Astrophotography at Bow Fiddle Rock - Scotland's World Famous Sea Stack✨
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- Join me as I meet up with Andrew from Scotlands Nightsky for an evening of astrophotography at Bow Fiddle Rock.
Andrew's Channel: / @scotlandsnightsky
Photography Mentorship Programme ➡️ bit.ly/3aV0cep
Keep in touch on social media 📱
INSTAGRAM: / visualisingscotland
FACEBOOK: / visualisingscotland
Website 🖥️ : www.visualisin...
#astrophotography #scotland #nightsky
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Fabulous photos and especially the ones of you with the night sky.
Its fantastic seeing your excitement and enthusiasm. I love astrophotograpy and you have encouraged me to get sone more landscape type shots thank you
Great video Kim thank you for sharing it night sky photography is something I'd like to start doing for a few years. The photo of you with the stars in the background was a cool image
Great vlog, you are right about us not getting out at night and looking up. Something to rectify this year. Andy
Wow Kim this is wonderful! Also, the images Andrew took of you against the night sky are gorgeous.
Thank you Wendy. His shots were amazing indeed!
This is what we like to see 😄🌌
Thanks Alyn! I am very excited to learn more about astro. Your channel is ace - now I have the astro bug again, I'll be watching it more to get ideas 😃
I too have learned some valuable advice from your channel. I especially watched your ISO invariance episode several times till the penny dropped.
I have a micro four thirds Panasonic GH5 and it produces shocking hot pixels when I turn NR off.
What post production tips can you give to kill hot pixels with such a small sensor?
@@kimgrantphotography hopefully I can join you guys in Scotland one day soon! Some aurora would be nice 😁
@@frankinblackpool thanks Frank! You can open the image in Photoshop and go to Filter - Noise - Dust and Scratches. Set radius to either 1 or 2 (whatever works) and increase threshold from 0 to recover some detail but not so much that the hot pixels return
@@AlynWallace Thank you for that advice. It was very kind of you to reply. Unfortunately I don't have Photoshop, however I will try my best to see if GIMP can do something similar.
I'm still using the old version 5 of Lightroom. And my Photoshop CS no longer works on Windows 10. 🤣
enjoyed this video Kim , and great images as well ,take care and stay safe
Thank you Mick
Thank you. 👍📷😎
It was encouraging to once again see your humility and learner's spirit demonstrated. Thanks!
Thank you Gary
Thank you learnt a lot. Love the first photo of you, awesome.
Glad you enjoyed it Lisa
Love the photo of you at the end.
Great video Kim, definitely going out at night. Thanks.
Thank you Neil. Enjoy 😊
Nice location, great you are learning new stuff.
Love that gray LED hat - A big improvement over my nerdy head lamps...🦘
It's very handy Roy but not very powerful. I will be investing in a nerdy high powered LED sometime soon I'm afraid
Great videos and lovely difference images from that location
Thank you Stuart. Nice to capture it at a different time of day
Great piece, it was really interesting
Stellar!
Did I see a couple of shooting stars, lovely vide thanks
Great video Kim. I've followed Andrew for a while. Good to see you two getting together under the stars in Scotland. Take care. Richard
Very interesting and also challenging ...
Perhaps in the future we will see more of the "astro" from you ....
You certainly will Libor. Thank you
Another brilliant video. I’m trying to learn more about Astro too. Great photos
Thank you. Hope your astro learning is going well 😊
Thanks for sharing your knowledge, your experiences, and your enthusiasm!
And thank you for watching Darren :)
Welcome to the wonderful world of astrophotography! It IS quite amazing and beautiful.
Thank you. I'm excited to take things further
Thank you Kim for this interesting video and the great pictures. Hope to see scotland and Bow Fiddle Rock this summer. Greetings from germany and hope to see more fantastic videos of yours soon
Thank you Thomas. I hope things relax a bit and you make it over for then
I don't know if anybody has mentioned this, but I think this was a very smart, kind and gracious collaboration between you another UA-camr, considering they have a modest subscription count compared to your successful and established channel. I'm sure you both gained new knowledge from the adventure.
