or increasing the ISO might introduce more noise into your image, although you could address that in post-processing by using Topaz Labs Denoise AI or other noise reduction software. I’ve had good luck using this software for Milky Way photos without decreasing the sharpness and detail of the Milky Way.

“My image is too bright!”

This is less common with Milky Way photos, but can occur more frequently when doing star trails or photographing near a full moon.

You can decrease the exposure time, make the aperture smaller, and/or decrease the ISO.

Further information

I write a lot about night photography here. When you see a night photo, you can click on the image and see what the camera settings were. You can learn a lot from these by looking at the image, trying to figure out what the ambient light was, and figure out why that setting was chosen. After seeing a number of photos, you can also begin to see patterns emerging and begin to figure out why certain settings are chosen over others.

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO PRESENTATION:

How We Got the Shots: Five Photographers, Five Stories – Night Photo Summit 2022

VIDEO INTERVIEW:

Ken Lee’s Abandoned Trains Planes and Automobiles with Tim Little of Cape Nights Photography
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

Finding infinity: seven ways to focus on the night stars

Getting sharp, pin-point stars for a starry sky or the Milky Way may be the hardest part of night photography. However, I’ll try and make it methodical and easy. I’ll discuss seven methods.

Focusing on a distant object during the day

The easiest way to do this is to go out some time when there’s some daylight and focus on something extremely far away. Choose the mountains or the clouds. It may be right at the lens’ infinity marking. Or slightly to the right. Or slightly to the left. Regardless, mark that setting if you can with a grease pen. Or better yet, tape the focus ring down with gaffer’s tape so it will not budge. Now you’re ready for the night.

Focusing on a distant object at night

Some people will have a friend stand at least fifty feet away and hold up a light. Then they will adjust their focus manually until the light looks like a pinpoint. If you don’t have a friend nearby, lean a flashlight against a tree or rock. This is far enough away that your lens should perceive this as infinity. This method also works well.

Focusing on the moon

Photographing while the moon is out? You’ll get less stars, but on the other hand, the moon may beautifully illuminate the foreground. Aim your camera so the moon appears in the center. Use auto focus. The moon should be plenty bright enough for your auto-focus to work. If not, go ahead and switch to manual focus and then focus on the moon. You may do this via Live View or looking through the viewfinder.

Adjusting using your LED

Set it to where you believe infinity is based on the markings on your lens. Zoom in a star using your LED. Then adjust your lens accordingly. This may take a while. This is easier with some cameras than others. Be patient. You want the stars to be as sharp as possible. This method can be more accurate than the first two methods, but takes more patience.

Made from 20 light frames (captured with a NIKON CORPORATION camera) by Starry Landscape Stacker 1.6.1. Algorithm: Median

Adjusting using Live View

This is similar to the above method, but is generally easier to see than zooming in with an LED. Zoom in to a star using Live View. Adjust the focus of your lens manually until it looks very sharp. This should go rather quickly, and is considerably faster and easier than using your LED. If this option is available to you, I would recommend doing this first. It is easy and arguably the most accurate of the ones listed.

Lens filters that help you focus

These are filters that use diffraction methods to nail focus. if you want to know more, search Bahtinov filters, SharpStar2, or similar variations on this theme.

Using a lens with true infinity

Some manual lens have a hard stop for infinity. For many of these lens, this may actually represent their true infinity. You won’t know until you test. Other lenses, such as the Irix 15mm f/2.4, have a detent for true infinity. This make adjusting for infinity incredibly simple and easy.

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MY WEBSITE:
Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure photos. My latest book, “Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time” is available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review.

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

The power of vignettes: directing the light

Directing the light

A good composition is about directing the viewer through the image. And one of the many ways that effective photographers do this is by directing the light. Vignettes are a powerful tool in doing this. And best of all, it’s easy to do!

What’s a vignette?

