# First Milky Way photos with the D750



## jsecordphoto

Went out this past weekend to a spot along the coast of Maine I found last year, that is fairly free of light pollution compared to most of the surrounding area. Milky Way photos are a little more difficult right now than they are in the summer, mostly just because it's so damn cold and it's only visible for about an hour early in the morning before sunrise starts to wash it out.

First I wanted to both test out how the 50mm 1.8g would be for some night images, and see how the D750 handled super high ISO. This was at iso12,800/ f2/ 8 seconds. Doesn't look too bad! I definitely want to try some more stuff like this with some more interesting foregrounds at 50mm...so much detail in the MW! The green light on the horizon is a ship, I believe







And here's more of a standard shot. 16mm- ISO3200/ f2.8/ 25 seconds for the sky, ISO1600/ f2.8/ 4 minutes for the foreground






here's to another great year of astrophotography!


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## MSnowy

Nice! I might have to give astrophotography a try this summer.


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## jsecordphoto

MSnowy said:


> Nice! I might have to give astrophotography a try this summer.



I see you've got the 14-24....probably the best ultra-wide lens for this type of stuff. The tricky thing is always finding a location free of light pollution. I spend a lot of time shooting up in northern NH, like Pittsburg/Colebrook north, and it's insane how dark it is up there. Plus now that I have the Tamron it'll be even more fun...lots of wildlife up there


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## astroNikon

You're doing something seriously wrong.
Send me your d750 .. for a quick test, around 2-3 .. years
and I'll have it right back to you after that !!  

Nice pics
I love the 2nd one with the Long Exposure with the rocks/water.


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## jsecordphoto

astroNikon said:


> You're doing something seriously wrong.
> Send me your d750 .. for a quick test, around 2-3 .. years
> and I'll have it right back to you after that !!
> 
> Nice pics
> I love the 2nd one with the Long Exposure with the rocks/water.



Hah, thanks man! I can't wait for this summer, lots of cool locations in mind for Milky Way images. Hopefully it'll be a little warmer too...it was right around 0 degrees on this trip


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## pgriz

Very impressive!  Well, now that you've got the appropriate equipment, perhaps the next investment would be a plane ticket to a place like Chile.  They have some killer dark skies PLUS the galaxy is overhead...


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## MSnowy

I might try it if I go to my brothers camp in northern Maine. It's 10 miles from the nearest streetlight and 18 miles from the nearest town. If there's no moon it's so dark, you can barely see your hand in front of your face.


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## jsecordphoto

pgriz said:


> Very impressive!  Well, now that you've got the appropriate equipment, perhaps the next investment would be a plane ticket to a place like Chile.  They have some killer dark skies PLUS the galaxy is overhead...



Yeah that would be an incredible trip. I'm always a little jealous of the photographers getting Milky Way images in the southern hemisphere, it just looks way cooler to me with the core right in the middle of the arch. Maybe someday...


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## jsecordphoto

MSnowy said:


> I might try it if I go to my brothers camp in northern Maine. It's 10 miles from the nearest streetlight and 18 miles from the nearest town. If there no moon it's so dark, you can barely see your hand in front of your face.



Music to my ears! It takes so much less work bringing out detail in the Milky Way when shooting in areas like that. I'll never forget the first trip we made up to Pittsburg...a perfect spring night with not a breath of wind, that was the first time I had ever seen the Milky Way reflecting off a lake clearly with the naked eye. It's a shame not many people ever get to see that, it's an amazing experience


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## Matt Glick

Solid shots. Milky Way photos are on my to do list!


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## MikeFlorendo

Very nice I have the same camera and the 14-24 2.8 and 50mm 1.4.  Great shots but maybe try lower iso.  I shot some last Nov. at iso 800.  There is a bit of trailing on the 2nd are you sure the exposure was 25 seconds on the sky at 16mm?  You shouldn't have had trailing that is noticeable unless you enlarged the photo pretty big.

Solid shots!


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## runnah

You just need to drive north a couple more hours, then you can find dark skies.