I more than happily subscribed to Andrew's channel.
Thank you Frank however I don't look at people's numbers. Andrew is very knowledgeable in his astro and a lovely guy. He helped me learn a lot and it was great to shoot with him. Really glad to hear you've subscribed to his channel. I hope you enjoy his videos. I'm sure there will be more from us both in the future 😊
@@kimgrantphotography Good evening Kim, I look forward to more colabs. You both bring a wealth of skill and knowledge, and complement each other's style of landscape photography. 😀
The haziness is caused by humidity tiny spots of water that float in the atmosphere and act like tiny prisms and reflect and block the light of the stars. Frosty nights give very clear skies once the dew is down and the ground and freezes. I live in Perth Western Australia we have the westerly trade winds from the Indian Ocean which can on occasion in summer be warm and very dry air works like frosty weather but is much more pleasant to be out in. Plus you have the beautiful Southern starry Sky none light polluted and thousands of miles of coastline to visit. Nikon and Canon can make use of an app called DSLR Controller which enables you to connect a tablet on a separate tripod and control the camera and store photos on the SD card and the memory on the tablet. No camera shake as every process is controlled from the tablet except fine manual focus which is easy to do with a tablet as it is easy to increase magnification on the camera settings and extend magnification more using your fingers on the screen.
At present, it doesn't work on mirrorless cameras. But that may change in the near future. The 14mm f2.8 Samyang lens is known for its cheap price and Astro quality, A manual lens just what you need for astrophotography.
I prefer the Canon Camera for its colour science as many of our members in our astronomy club use canon, choice of the camera used is a personal issue and it depends on how many lenses you have that fit your camera of choice. Change can be very expensive.
Wel done, Kim
That was different Kim, Interesting too. A great set of images. Hope you get your lens and continue your night photography.
Thank you Ian. Glad you found it interesting 😊
I don't know what your level of photography is whether you're a professional or a highly skilled hobbyist. Your shots were very good for your first time. I don't recall if you use luminosity masks in your editing but they really work well when blending the foreground with the background. If you want clean images with less noise you can take multiple images and use Sequator (PC) or starry landscape stacker (Mac). I take between 10 and 15 images at ISO 6400 for 10 seconds to keep them spaced close together for stacking. It lowers the noise by half so it doesn't look like it's at ISO 6400. Milky way season is coming up. I look forward to see what you get. By the way, I use a 20mm f/1.8 on my z6 II. I shot at f/2.8 though because the image quality is slightly better than at f/1.8.
Hi Kim, try the samyang 12 mm f2
Cheap and Sharp for your Astro photography.
Agreed! The same lens is sold in some markets under the Rokinon brand -- very inexpensive, but has delivered great results on my Milky Way shots.
Hi Kim, down these parts we have the Southern Cross to feast on. It’s circumpolar but in the mornings it’s lower in the sky. I am now using a Nikon 35mm F 1.8.
Sounds ace Mike. That lens is great for astro. I used my 50mm 1.8 for video last night and it was way better. Need to invest in the 20mm 1.8 in the future
You will have to give Nikon a quick email. The new Z9 has dedicated astro modes and has the option to boost the iso and lower shutter speed so you can see more and line up your image. I tend to use my Tamron 35mm 1.4 on my Z6 for astro and the IRIX2.4 15mm.
Another filter that can be helpful is one that reduces light pollution.
💜👍💜👍 .wow ,....great video always nice to learn something new.👍👍👍👍👍
Thank you Duncan. Hope to do more soon
@@kimgrantphotography I have taken some nice photos on holiday at stonehaven sunrise and sun set ...but I aim and shoot I not know much about my settings😀 I am learning from your videos .I don't have a fancy camera ....its a bridge camera Kodak 52 x zoom ...I now want to learn my settings I have a week off ..I have photo shop but I don't know how to use it....so I should try to learn👍👍
We call that constellation “The Big Dipper” here in the US. Great shots!
