Stars over Giewont

Recently I don't have luck considering shooting stars. I either have bad weather (clouds, rain, fog) or full moon or both at the same time. However, despite these very difficult conditions I managed to capture above night photo showing Giewont (which is one of the most popular massifs in Polish Tatra mountains) and starry sky just above it.

I'm really happy with the atmosphere of this shot. The fog made it a bit mysterious and the light coming from the street lamp that was just behind me, made this shot a bit surreal. Also to create such mood I used rather warm white balance (if I recall correctly I had it set at about 4500 K).

If you want to learn how to capture starry skies yourself make sure to read my tutorial.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK III
Lens: Canon 24 f/1.4 L USM II
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/3.2
Exposure time: 13 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 640
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Technique: luminosity masking
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 5.0, Photoshop CC

Milky Way wallpaper

One of my favorite and most popular photos. I shared it before but I think today is a good reason to reshare it as starting today you can download this image as a HD wallpaper. To get it just go to the Wallpapers section or click on one of the links below to get resolution suitable for your monitor:

• 1920x1200 
• 1600x1200

Stars above the hotel

It'll never cease to amaze me how starry the sky is over Fuerteventura island. Even lights cannot make the stars disappear.

For this photo I stood very close to the sea hoping no wave would come and grab my tripod. And believe me I was nervous because I had to stand a few meters away from it as the ground was very wet and soft. Even changing location of feet while standing quite close to a tripod resulted in a completely blurry shot because it caused tripod to move.

In this case I used 5 exposures and manually blended them. This way I have both the stars in the sky, properly exposed hotel as well as nice reflections.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK II
Lens: Canon 24 f/1.4 L USM II
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/1.4
Exposure time: 2.5 s ("middle" exposure)
ISO: 800
Number of exposures: 5
E.V. Step: 1
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 4.2, Photoshop CS6

Have a rest under the stars - redone

Yesterday above photo was Top 1 for a few hours on 500px portal (if you're there make sure to add me to your friends) reaching 99.7 points and about 4000 views! Although this photo isn't new and I uploaded it earlier here, I think I prefer this new version. I really like magenta cast in it as well as more details in the darkest shadows. This version also benefits from deblurring using Topaz InFocus plugin.

Changing a subject a little bit, a few of my photos have been recently shared on a few websites. Just yesterday 50plusser website featured me, and a few days ago +Miroslav Petrasko added me to his Great Photographers list. Thank you!

Technical details:
Camera: Canon 5D MK II
Lens: Canon 24 f/1.4 L USM II
Focal length: 24 mm
Aperture: f/1.4
Exposure time: 10s
ISO: 800
Number of exposures: 1
E.V. Step: n/a
Flash used: no
Tripod: yes
Filters: no
Software: Magic Lantern 2.3, Lightroom 4.2, Photoshop CS6