La Roche Percée, Bourail

Second week of our slow exit from confinement and people are starting to forget to implement the protective measures that are still very important.

Back in October I wrote a blog post about getting a new camera setup and trying astro-photography. This is one of those photos I captured. I’ve looked at this photos a few times but it was only on my last edit check that I realised I had captured, not only, the Milky Way but the Southern Cross as well. And that’s because of the research I did for a recent blog post, Celestial Confinement, where I learned to use Alpha Centauri AB and the Southern Cross to find the South Celestial Pole.

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In January of last year, I spent a few days with my friend, who was minding a house here, at La Roche Percée. Located on the coast of Bourail which is about a two hour drive north of Noumea. It’s a very popular area with one of New Caledonia’s renowned landmark, Le Bonhomme. Plenty of accommodation, from camping to four star hotel, around the area. Lots to do as well.

It was turtle nesting season and I went out in hopes of seeing baby turtles. No such luck but since there was a fairly clear sky filled with stars, I decided to test my new camera setup (the Sony A7 III with the Tamron E 28-75mm ƒ/2.8 Di III RXD lens) and my hand at capturing the night sky. I admit, I could’ve taken my time to find a better foreground interest but, in my defence, I just wanted to see how well I could capture the stars with my setup.

I hadn’t planned this shot at all. It was a spur of the moment thing when I saw the Milky Way above me. So I set my tripod right where I was and took several exposures with different settings. I noticed the longest exposure I could take without creating star trails was 15 seconds with an ISO of 6400. A longer exposure would create oval shaped stars, especially in the corners, the beginning of star trails. This shot is a 10 second exposure with ISO at a whopping 12,800. Not necessary at all but I wanted to see the amount of noise I’d get with a long exposure. Very little noticeable noise in the sky though very noticeable in the foreground. For best results, a second, very long exposure would’ve been needed for a cleaner and brighter foreground.

I looked at a lot of tutorials on how to edit the Milky Way and it took me a long time and many trials before finding my own editing process and achieve something I was happy with. No fancy Photoshop edit, just some Lightroom brush work.

It was once the photo was ready for sharing that I recognised the two bright stars of Alpha Centauri AB at the bottom of the Milky Way, and the Southern Cross just above it. I was so stoked. This, of course, was thanks to research I did a few weeks ago for my blog post Celestial Confinement. I have to say, this photo means a lot more to me now.

I got a little too excited and provided the illustrated photo to the right for those who are not into astrology. I hope you find this fascinating though or, at least, interesting. Especially for you amateurs and enthusiasts out there, who are getting into this kind of photography. Taking beautiful photos is great but having knowleadge what you’re I think it gives more meaning to your photos. Let me know what you think over on Twitter at @Hervouet.

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Now please everyone, whether you’re still in auto-confinement or not, make sure you’re implementing the protective measures of washing hands, social distancing, no touching, coughing and sneezing in your elbow and when possible wear a mask and gloves. Stay safe.

SONY a7 III

A full-frame, mirrorless DSLR from the Sony Alpha series cameras.

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TAMRON STANDARD ZOOM LENS

Tamron E 28-75 mm ƒ/2.8 Di III RXD standard zoom lens for E-mount cameras.

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VANGUARD TRIPOD

Vanguard VEO 235AB 5 section tripod with TBH-50 ball head.

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L-BRACKET

L-bracket / plate for Sony Alpha series cameras.

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SANDISK EXTREME PRO

128GB Extreme Pro SDXC memory card from SanDisk.

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LETMY HEADLAMP

LED headlamp from Letmy with white and red light.

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Kuto, Isle of Pines

Though cyclone Uesi was north of New Caledonia, it’s effect on Isle of Pines was minimal with some grey clouds and occasional drizzle in the night. An image I was hoping to capture was the Milky Way over Adventure Island. I got one clear night out of the four we were there. This shot was taken on our last night in Isle of Pines.

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If you haven’t read my last post, my friend, her two kids and I spent four nights, five days in Isle of Pines at Atchu Camping. The campsite has kind of a private beach and that is where I took this photo from. I was pretty lucky to capture this image as it was our last night on the island. The first night I got up it was clear but clouds came rolling in at such speed, it was amazing to watch. It covered up very quickly and I couldn’t see the Milky Way to begin with. The second night was overcast and the third night it rained. I didn’t give up thought, as there was one more night.

I used the PhotoPills app to see where the Milky Way was going to appear. The app showed it above the horizon at 2:30 am, just over Adventure Island (the island to the left of the image). Unfortunately, with dawn only a couple of hours away and the sun rising from the same direction, it was too bright, not only me to see it but, for the camera to capture it, as well. This eight second exposure was taken at 2:40 am and as you can see, it looks almost day time. I did miscalculate one thing though, the angle at which the Milky Way would appear. I thought it was vertically above the island but in fact, it was at a 35º angle to the right. I should have studied the app thoroughly. Great app though and highly recommend it, PhotoPills.