Thank you :)
You should get a 1. something. Night photos are so much fun. It's spooky and challenging. It can be like a secret mission in the dark.
Yes. I headed out with my 50mm prime 1.8 lens last night and it made video much better. Will need to get the 20mm 1.8 sometime
a very nice video
Great video. You referred to it as the great plow? Big Dipper? As others have said, Astro photography is something I'd love to get into. Thanks for a great intro.
Yes it's the same thing. Not sure why different places have different names for it. Hope you are able to give astro a shot soon 🤞🏻
Great video as usual Kim.
This is something that i have not tried yet but keep meaning to try.
You got some really nice images considering it was your first time trying it.
Thank you Tim. Hope you are able to try Astro for yourself soon.
Superb.
I too have tried astrophotography at Bow Fiddle but I've never heard of that filter so thanks for educating me,
I'm off to purchase one.
Now, if only I could afford an f1.8 lens
Hope you enjoy the filter John. Fingers crossed you get the lens in the future
"I'm off to purchase one."
I hope you did some research into them. I just put a Kenko Starry Skies filter on my Amazon list and this morning on a whim looked up reviews. One I found did a series of shots with different brand filters in different places (sponsored by B&H Photo) and the Kenko I'd chosen because it was a known brand name was absolutely horrendous in each comparison. So I hope you've chosen well and haven't made the mistake I almost made.
If you want to see something in a warmer months. Try June and July on a moonless night. Look for the noctilucent clouds. These are phenomenon that is amazing to see and also capture on the camera. I refer to them as the native people of North America as the river of souls. I make timelapse of it over an hour. The movement is very beautiful and mesmerizing.
When I lived in Scotland I do remember driving home from burghhead one night and seeing them. But I was based in aviemore and a short drive away from town I could see them well.
I've seen then a few times Simon. Amazing phenomenon! Never captured then though. Hopefully one day 🤞🏻
As always, awesome stuff Kim! I love to do astrophotography when I get a chance. I also love to do long exposure landscape photography. One can capture some really awesome night images with long exposure and a ambient light source. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and images with us!
Thank you Jon. Both are great to enjoy. I'll be doing a video on long exposures soon.
@@kimgrantphotography I think that most all photography is enjoyable when you get to be creative. Looking forward to the long exposure video. I know that it will be interesting.
Great video Kim, those images of you by Andrew smashing. Really interesting subject, what time was you shooting, look cold. Thanks for sharing this with us. Also, nice to see you back on a Sunday.
We were shooting between 6.30 - 9pm. Thanks Roy. It was minus 1 on location on Friday.
Great video. I have been dabbling in Astro. We are fortunately to be near a Dark Sky location, and I came to a realization that I need a brighter lens. One alternative is a manual focus third party Z lens (Like a viltrox), or adapted F Mount lens. Autofocus usually gets in the way in astro anyway. Postprocessing is also very different than what you are used to. Enjoy!
been looking at a move shot move for this, rather than getting more expensive glass. I Have a tokina 11-16mm F2.8 from my old crop sensor camera which on my full frame is a 16mm prime.
works well for the limited astro I have tried.
I keep meaning to try astro but I'm not sure how well my teeny Micro 4/3 sensor will cope. But I do have an f1.4 wide-ish lens so it might be worth a go. I was camping in the Cairngorms in October and went out of the tent around 3am and the night sky was just awesome. But I only had a 1inch sensor compact with me and no tripod so no chance of capturing anything. Great to see Bow Fiddle in a new light (literally) and I loved the shot with the rock and plough together. Great content.
