Among The Hoodoos By Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook This Was Taken In The Badlands

Cyclops Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Panorama of 11 vertical images Nikon 810A, 14-24mm lens, 16 mm, f 2.8, 25 sec, ISO 10,000, This is a panorama of Cyclops Arch in the Alabama Hills of California. I had been there in August before, and the Milky Way was better centered over the arch. This trip was in June, and it was harder than I expected to get the core centered over the arch. So we "resorted" to placing the stone arch under the arch of the MW. It worked out better than expected. There is a small light panel under the arch with the light damped down very low. There is another light panel off to my left. For a tutorial on this kind of lighting (LLL) see lowlevellighting.org. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne

The Rubber Duckie of the Badlands (Bad Duckie!) by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: I posted this on 500px as the the Bisti Sphinx, but remarked that it looked more like a Rubber Duckie. Well everyone who bothered to remark liked Rubber Duckie better, so it is now the Badlands Duckie. There was one vote for Napoleon's Hat! It is about 10-12 feet, 3-4 meters high, and sits up on its own pedestal on top os a small ridge. The elevation gives a wonderful view of the badlands in the distance. It may have another name, but I could not find one. The hoodoo in the distance on the lower right is called the Ostrich Hoodoo, which may help for the location. This is a panorama of 15 vertical images, all single exposures, taken with a 14-24 mm lens at 18mm, f3.2, 20 sec, and ISO 6400 and stitched together in Lightroom. Sky and foreground were taken at the same time. Foreground was illuminated with a single dimmable LED light panel with a warming filter, set to low and left on. I've been away from Flickr for a while due to being out in the field photographing quite a bit. I hope to have some good photos to share in the future. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Canyon Country by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Canyon Country. This is the view from Muley Point atop Cedar Mesa in southern Utan. It is near the top of the Moki (Mokey) Dungway, a spectacular dirt road that drops 1,200 feet or 400 meters from the top of Cedar Mesa down into the valley below. The views are spectacular, looking from southern Utah all the way to Arizona and Monument Valley. This is canyon country, atop the vast Colorado Plateau, occupying parts of Utah,Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. The plateau is around 5,000 - 6,000 feet or 2,000 meters high, with innumerable deep canyons and gulches. You mostly travel on top of the plateau or mesas, and descend into the canyons. It is like an endless wonderland to explore. I love the night photos taken on mountain tops, but this is a bit different. You are atop the mesas looking down, but you are looking down into deep dark canyons. There is not much light down there!!! Hopefully I have captured some of the beauty. This is a composite image consisting of a 15 sec., ISO 6400 image for the sky, and a 5 minute ISO 1600 images of the foreground, taken back to back. Both taken at 24 mm, f/2.0 with a Rokinon 24 mm f/1.4 lens. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family for all the support and encouragement! Cheers, Wayne Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Questions and Answers

How to manage noise in night photography

Question: I've looked as many of your nightscape photos as I could and it seems that all of them are so noise free. Like you, I use a Canon 6D or the  but I always seem to get that magenta colored noise in the foreground when I shoot at 25-30 seconds. That's why I do composites for most of my nightscapes. I see that you are using a Nikon 14-24 mm lens. Is that your secret weapon? Or do you some other secret?

Answer: I use the Canon 6D or the Nikon 810A cameras. The magenta color comes from lightening the underexposed dark areas.It is a little worse on the Canon as compared to the Nikon, but can occur with any camera. There is no secret weapon unless it is the cameras themselves. Both do incredibly well at hight ISO. The key is to pay attention to detail at every strep of the process. Remember that anything you do early in the processing can snowball and make noise worse at each subsequent step in the processing. Remember also that contrast and sharpening can make noise worse so you want to minimize or simply eliminate any sharpening and contrast increase EARLY in the processing. Also remember that the sky and foreground have to be treated separately. The sky is a very high contrast subject (light stars and dark sky), and the foreground is an extremely flat or low contrast subject. Also remember that the appearance of sharpness is created by 2 things, resolution and contrast. Since the sky is hight contrast you do not need to do much sharpening. You will only increase the appearance of noise there. The foreground in low contrast and may need sharpening. 

This is what I do (1) Image acquisition - try to shoot to the right (of the histogram). There is a lot more info in the pixels to the right side of the histogram, and less on the far left dark side. A lot of respected Astrophotographers are going to ISO 12,800. The D6 or 810A can handle this ISO. When you push the histogram to the right then you are moving the dark pixels more to towards the middle of the histogram, and there is a lot more info in the pixels. The thought is that the same photo taken at ISO 12,800 has more info in the pixels that the same photo taken at 6400, or 3200. You can deal with the noise in Lightroom of Adobe RAW. 

