Dusk at Twisleton

A 20 minute exposure at Twisleton Scar, Yorkshire Dales, using the

last remaining light from the sunset to light the foreground.

 

Any feedback or comments welcome. Thanks.

Fantastic, the exposure is superb. In my humble opinion you have other star trail shots which are stronger compositionally, but this one is very good, which makes the others something very special. All your work is inspirational.

Excellent balance between foreground brightness and the sky. What I really like about this shot, though, is the way the tree is swept along with the motion of the stars.

I really like the light you have captured here on the forground, particularily the warmth of the last light on the stones. Also a very nice composition. i have a tree on hadrians wall that i plan on revisiting this year for a similar shot, although it doesn't have such an interesting forground.

 

have you attempted any longer star-trails John? I imagine this would also work well with more pronounced movement in the sky (although impressive as is).

 

great work as usual,

 

cheers,

 

Ben

Thanks Ben. I agree with the comment about the longer trails but at the moment I'm pushing this technique at exposures of 20 mins or so (because I need to start the exposure with enough light for the foreground, but not allow the sky to over-expose near the horizon). If I start the shot later (i.e when it's slightly darker), I get more contrast in the sky and can expose for longer, but the foreground isn't as good. I'm gradually refining that though.

 

cheers,

John.

John, I ran into the same problem: getting enough light on the foreground without washing out the sky and losing the trails. A 3 stop hard edge grad works well, but like you said "can be tricky in the dark." When there is lots of contrast between the sky and the ground (where the ground would take an exposure of ~1/2s, but you still want long star trails, for example), I've found that a piece of cardboard held over the lens at the right height is the best. Shoot one for the ground, wait until the sky is dark enough, and begin the star trail exposure. You can control feathering and how sharply the ground and sky will be divided by the distance it is held from the lens. Depending on your camera the two exposures can be shot as one frame (like with film) or stacked later in post-pro.

Very nice work, John. To add my 2 cents - did you consider lightpainting to resolve the issue of dark foreground ? That way, the star trails would have more contrast. You have plenty of time during 20 minutes of exposure, to paint even a large area. With digital trial-error approach you could find the right amount of painting quite fast. Of course, I admit that it is not the same as catching the last rays of light, but might produce interesting results as well. Best wishes. Peter