Alan - I shoot all my astro with my Olympus (E-M1 Mk III) and Leica f/2.8 8-18 mm. Either stack your images or invest in a cheap tracker like the MSM (about £250 I think). M43 is up to it, but there are a few challenges that can be overcome. Let me know if you want more info.
@@MikePageKaltenberg That's encouraging. I wouldn't shoot astro often enough to justify £250 on a tracker, but am thinking of the Laowa 7.5mm f2. It's manual but should be bright enough. And I do have my 30mm f1.4 Sigma... Can you elaborate on the stacking technique? How do you blend them? A UA-cam reference will suffice if you know a good one.
Sony 20mm f1.8 does the trick.
Wow, the shots near the end with you and the sky are amazing. Hopefully you can get a lens to do more on your own.
Me too - glad you liked Andrew's shots
I'd suggest you go with a different lens before you get the filter. Ideally, you'd want the filter to fit on your bright (f1.2/f1.4/f1.8) lens. If you buy it for your current f2.8 lens and get a newer, brighter lens with a different filter size, you'll end up buying the filter again (unless you already know which lens you're getting and know that the filter sizes are the same. In that case, ignore everything I've said). Also, for your bright lens, I'd suggest going with one where you can set it to infinity. Makes things just a bit easier since you aren't using AF to focus. Everything's manual at that point, so having that infinity focus marker makes it a little easier to get in the right ballpark when focusing. With your new upcoming lens, I don't think you have to spend a fortune. Get a cheap 35mm~50mm f1.8 (cheap regardless of the maker, I think: Sony, Nikon, Canon, etc.; should be ~$100 but could be more depending on where you live) and that will give you something you can practice on quickly without having to wait a long time while saving up to buy an optically bright wide-angle lens (I paid $2400 for my Nikon 24mm f1.4).
One thing you might want to try is to either tape a red gel over your light(s) or get a red light. Or a dimmer light. Going from bright white light (setting up, checking settings, etc.) and then back to pitch black, it can take a moment to get readjusted.
Also, a foldable camping chair can come in handy if you end up doing starlapses.
Good luck out there!
/Edit: I see further down in the comments you've got a 50mm f1.8, so go ahead and disregard what I said above. But hopefully it can be useful for others in the comment section who are just starting out.
I remember going out on a summer night to a park on the site of an old dam taking photos of the Milky Way. It was an awesome night just being out, seeing the stars.
And then, walking to a different area of the park, looking north and seeing the Northern Lights.
Quite a special night.
Sounds amazing Mike. Great to get so much in one night!
@@kimgrantphotography It did end up with our group being stopped by the police on the way home because they wanted to know why we were out so late. 🤣
Hi Kim I am delighted to see astrophotography on your channel as I am like you and would like to do a bit more on the subject this has give me a push to look into it. Thank you.
Glad you like the subject Andrew. All the best with your own astro ventures
Looks like you had a great time. Will be even better during Milky Way season.
Yes! Roll on the spring
When I got the Astro photography bug I leveled up with a full frame camera and started dropping money on lenses. Then I found that a star tracker, at $400 U.S dollars, was way cheaper. Now I use the tracker most of the time and take many of my images at f4. Of course it does help images quality to have a f2.8 lenses so that at f4 you are not right at the limit of the lens. A f2.8 lens with star tracker is best increase for the money. Or at least that is what I feel.
Great video.
You could also consider an Astro tracker.
Thanks for the suggestion. If I get more into this genre I may get one
Wonderful vlog I too have got into astro and now moving to deep space. I have to say the sigma 35mm art lens F1.4 is a stunning lens for astro it's always on my Z6 for astro. Or for wider the sigma 24mm art . Be warned its addictive I've now got a star tracker. Those selfie images were beautiful ease can I ask what filter it was that you had a go off? Was it the Alyn Wallace kase starglow one? I've been looking at that one but rarely in stock . Look forward to seeing more .