(2) Open the image in Lightroom or Adobe RAW. Always acquire RAW images when shooting. I use the temp and tint sliders to make the darkest part of the sky as neutral as possible (grey). If I cannot make it neutral then I err to the slightly blue side. Concentrate on the upper and darkest sky, not near the horizon. Do not make the sky too blue at this early step. Use the lens profile correction function. The vignetting will pop up at 100%. Reduce it to about 50-60% or so. Too much vignetting removal will bring out that magenta color in the lower corners. DO NOT use Clarity at this time. DO NOT do any real sharpening at this level. Leave the shahrpening at the default of 25%, and increase the mask to 75%. DO NOT do any contrast adjustments at this level. If you do it will only get worse later. I use a Luminance Noise factor of about 50 for the 6D, and detail of 50%. There is not a lot of Color Noise in the 6D files, and I use a Color Noise Factor of 17-20, and set the Smoothness to 100%. Use the Shadow Slider to lighten up the dark areas to your personal taste. Again, DO NOT use the Clarity Slider.  The image will look very flat. Click Edit or Export to Photoshop or click the "Open Image" in Adobe RAW. 

(3) Select or Mask the Sky or Foreground to separate them in Photoshop, by whatever means you want. You need to treat them differently. I place the sky and foreground in separate layers and process then separately. For the Foreground/Ground Selection: I May use the Shadows/Highlights Function the lighten up the dark areas using a setting of 3 to 5 (very low). Then increase the contrast a Little, by using the Curves function and place a Minimal"S" shaped curve on the foreground.  Alternatively you could open the Levels function and move the shadows slider to the right.  I may use the Topaz Denoise plugin to further decrease noise in the foreground. It may make the foreground soft. I then do some limited sharpening. Remember, sharpening increases the appearance of the noise, so I go about it differently, and use the Unsharp Mask or Smart Sharpening to INCREASE LOCAL CONTRAST. This is a lot like the Clarity function. Do this only after you have done any color correction on the foreground, and you are happy with the foreground otherwise. It is the opposite of normal sharpening. Use use an amount of 10-20 and a radius of 40-60. I usually use 15 and 60. It increases local contrast and the Perception of sharpness without increasing the perception of noise. If there is magenta in the corners I select that area and go to Hue/Saturation function, choose Magenta, and decrease saturation. Alternatively you can select the magenta area and go to the Color Balance function and add green, or a third way to get rid of the magenta is to paint or brush over it with green. You will not need to do that much usually. 

(4) For the sky, I first use the Levels Command and take the Shadows slider and move it to the right, making the darks darker. This does not do much to the lighter shades. I AVOID the Curves function as much as possible. You do not really need it, and adjusting “Curves” changes the colors, making them much more saturated, and they get out of hand very quickly. You can adjust Contrast with the Levels Command and the Contrast Command, and it is MUCH easier to keep the colors and noise under control. Curves can also make the noise look worse, I may increase the vibrance about 10 or so. It helps to darken the sky without increasing the Contrast so much. I then go to the Color Balance Command, and increase Blue slightly. It does not take much. I then go back to the Levels or Contrast Command and adjust the Milky Way and Sky to the brightness or darkness I desire. I may use a little Dodging or Burning. I Do Not sharpen the sky. I prefer the sky to look a little softer rather than crunchy or crispy. Remember the sky is already a high contrast subject, so you do not really need to sharpen it to have the perception of sharpness. Remember,  perceived sharpness is a function of contrast and resolution, you already have one component of sharpness (hight contrast) in abundance. 

So managing noise requires you to be diligent throughout the process, from acquisition to the end of processing. The most important thing is to not make noise worse in the processing.

Cheers, Wayne

Racing the Clouds by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is an image of Cyclops Arch in the Alabama Hills of California (eastern part of Ca. adjacent to the Sierra Nevada Mtns.). I arrived and got a couple of unlighted shots, and this one decent lighted shot before clouds rolled in and obscured the beautiful sky. There is a thick layer of clouds just above the frame, but I was able to salvage this one shot. I ended coming back the next night. One good thing is that cloudy skies = a good nights sleep! This is a single exposure. Canon 6D camera, Nikon 14-24 mm lens, f 2.8, 30 sec., ISO 6400. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Questions and Answers

How to book lodging if you are chasing clear skies

Question: I just assumed it was kinda off season early June but I get the impression now that it actually gets quieter in July and August due to the heat. I'm reluctant to book in advance ... I need to follow the clear skies. Have you had any serious issues finding accommodations at last minute in say early June?