A vignette is simply a reduction of an image’s brightness or saturation around the edges when compared to the center of the image. A vignette might occur “naturally” through the lens you use, particularly if you photograph with a very wide aperture. Or we can add it easily through post-processing. I’ll show you how to do the latter to direct the light toward what you want the viewer to see.

It is easy to create vignettes!

In this example, I will use Adobe Lightroom Classic. However, you can use just about any program and achieve the same vignettes. I will show you using an example of a night photo. However, you may apply vignettes to any kind of photo. It is up to you!

Above, there already appears to be a little bit of vignetting in the original photo. However, the main reason the subject is brighter is because I lit the car grille during the exposure. I let everything else become a little more underexposed. The lights in the distance are more or less in the center, and also aid in creating interest near the center. I have placed the brightest part of the sky directly over the highest part of the car grille for maximum effect.

Creating a vignette using Adobe Lightroom

Above, under the effects panel, there are controls for “post-crop vignetting”. You probably already know what to do! Mess around with the controls and get something you like. I find that for most applications, a small amount of vignetting is all that is needed. Most of the time, you might not want to draw attention to the fact that there is vignetting. Subtlety is key. Here, the amount is just a little.

I have also increased the feathering. This controls how gradually the vignette darkens.

See how easy that was?

An example of heavy-handed vignetting and hard feathering

Just for fun, I thought I would create an extreme example of vignetting. As you cay see, the Amount Slider has been moved to the left considerably. And so has the Feathering Slider. This is the opposite of a very gradual, subtle gradation from light to dark. For some photos, this might work. For most, probably not.

Vignette controls may already be on your phone!

You don’t need to have Lightroom, Photoshop, Luminar, Affinity, or other programs to create vignettes. There’s a great chance that you have controls for this on your phone already. Most phones already have simple photo editing features. See if you have one on your phone. The Photos app on iPhones, for instance, have the capability to create vignettes easily, similar to what I’ve shown here.

Directing the light to the subject

Subconsciously, the eyes of the viewers tend to go toward the brighter, more colorful parts of an image. Vignettes are one more tool in a photographer’s bag of tricks for doing so. It also has the subtle effect of almost cradling or framing the image.

What sort of photos do you think can benefit from vignettes? Portraits? Sports? Birds? Wedding? Fine art?

When you next look at photos, see if the photographer has used vignettes to direct your light toward the subject.

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

How not to smash your lens and knees: don’t be like me

Think of this as a public service announcement. Today, I’m going to discuss how to avoid smashing your equipment, day or night. I’m not a great example of this, so this is one of those cases where you should do as I say, not as I do!

Above: right after creating this photo, I walked around back. And that’s when I got close and intimate with the dirt in a hurry. And look, we’ll go over something technical just for fun. This was photographed with a Nikon D750 and a dust-free Rokinon 12mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. This exposure is 24 minutes total “stacked”. Each photo was 3 minutes at f/2.8 ISO 200, and I illuminated the interior and exterior of the building with a ProtoMachines LED2 handheld light painting device. There. Technical stuff.

Tripping the light fantastic

I walk around in the dark a lot. And I do so in abandoned areas and out on uneven ground in nature.

The chances of tripping, knocking over something, or getting snagged by something grows exponentially great. Perhaps even more so if you get excited and don’t pay as much attention as you should. Like me.

Have a nice trip, see you next fall!

As I was walking around, I stepped over a beam on the ground. It was an eighty-foot beam. It had nothing protruding throughout its entire expanse….except one. And I found it.

I tripped over the nine inch metal part. But it got better. I caught myself, only to find that my shoelace had caught around it. I went down like a felled tree, smashing my left knee and the camera. And my flashlight too. BOOOOOM!

Now, I’m going to tell you several things that I often do that I did not do here.

Cover up

Your lenses come with lens caps. Use them! Especially if your lens has a bulbous front element that sticks out, like my Rokinon 12mm f/2.8 fisheye does. When you move around, put the lens cap back on!

