Black Butte Milky Way Plus Star Trail Behind-The-Scene
Night sky photography is a challenge when the location is easy to get to, the weather is good, and you’re standing on flat ground. It becomes even more challenging when ‘getting there’ requires a 2 mile, 1600 foot elevation gain on a trail with icy patches and several feet of snow pack at the top. Toss in temperatures near freezing and a steady barrage of wind gusts and it becomes obvious why preplanning a photo outing like this is a good idea.
Black Butte is a 6,435 foot stratovolcano with spectacular 360º mountain views. If you’re standing in the right spot you can see; Broken Top, South, Middle & North Sisters, Jefferson, Three Finger Jack, Washington and even Mt. Hood by simply turning your head.
Broken Top, South, Middle & North Sister Mountains at sunrise.
The goal this night was to capture Milky Way and star trail photographs. The night was perfect. The sky was clear, cloudless. Plus I scheduled the outing on a night with a crescent moon that wouldn’t rise until the photo taking was done. No moon means a darker sky or so I had hoped.
Unfortunately Black Butte’s location makes it difficult to escape light pollution. The biggest polluter, Bend, is some 37 miles away. It is a big bright halo on the horizon. Add Redmond, Sisters, Camp Sherman, Crooked River Ranch, and Black Butte Ranch to the list and there are few views that are truly dark.
I packed two cameras knowing one would be dedicated for several hours capturing hundreds of star images. I would merged the 400+ photos afterwards to produce a single star trail image. I would use the other camera to capture Milky Way and other night sky photos. Needless to say my backpack was burdensome.
The Milky Way galactic center would rise at 1 am and set at 4:30 am in the southeast-south sky. Sunrise would happen at 6:15 am.
Mark, a photo friend, and I started up the trail at about 11:30 pm with headlamps and shoe spikes on. The trail has few flat spots. We stopped occasionally to admire the night sky.
When we reached the top I gave Mark a short mountain top tour. I set up one camera at the North end of the butte pointed it at Mt. Jefferson. This camera would take continuous images over a 3 or 4 hour period. Once set up I dialed in an exposure and set the interval timer to take photos every 18 seconds with a 2 seconds pause between them. It would take photos until I returned, or for as long as the battery would last!
Mt. Jefferson Star Trail. Nikon D800, Nikon 24-70 mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, f/3.5, ISO 2000, 18 seconds x 445 photos (3 hours)
My second goal was to capture the Milky Way. My preplan called for capturing the Milky Way behind the tall fire watchtower. This would require waiting for the Milky Way galactic center to rise high in the sky. I had purposefully designed the shot from a slightly downhill north standing position to avoid city light pollution in the shot.
While we waited for the Milky Way to rise, we took a variety of watchtower images practicing our night sky focusing and exposure techniques.
After a while it became clear that the galactic center might not rise high enough before sunrise to get the shot I wanted. So I abandon the idea. We took shelter from the wind to defrost. Then we worked to find another Milky Way composition that would include the galactic center.
Black Butte Milky Way. Nikon D850, Nikon 17-35 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 20 seconds, ISO 2000, f/2.8, pattern metering.
Unfortunately our only option was to point the camera south towards the brightest light pollution. We move around recomposing to eliminate as much of the city lights as possible. My final images were not stellar, but given the circumstances I was satisfied.
Black Butte Fire Watchtower Night Sky. Nikon D850, 17-35 mm f/2.8 @ 19mm, ISO 6400, 15 seconds, pattern metering.
Before we knew it we had ‘photoed’ away hours of time. There was still plenty of time before sunrise but the cold temperatures and wind gust drove us to pack up and begin the hiked down.
As we navigated our way towards the snow covered trail, Mark pointed out the rising moon. It was stunning. It was a big orange crescent. It was rising above the city lights to the East. It accompanied us as we descended the trail. Rather than pulling out the camera to photograph it, I was content to occasionally stop and admire it.
It was night to remember. I learned a lot and hope to put the new knowledge to work soon.
Cheers,
Steve
Looking to learn more about night photography? Checkout this article at PIXPA.COM written by Gurpreet Singh titled Guide To Night Photography.. The article covers night photography equipment, camera settings, skills & techniques and practical tips.
Photo Enthusiast Tech Talk
Like most photography sub-genres, night sky photography has established rules, best practices and recommended workflows. If you learn these rules and concepts you can capture some nice night sky photos. However, without a strong working knowledge of basic camera operations and the exposure triangle, capturing truly stunning images will be difficult.
Here’s a couple of things I learned on this photo outing that might help you.
Night focusing is always a challenge. There are two options and both require using a manual focus technique, (1) focus on a star or, (2) use the hyperlocal technique. No matter which you use keep these things in mind;
If there is a lot of light pollution (as there was on this night) focusing on a star is difficult. Compose your image. Then look up into the sky. Find the brightest star you have included in your composition. Use the + zoom button and find that star in the live view. Use manual focus make it sharp.
Hyperfocal focusing technique requires two things; (1) knowing your focal length, and (2) being able to focus on an object or person a short distance in front of the camera. To be successful using the hyperlocal technique you must have a bright light and a hyperlocal chart or app. This technique is truly the better method of two but requires practice.
Understand that if you want to create a night sky image that includes a foreground that is not silhouetted you either must; (1) arrive early or stay late to capture the foreground image during twilight and edit merge them afterwards, or (2) be willing to light paint the foreground. Here’s some things to keep in mind with both.
If you decide to take two images, one for the sky and one for the foreground, and want to portray the scene perspective as seen with your eye, don’t move the camera and don’t change the focal length between photos.
If you choose instead to light paint the foreground appreciate that some places (national parks and monuments) prohibit or discourage light painting. It is a nuisance to others who might be trying to enjoy the night sky. Second, this is a trial and error technique. And, it takes a lot less light than you think! Also remember that this kind of artificial lighting will cause shadows and high contrast if done haphazardly.
I hope these tidbits are helpful. Feel free to contact me with your feedback or ideas.
Steve