Answer:  In June it can be a problem at the last minute. The answer is somewhat round-about. I think June is the worst month overall to get lodging, with May next worse. July and August are a little better. I'll tell you what I do, but please keep in mind that I stay in cheap motels. I am not there much at night, and only come back around 5 to 7 a.m, sleep till maybe 1 p.m, and then go out to scout new location, or drive to new places, them try to be at the spot around sunset. Anyway, I do not spend much time in the motel, so I just get the cheapest one that has OK reviews (hopefully no bed bugs!!!).

So.... I usually get on a booking website. I usually use Orbitz, just out of habit. I book a motel where I think I want to be. Sometimes you have to pay up front, sometimes you don't. They have cancellation clauses usually. Occasionally they have a "no cancellation", or "no refund" policy", and I do not book them. Read the fine print while booking. They typically have a policy that you can cancel by 4 pm, the day before or 48 hrs before. I keep an eye on the weather, and if the outlook is cloudy, I will try to book in a clearer locale if possible, and then cancel to one i made in the cloudy place. Orbitz has been good about refunding money into my account as long as you follow the motel rules. This way I am not left out of a place to sleep. I usually do not cancel until I have an alternative. So far, so good.

So far I have had no problems with this method. Moab could be a problem in the high season. Still, there are usually some cancellations, and if you call around enough you can find a room. There may be less choice at the last minute. The smallest towns like Escalante, or maybe Kanab, can be the biggest problems because there are just not many motel rooms to start with, so there is less opportunity. Here is the worst scenario, one that I have seen: When it is actually raining, campers flood into town looking for a room, especially families with young kids. I suspect sitting in a tent all day with very young kids is not easy! Anyway, if it's raining rooms disappear fast. It does not rain much, but I have found that when there is continuous rain all day, then the whole region was clouded over, and there is nowhere to go, and I just sit it out.

I have never had a problem in Northern New Mexico, around Farmington and the NM Badlands. There seem to be plenty of rooms there. Just be careful of the very small towns. Hope this helps! One more point, if you are going to cancel, don't forget to cancel in time to get your refund. I learned this the hard way. Anyway, this can give you flexibility to move around if necessary. 

Good luck, Wayne     2016

Winged Hoodoo in the Bisti Badlands by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Winged Hoodoo in the Bisti Badlands, New Mexico. There is a marvelous variety of hoodoos in the badlands. Over millennia sedimentary rocks of different hardness were laid down, and the softer lower layers erode faster than the harder upper layers, resulting in unusual shapes. I accidentally left a light on in the back canyon, and did not realize it until the photo came up on the display, but I think it added to the appearance. This is a single exposure. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

The Alien Throne with Comet 252P/Linear by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: No Aliens, just the Alien Throne. The unique Hoodoo is in the New Mexico Badlands, north of Chaco Canyon. I have been fascinated by the appearance since I first saw it's photo, and finally got to photograph it at night. The atmosphere is surreal. I love the melted wax appearance of the rocks in the region. 14-24 mm lens at 24 mm, 20 sec., f/2.8, ISO 6400. The small blue-green fuzzy object just above the right side of the large hoodoo is the comet 252P/LINEAR. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Boot Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Boot Arch in the Alabama Hills of California. Nikon D810A Camera, 14-24 mm lens, 24 mm, f 2.8, 30 sec., ISO 10,000. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL). For more info about this technique please see www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne

Emerging into the Light by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Surprises are always nice.This was taken in Monument Valley, just outside the park. My guide was Quanah Parker from Majestic Monument Valley tours. He had taken me to a small but excellent Ancient Puebloan-Anasazi Ruins near the valley located in a small canyon. As we crawled out (literally) of the alcove into the small canyon this was our view. The Milky Way lined up perfectly along the roof of the canyon. Beautiful and unplanned. Shot with a 12 mm Rokinon fisheye lens looking up. f 2.8, 30 sec. ISO 10,000. It has been difficult to find guides to go into Monument Valley at night. Now there is a guide and night photographer that is interested in taking photographers into the park to do night photography. If you are interested contact Majestic Monument Valley tours at 435-727-3432 and ask for Quanah Parker. Wonderful way to see the backcountry of MV. Highly recommended. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne