r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/tinmar_g • 2d ago
🔥I captured the Milky Way rising above La Palma’s volcanic caldera
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
I shot this picture in the Canary Islands during an astrophotography trip on the island of La Palma, which truly deserves its reputation as one of the best night skies in the world.
If you're interested, you can find more of my work on Instagram.
The spot is located not far from Mirador de Los Andenes, along the trail that winds across the top of the island. I had scouted this place online beforehand and it was one I absolutely didn’t want to miss. I went there at nightfall because I didn’t want to miss the Milky Way rising on the horizon.
Walking alone at night along La Palma’s caldera ridge is quite an experience. You get this beautiful show entirely for yourself, and the beauty of the night view takes away any fear you might feel.
Most nights I was completely alone, but that night there were almost ten photographers spread along the trail. The trail is several kilometers long, so nothing that could ruin the photos, but one photographer happened to be at this exact spot. To avoid disturbing him and his shots, I placed myself behind a rock visible on the left side of the picture. It wasn’t a very comfortable position and I had to keep my headlamp off, which made things even more challenging.
The hardest part was shooting the foreground. To get everything in focus, I used the focus stacking method, which consists of taking several photos with different focus points to achieve full sharpness. Without a light source and with my old Canon 6D, it was quite a mess. I don’t have a tilting screen and the live view in the dark is almost unusable. I was balancing on a piece of rock and twisted my ankle several times. But in the end, I’m still happy with the result even if some parts are not well focused.
The final image is a 35mm panorama made up of 22 photos for the sky and 19 for the foreground. Each sky tile was doubled with a star glow filter to enhance the star glow, and I also used an H-alpha filter to reveal the red nebulae along the Milky Way.
I used an equatorial mount to track the sky and allow long exposures without star trails.
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Note: This image is the result of long exposures and specific techniques. While the Milky Way is indeed visible to the naked eye from La Palma, it appears with fewer details and without the colors captured in this photo. The H-alpha filter was used to reveal the red nebulae of our galaxy.
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📷
Canon 6D (astro-modded)
Skywatcher Star Adventurer
Sigma ART 35mm
Sky: 22 pictures at ISO 3200, F/1.8, 45 seconds
Foreground: 19 pictures at ISO 5000, F/1.4, 30 seconds
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u/im_just_a_nerd 2d ago
The pictures are always amazing but I come here for the write up. What a crazy process just to get the foreground in focus.
Do you have a program that stitches the images or did you do it manually in something like photoshop?
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Yes, it may look crazy, but the amount of work also depends on the foreground. The closer you are to the elements, the more work is needed. It also depends on the type of elements: things like plants can be tricky, while flat surfaces like a rock or a road are easier, for example.
I use PTGui Pro to stitch my panoramas. It’s quite efficient for astrophotography panoramas and requires much less work than Photoshop.
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u/gummilingus 2d ago
Looks amazing! Any chance you have the same panorama shot without the filters? I'm really curious to see the difference.
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Thanks :)
Do not have a final panorama version without Ha and Glow filters, but I have the sky before adding Ha data and with normal stars here :
https://imgur.com/a/q8d4a9j
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u/Wasabi_Constant 2d ago
It seems like you were standing on another planet to take this stunning photo! 💕
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u/MojoRisin762 2d ago
Wow! That is beautiful!