Milky Way over Lake Panorama National G.C. - Edition II

Equipment Used:  Nikon D750, 24-120 f4 lense, SB-700 Speedlight & Vanguard Abeo Plus 363 CT Tripod

After capturing the Panorama Days fireworks on the main basin of Lake Panorama, I could tell the Milky Way was starting to show itself in the clear sky so I traveled over to the golf course at 11 PM. I got in a golf cart and drove to #5 and #7 to capture the Milky Way over those golf holes.

The D750 was fitted with the 24-120mm f4 lense with VR and auto focus shut off since I shot everything from the Vanguard tripod. Aperture was at f4 in manual mode with 10 or 15 seconds being the shutter speed. ISO ranged from 3200-6400. Instead of using a remote to trigger the camera, I set the camera to 3 second self timer mode.

I used a single SB-700 Speedlight to throw light on the golf hole using manual power and rotated the Speedlight has I trigged the flash. This allowed me to expose the width of the golf hole. To help light up the flag stick on #5, I even stuck a small LED flashlight into the cup and pointed it up to the sky.

Processing these starry images started in Capture NX-D by adjusting the white balance to direct sunlight or leaving it alone. The picture control was changed to landscape or vivid and the astro noise reduction feature was selected. Adjustments to exposure compensation and contrast/saturation sliders were also made to help bring out the stars.

In PSE 11, I first cloned out unwanted objects such as water hazard and yardage stakes. If needed, I combined the sky with a different exposure of the hole using layer masks and the brush tool. Additional adjustments using levels and brightness/contrast layers were also used to help bring out the stars. The unsharp mask filter was used to sharpen the image after cropping and straightening once all adjustments were done.

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