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## Derrel

Oh, wow, those are nice. I really like the foreground rocks on the second shot. The ship at the horizon really adds a nice detail to my way of thinking! I hope you really enjoy the D750.


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## jsecordphoto

MikeFlorendo said:


> Very nice I have the same camera and the 14-24 2.8 and 50mm 1.4.  Great shots but maybe try lower iso.  I shot some last Nov. at iso 800.  There is a bit of trailing on the 2nd are you sure the exposure was 25 seconds on the sky at 16mm?  You shouldn't have had trailing that is noticeable unless you enlarged the photo pretty big.
> 
> Solid shots!



ISO800? Even shooting in areas with basically 0 light pollution that wouldn't be enough. The lowest I'll shoot sky exposures at in dark areas is iso2500. Sure you _might _get a decent exposure of just the stars at iso800, but none of the nebulosity will be present in the MW core. In the 2nd photo I believe you're seeing a bit of comatic aberration in the corner that looks like trailing


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## jsecordphoto

runnah said:


> You just need to drive north a couple more hours, then you can find dark skies.



Oh I'll be spending a good amount of time up there this year. There's a chance I'll be co-hosting a workshop in Acadia for a week in June, and then I'll be spending about a month in Phippsburg again. I'm hoping to make it up to Baxter state park this year too


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## runnah

jsecordphoto said:


> runnah said:
> 
> 
> 
> You just need to drive north a couple more hours, then you can find dark skies.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Oh I'll be spending a good amount of time up there this year. There's a chance I'll be co-hosting a workshop in Acadia for a week in June, and then I'll be spending about a month in Phippsburg again. I'm hoping to make it up to Baxter state park this year too
Click to expand...


Baxter is dark. If you want some place even more remote go up to the county.  Greenville is also super nice.


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## Msteelio91

Great shots! I wish I was in a more sky-friendly area


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## goooner

These look great. Did you do any noise reduction on them? I would have been tempted to go 16s at ISO 6400 on the 1st. Not sure if you would have had some trailing at 16s though.


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## jsecordphoto

goooner said:


> These look great. Did you do any noise reduction on them? I would have been tempted to go 16s at ISO 6400 on the 1st. Not sure if you would have had some trailing at 16s though.



Yeah I used Nik define on both. 16 seconds at 50mm would've resulted in star trailing. I did actually take 10 frames for the first one planning on doing a median stack after aligning and converting to smart object, but for some reason photoshop wouldn't let me change the stack mode. That would've resulted in less noise and more detail but for some reason it wouldn't work. I could've gotten away with 10 seconds but I tend to be picky with any star trailing


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## MikeFlorendo

jsecordphoto said:


> MikeFlorendo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Very nice I have the same camera and the 14-24 2.8 and 50mm 1.4.  Great shots but maybe try lower iso.  I shot some last Nov. at iso 800.  There is a bit of trailing on the 2nd are you sure the exposure was 25 seconds on the sky at 16mm?  You shouldn't have had trailing that is noticeable unless you enlarged the photo pretty big.
> 
> Solid shots!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ISO800? Even shooting in areas with basically 0 light pollution that wouldn't be enough. The lowest I'll shoot sky exposures at in dark areas is iso2500. Sure you _might _get a decent exposure of just the stars at iso800, but none of the nebulosity will be present in the MW core. In the 2nd photo I believe you're seeing a bit of comatic aberration in the corner that looks like trailing
Click to expand...



Iso 800.  Really it is iso 800.  Don't recommend it if there is not something detailed in the foreground but its possible.


