Date Taken: 05/13/2016
Location: Mt. Mitchell State Park Entrance (near Milepost 355)
Camera: Nikon D750
Lens: Nikon 14-24 mm f2.8 zoom
Focal Length: 14mm
ISO: 1600
Shutter: 30 seconds
Aperture: f5.6
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: While shooting the Milky Way from Ridge Junction Overlook, I decided to play around with a bit of light painting. I set the camera up on tripod with a remote cable release, and during the 30 second exposure I hit the Mt. Mitchell park sign with about 5-10 seconds of light from a small headband mountain light that I use for trail running and in red mode for photographing at night.
It took quite a few tries to get the light to cover the sign but not too much in the grass below or on the trees beyond.
This frame had the light in the right places, but was a bit dark so I boosted the exposure by +1.00 and then altered the whites and blacks in order to bring out the lettering. Some other tweaks were made as well.
30 seconds is a bit too long, especially on a windy night so the result isn’t as sharp as I would have liked, but the color balance is nice.
The brightest “star” to the right of the Milky Way is Mars.
For More Information
- Additional photographs by Kevin Dobo
- Categories where this photo is found: Night Photography