Somehow, miraculously, I didn’t scratch the lens at all. I did spend over 20 minutes carefully brushing the dirt out from the lens, camera, and everywhere else, though. But I could have scratched the lens very easily.

Don’t be like me.

Knee Pads

When you are wandering around dark areas with lots of debris, it’s a good idea to wear knee pads. Not only would this have protected me from bruising my knee, but this would have enabled me to get some support and kneel much easier.

I have a pair of kneepads. They’re quite good. They’re quite comfortable.

And they’re quite useless if I don’t wear them.

Don’t be like me.

Shoelaces

I was wearing big boots. That’s good for abandoned areas.

What’s not so great is having the big giant loops of the laces sticking out. Tuck those things in! I often do. Just not this particular evening.

Don’t be like me.

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SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

How I created the mask: blending blue hour and Milky Way photos in Photoshop

If you’re a night photographer like me, you’d rather be out photographing than fiddling with Photoshop. But if we are going to create our best work, some time in the digital darkroom is needed. One of the more time-consuming aspects of post-processing for me has been creating Layer Masks to blend night photos of the sky and earth.

However, I believe I’ve found two methods that are quick and easy. But let’s explain what sort of photos we are blending first…and why.

Photographing Milky Way photos with low noise

The enemy of high-ISO Milky Way photos is noise. However, we can borrow a method from astronomers called stacking to reduce noise. Stacking is a process in which the photographer numerous photos in succession and then utilizes a program to easily track stars on multiple images, align stars and stack them.

How do we create low-noise foregrounds in Milky Way images?

The issue: while star stacking programs are great at reducing noise in the sky, we want low-noise foregrounds too.

Two common methods of creating low-noise foregrounds are photographing the scene during “blue hour” (half an hour or so after the sun has set) and light painting (illuminating the scene with your own light).

Both techniques use low ISOs, and both can be quite effective. Which one you choose depends on circumstances and aesthetics. And both methods involve keeping the camera and tripod setup exactly the same for every shot. In the case of the “blue hour” set up, that involves keeping the setup in the same place for possibly several hours.

For this article, we will use a “blue hour” example to demonstrate how to blend a Milky Way with our low-noise foreground easily.

Blending the Milky Way with the low-noise foreground: method one

Above is the stacked, unprocessed photo of the Milky Way sky in Mammoth Lakes, CA. I began with this as my background layer in Photoshop.

Above is a photo of my low-ISO “blue hour” photo. I brought this in as a layer over the top of the background layer. Then I made two copies of this above for a total of four layers, three of them identical.

Creating a stark black and white image

Above: On the very top copied layer, I boosted the contrast and brightened the “blue hour” image substantially. I wanted to create a black and white Layer Mask, after all.

Going black and white

Above: I then turned the image black and white (“Image” > “Adjustments” > “Black & White”). You can see my settings in the image above. I was trying to get the sky as white as possible and the foreground as dark as possible while still keeping the fine details in the trees.

Above: I boosted the contrast and brightness again to make the scene look even more like a Layer Mask. I may not have needed to do this if I had taken a photo while the sun was out.

Paint it black

Above: I took a black paint brush and began painting the area around the trees, including the lighter colored tree trunks and the structure, leaving the details of the leaves alone.

Above: the mountains had snow on them, so they did not turn dark. However, they are part of the foreground. Black paint brush to the rescue. I painted the mountains black as well.

Above: I continued the process of painting everything black. Here, the brush is larger because I have already painted the detail-oriented parts by the trees and mountains.

Above: almost done!

Creating a mask

Above: As you can see from the Layer Section inserted here, I began creating the mask. Here’s how I did it.

1. I copied the entire black and white layer that you have just created. I am on a Mac, so I use “Command A” to select everything, creating the “marching ants” on the periphery, and then “Command C” fo copying the selection.

2. Then I clicked on the layer just below the black and white layer. I created a Layer Mask (“Layer” > “Layer Mask” > “Reveal All”), and then clicked on the new Layer Mask to select it.