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## otherprof

jsecordphoto said:


> Went out this past weekend to a spot along the coast of Maine I found last year, that is fairly free of light pollution compared to most of the surrounding area. Milky Way photos are a little more difficult right now than they are in the summer, mostly just because it's so damn cold and it's only visible for about an hour early in the morning before sunrise starts to wash it out.
> 
> First I wanted to both test out how the 50mm 1.8g would be for some night images, and see how the D750 handled super high ISO. This was at iso12,800/ f2/ 8 seconds. Doesn't look too bad! I definitely want to try some more stuff like this with some more interesting foregrounds at 50mm...so much detail in the MW! The green light on the horizon is a ship, I believe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And here's more of a standard shot. 16mm- ISO3200/ f2.8/ 25 seconds for the sky, ISO1600/ f2.8/ 4 minutes for the foreground
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> here's to another great year of astrophotography!


Glad the equipment worked, but thought I should mention they are not just test shots, they are beautiful images you took and produced!


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## jsecordphoto

MikeFlorendo said:


> Iso 800.  Really it is iso 800.  Don't recommend it if there is not something detailed in the foreground but its possible.
> 
> View attachment 96419



I believe you, though I'm surprised you got that much detail at a low (for astrophotography) ISO. 3200 isn't even that bad noise wise. I may try more this year using a technique my buddy uses, where he takes 10 shots, 10 seconds each at 6400, then stacks them which ends up having basically no noise and super pinpoint stars.


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## MikeFlorendo

jsecordphoto said:


> MikeFlorendo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Iso 800.  Really it is iso 800.  Don't recommend it if there is not something detailed in the foreground but its possible.
> 
> View attachment 96419
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I believe you, though I'm surprised you got that much detail at a low (for astrophotography) ISO. 3200 isn't even that bad noise wise. I may try more this year using a technique my buddy uses, where he takes 10 shots, 10 seconds each at 6400, then stacks them which ends up having basically no noise and super pinpoint stars.
Click to expand...



Yeah I'm just starting Milky Way shots that was my 2nd attempt but I heard the same about ISO 2000-3200 for MW but I'm always trying to see for myself and I was surprised too! I do all my work in Lightroom but I really need to start in on Photoshop.  This was my old camera the D5200 with the Tokina 11-18 2.8.  I can't wait to use the D750 with 14-24 2.8.  This photo was the push I needed to go FF and get the D750.  

Here is ISO 320 I started at 6400 to test and went to 3200 but since the D5200 isn't FF I was worried about noise and just kept shooting lower ISO to just see.  My first attempt a week earlier there was tons of noise in the foreground.  Yeah I need to start learning Photoshop! So much I want to try but can't do in Lightroom.


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## jsecordphoto

Yeah I do 90% of my work in photoshop, with just a few things in LR. There is just WAY more control in PS. You're gonna love that set up


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## Heather Koch

Very nice!  Love the second pic with the rocks!


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## NancyMoranG

runnah said:


> jsecordphoto said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> runnah said:
> 
> 
> 
> You just need to drive north a couple more hours, then you can find dark skies.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Oh I'll be spending a good amount of time up there this year. There's a chance I'll be co-hosting a workshop in Acadia for a week in June, and then I'll be spending about a month in Phippsburg again. I'm hoping to make it up to Baxter state park this year too
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Baxter is dark. If you want some place even more remote go up to the county.  Greenville is also super nice.
Click to expand...


I love Greenville and Moosehead Lake / Lily Bay State Park! Great hiking and dark skies.
Great shot as always jescord!


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## jsecordphoto

NancyMoranG said:


> I love Greenville and Moosehead Lake / Lily Bay State Park! Great hiking and dark skies.
> Great shot as always jescord!



Thanks Nancy!


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## Downtownie

They look so beautiful.


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## annamaria

Great shots love the second one


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## Patrice

MSnowy said:


> Nice! I might have to give astrophotography a try this summer.



Winter cold moonless night is a better time as the atmosphere is less turbulent and much clearer.


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## jsecordphoto

Patrice said:


> MSnowy said:
> 
> 
> 
> Nice! I might have to give astrophotography a try this summer.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Winter cold moonless night is a better time as the atmosphere is less turbulent and much clearer.
Click to expand...


Not if you're looking to get milky way photos in the northern hemisphere.  MW isnt visible up here from November-early February and prime time is during the summer months especially June and July.


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