My first exposures of the Milky Way were framed more to the right with Adventure Island in the middle of the image. Once I realised I wouldn’t capture the Milky Way, I reframed my shot to still include the kayak in the foreground but to add the branches as a natural frame to the stars. I tried different exposure times to see how long I could go before the stars started streaking. Eight seconds seemed to be perfect for this scene. Now I was only two meters from the kayaks which is why they’re out of focus. I should’ve taken another exposure with the focus on them and blended the two images to get sharpness throughout the image. I can’t tell you why I didn’t do it, I can’t only tell you I should have. Editing was fairly quick. Once I got the White Balance right, I pulled up the Shadows to see more of the kayaks and the land mass to the left. Then I added an Graduated Filter to the foreground with a bit of Whites to accentuate the highlight a little. Another Graduated Filter was added to the sky with Clarity and a little Dehaze, just to make those stars pop more. A couple of Radial Filters were added to lighten the water and the other as a vignette. Last bit of edit was with the Adjustment Brush to add Highlight and Whites to a few stars, just to make them shine a little more. Overall, I like the image even though it’s not the most eye catching.

There’s another photo though that I find much more interesting but that’s for a different post.

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SONY a7 III

full-frame mirrorless camera (body only)

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TAMRON E 28-75mm ƒ/2.8 Di III RXD

standard zoom, E-mount lens

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VANGUARD TRIPOD

VEO 235AB Tripod with TBH-50 Ball Head

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L-BRACKET

Quick Release Arca-Swiss L-plate for Sony Alpha Series Cameras

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SANDISK EXTREME PRO CARD

128GB SDXC memory card

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HEADLAMP

Letmy Headlamp with White and Red Light

Païta, New Caledonia

I’m back everyone and I’d like to apologies for the lack of content for the last few weeks. I was very sick with high fever and a lung infection. I couldn’t sleep and when I could it wasn’t good, the constant headaches prevented concentration and couldn’t look at a screen long enough without getting nauseous. I rarely get sick but this was the worst I’ve ever been sick in my life. It really knocked me out. All good now though so hopefully I’ll be able to get back to posting regularly.

This photo was taken from a good friend of mine’s home in Naïa. At the time, the house wasn’t quite finished yet. This was late February. We were there to checkout the advancement on the house and to celebrate another friend’s birthday. This is pretty much the view he has from his lounge room. Absolutely stunning during the day too.

I was still trying out astrophotography with my new camera and though I had a few drinks in me, I had the urge to get the camera out and shoot the night skies. I took two shot for this image. The first was of the stars and the second of the foreground which I illuminated with a small torch. I then used Photoshop to blend the skies of the first photo to the foreground of the second and edited the blended image in Lightroom. It took me quite a long time to get the edit to the point where I was happy with it. The skies is where I had the most trouble getting right. I looked up a few astrophotographers on Youtube to get an idea on how they edit their images and used some of their techniques here. Not the most interesting photo, I admit, but I’m pretty happy with the results.

A big thank you to Roro & Mumu for that weekend. Cheers guys.

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28 mm, 10 seconds @ ƒ/2.8, ISO 3200

Following on from my last post, I walked over to Poe Beach (Bourail, New Caledonia) and tried to capture stars above the seascape. In this scene I really wanted to avoid trailing stars and try to capture pin sharp ones and lots of them. To do that I needed a faster shutter speed than my last photo Poe Trail, that is an eight minutes exposure and bring that down to eight seconds or round about. Doing that meant I needed to bump up my ISO and I thought about opening up the aperture but I wasn’t sure I could get the foreground and the stars in focus if I did. So I left it at ƒ/11 but even now I’m not sure if that I a good idea or not. Unfortunately the higher ISO introduce too much noise, the faster shutter speed gave me a dark exposure and a slower one, star trails.

So this photo is the best (of the worst) that I was able to capture. Again, a super long exposure of eight minutes and yes, star trails too. I light painted the foreground though in this photo. The image was a little flat and I wanted to give it a little more depth and hope it would balance the foreground with the billions of stars in the sky… yeah, that didn’t quite happen. I think the slow passing clouds prevented the capture of all those beautiful stars I could see. I like the light painting though. Not too much, not too little. It seems natural, no?!

Well, though I had a lot of fun trying to capture the night sky, there was tomorrow’s sunrise to photograph so back to the tent I went.

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480 sec (8 mins) @ ƒ/11, 18 mm, ISO 100

So from where the photo was taken on my last post, this view would be about thirty-five/forty metres behind me. From this photo, the Camping de Némo is on the left, Poé Beach on the right and I’m standing in the middle of the road that runs through the Camping de Poé along the beach.

I wanted to use this road as a leading line to a night sky with billions of stars and use the full moon to illuminate the foreground but this was the best I could do. I experimented with different settings but all the images were either too noisy or too dark and all had a lot of speckles. As with this one and another similar photo that I will share on my next post. My entry level camera isn’t very good in low light and I haven’t got any experience in this genre either. But I had lots of fun and will definitely give it another go.

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480 sec (8 mins) @ ƒ/11, 18 mm, ISO 100