Thank you Tanya. Yes that's the filter he gave me a go of. It was great. Hopefully you can get it in stock soon 🤞🏻Thanks for the lens recommendations. I may need to get a star tracker in the future
Definitely a learning experience, Kim. The constellation you're calling The Plow (or is it The Plough?) is known as The Big Dipper here in North America. In some regions of North America, it has been called The Drinking Gourd. Astro photography is orders of magnitude more worthwhile in my opinion than ICM photography.
Welcome to the Dark Side of the Force!! :) :P Now, you're on the slippery slope of astrophotography and will never escape its grasp :) But, it's a passion you will love and hold dear. Plus, you'll get to meet some really interesting people from all walks of life that love the stars. As for equipment, the sky's the limit and with lenses you can use everything from ultrawide to telephoto. However, to start off, a good wide lens, a fast nifty 50 and a medium telephoto will give you what you need to get good astropics. I'm sure some of the posters here have given you some good tips. Another good thing to have is a tracking mount. That'll allow you to track the stars and take long exposures of the sky. You can then take multiple long exposures and stack them together to get really spectacular photos. One day, you may want to invest in a good, small, widefield refractor telescope to take pics with. Anything around the 50-80mm mark in size will be great for that and there are many good models on the market to choose from.
Don't know whether you've had the chance to look up about airglow but if you want to know about what it is, it's the excitation of upper atmosphere oxygen molecules and atoms by UV radiation from sunlight. It's a similar phenomenon to the aurora but the mechanism behind it is different, in part, and it occurs at much lower energy levels. The red and green glow that you may see on the back of your camera and/or in your pics is due to the UV exciting the electrons of the atoms to different energies and then having those electrons fall back down to their base energy level and emit light that's either red or green. It can look pretty spectacular sometimes, when you see these red and green stripes across the sky. Which sometimes appear to move as the currents generated in the upper atmosphere by the sunlight move the atoms about.
Well, this was one video I really enjoyed watching :) I hope you make more of them in the future, along with all your other vids.
So, what is this special filter you was talking about? The subject was very interesting! The pictures that both of you took were fascinating! This could be a chapter in your next book. By the way, I enjoy looking at your January image on your 2022 calendar. Again nice work!
Thank you James. The filter is called starglow. It made a big difference to the brightest stars
"So, what is this special filter you was talking about?"
Do a search for "astrophotography filters". There are many different kinds and some are very specific for shooting certain objects in the sky (different light wavelengths, etc.). Also, costs vary between manufacturers as well. Best to find the one that fits what you're wanting to shoot.
Kim
Astrophotography I was blown away the first time I photographed the Milky Way with my Rokinon 14mm2.8 lens such a great lens for the night sky
Astro certainly a amazing! I am looking forward to capturing the milky way in the future.
Hi Kim those pictures you took was stunning if I could just get one shot like that I would be the happiest person on the planet you mentioned opportunities to go out with photographers do you take people out with you or would you let me tag along with you one time to learn a little more
What a great night out. You need a much better lens haha 😄
So any details on the equipment your friend was using ie. What camera what lens ? Just something’s bout the lovely night time calm and sky
Those Illuminated profiles are your Poster shots ! Very Harry Potterish.
I love them! Andrew did a great job
Very jealous. Almost made it there once but slept in and missed the sunrise. Here's a tip for using night images in videos. I've found that when placing high ISO night images into a video it appears that noise reduction gets ignored and my images look way noisier than they did in Photoshop. I got round this by using the pretty powerful built-in noise reduction in Da Vinci Resolve which you can subtly apply to stills in the timeline and it really cleans them up for the video.
Thanks for this Gavin. I'll need to download it and give it a try. This has always annoyed me and I couldn't work out why I does this. They look fine everywhere else! If you make it back to Scotland and want to shoot Bow Fiddle, give me a shout. Would happily join you for a shoot 😊
@@kimgrantphotography you betcha.