3. I hit “Alt-Click” to bring the Layer Mask up on the main screen. Then I selected everything (“Command A”) so that the “marching ants” were again surrounding the image. Then I pasted (“Command V”). This made the mask look identical to the layer above. But wait…I had one more tiny step!

4. I inverted the mask by hitting “Command I”. The black and white parts traded places. All was good.

I no longer needed that top layer. I could delete it since I had my Layer Mask.

Bringing it together

Above: this image shows what my high-ISO sky looked like with my “blue hour” foreground.

Now, obviously, you can tell they were taken at different times. From here, I would need to process both the foreground and the sky to make them look more cohesive and natural. How you do that is up to you. I find that this can differ dramatically from photo to photo.

I processed the sky separately initially, creating more of a blue sky and bringing out the detail of the stars. I also decided to have more of a blue with the foreground as well. Then I began processing them together to have them “gel” more together, eventually ending up with the final photo.

The importance of increasing contrast and brightness

I began greatly increasing the contrast and brightness to create masks after I had begun attempting to use Luminar 4’s AI Sky Replacement Algorithm and seeing that it worked better if I did so while also experimenting on creating Layer Masks in Photoshop. However, after watching a very useful YouTube tutorial by Michigan Milkyway entitled “Tree masking for tracked night sky images in Photoshop”, I realized that I had to boost the contrast and brightness far more than what I was doing for either method.

Blending the Milky Way with the low-noise foreground: method two

I promised that I would show you two methods. This other method simply uses Luminar 4’s AI Sky Replacement. This works magically well with day photos and reasonably bright blue hour photos. However, its algorithms struggle with night sky photos unless you treat them beforehand by greatly boosting the contrast and brightness or exposing greatly to the right in the first place.

Above: in Luminar 4, I opened up the photo of the “blue hour” foreground and opened “AI Sky Replacement”.

Above: in AI Sky Replacement, I loaded a custom sky, which of course was my own high-ISO sky. After that, I adjusted the “Horizon Position” slider so I could actually see the Milky Way sky, and then made several other adjustments to create a good, seamless mask and create various aesthetic adjustments. This process took less than a minute.

VISIT ME, VISIT ME!

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Ken Lee Photography Facebook Page (poke your head in, say hi, and “like” the page if you would, uh, like)
Instagram

PODCAST:
Behind the Shot video podcast – interview February 2020

VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Conversation about night photography and my book with Lance Keimig of National Park At Night

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT, what are the top five cameras for night photography?

Observations

Is ChatGPT Sentient?

Poetry

ChatGPT, please write a haiku about taking night photos in the desert. Thanks.

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What is it?

Who are the presenters?

When is it?

How can I sign up?

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Understanding the settings of an intervalometer

Self (self-timer delayed-release)

Long (timed exposure length)

Interval

No. (Number)

How night photographers use an intervalometer

Star trails

Stacking to reduce noise for milky ways

Never dangle your intervalometer

The intervalometer jack may get pulled out of the camera

The intervalometer may swing

The intervalometer cable will weaken

Pro tip: Velcro to the rescue!

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What is Nelson Ghost Town?

What will you learn?

Timothy Little

Ken Lee

When is the night photography workshop?

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Is offering camera settings meaningless?

Assumptions before giving camera settings

Starting camera settings for Milky Way photographs

Exposure

Aperture

ISO

Adjusting from the beginning camera settings

“My image is too dark!”

“My image is too bright!”

Further information

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Focusing on a distant object during the day

Focusing on a distant object at night

Focusing on the moon

Adjusting using your LED

Adjusting using Live View

Lens filters that help you focus

Using a lens with true infinity

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Directing the light

What’s a vignette?

It is easy to create vignettes!

Creating a vignette using Adobe Lightroom

An example of heavy-handed vignetting and hard feathering

Vignette controls may already be on your phone!

Directing the light to the subject

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Tripping the light fantastic

Have a nice trip, see you next fall!

Cover up