Hi Kim be very careful!! Astrophotography is very addictive and can be expensive (but then isn't most photography 🤔 😁) I believe the Sigma Art lenses are very good for Astro but are expensive. I would highly recommend the Samyang manual focus lenses as a cheaper alternative. I use the 12mm f2 and it is a stunning lens especially for capturing the Milky Way. Looking forward to seeing you progress with shooting astro
Thanks Paul. Can't be very addictive indeed. I was out again last night 😅 thank you for the recommendations
@@kimgrantphotography I've also subscribed to Andrew's channel he gets some amazing images. I noticed he uses a Samyang lens
Hi Kim we stayed in a lodge in invergordan in the forest I opened the curtains and Orion's belt was bang in the centre Framed by the window I got out on to the balcony set up my camera on the tripod around midnight the sky was totally clear and it was so dark quite spooky but a great time I had stayed out untill after 2 am I hope you do more astrophotography I'm sure it's another genre you will master as always a lovely video simply a joy to watch and learn from many thanks kim
Thank you very much Brain and for sharing your Orion experience. It is a great thing to shoot. I certainly do plan to do more in the near future.
I do enjoy my ancient 50/1.4 when the light gets dim, but my huge rookie mistake was when I went out with my 600mm/6.3 to shoot the blood moon this past fall. Kind of spaced off that 500 second rule so if you are interested in "blur moon" photos I've got a few of those. ;-D
You live and learn 😅
Kim, Sigma, Rokinon / Samyang make some really good 14mm and 24mm F1.4, 1.8, 2, 2.4 lenses. I myself have my eye on the Sigma 14mm F1.8 EF and Sigma 24mm F1.4 EF lens for my Canon EOS R. You should also look into a star tracker to counter the earth's rotation so that you can do longer exposures to again capture more light and keep your ISO around 800-1600. I have Sykwatcher Star Adventurer kit but iOptron is also really good. I have "natural night" or "astro" filters to remove the mercury vapour, sodium and LED light pollution wavelengths. You should be able to get NISI or other manufacturers make filters for almost all lens sizes. I have them for 77, 82 and 95mm filter thread sizes.
Thank you very much for all the tips and recommendations. Will see what the future holds but I am certain I will try some of these out as I learn more about the genre.
Very interesting and informative! Can you share info on focal length and specifics on the filter he was using. Also length of exposure? Thanks!
Focal length was 24mm on a full frame camera. Shots were between 10 - 20seconds. His filter is called starglow
U should try star stacking
On the list ✔️
They look soo cool but the hours of shooting are a bit of a pain. Top tip if u do try shoot in jpeg as it makes it easer for ur computer to process the images
They look soo cool but the hours of shooting are a bit of a pain. Top tip if u do try shoot in jpeg as it makes it easer for ur computer to process the images
hi kim here s a channel for you to learn about astro its called Nightscape images youll learn loads from this guy
Thanks for the recommendation Phill
AWESOME! Are you hooked into Astrophotography now? Which filter? I have a Nisi filter that claims to reduce night pollution. Is that the one?
I am yes! No it's the star enhancing filter called star glow. I've just received Nisis one along with their light pollution one
Whats the name of the filter? How do you not mention it or have a link for it :(.
I'm waiting to get my own so I can make a whole video about it. It's the star glow filter. A few filter brands make them
Good morning, Kim Grant enjoyed your video very much beautiful images of you and your camera ...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It just so happens that I too, for the first time ever, was out shooting Star Trails on 5th January near my home town. The evening started with a fab display of seeing Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and the moon all dipping below the horizon just after sunset.
At around midnight I took 250 shots for my Star Trail. I have a micro four thirds camera and had to work with its limitations by turning on noise reduction. I can just hear the astro photographers screaming at this comment right now.
Once I've deleted all the satellites, aircraft and stacked the image would I be allows to share it with you?
This sounds amazing Frank. Please feel free to share your final image with me via email :) I'd love to see it
@@kimgrantphotography That is very kind.
You have mail 😀