Dining under the Milky Way

[DirkSteele]

Apparently I take a lot of photos on holiday I then don't bother processing.  Taken in 2015, but only processed in the last couple of weeks (thanks to no vacation abroad due to Covid).  The Milky Way setting over Benguerra Island in Mozambique.  Almost all dinners are served on the beach and that night the staff set up all the tables in line and I thought it would make a good shot.  I ran back to the villa and grabbed my camera.

Composite of two images.  Foreground was a 2 sec exposure at ISO 800.  The nightsky was 25 seconds at ISO5000.  I actually think I pushed the ISO too much on this holiday and have only used 3200 ever since, as it came out a bit grainy.  Using an un-modified Canon 70D and Canon 14mm L lens at f/2.8 (effective 22mm due to crop sensor).

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by DirkSteele
wrong image! Doh

[RobertI]

Stunning image!

[Owmuchonomy]

Fantastic!

[davew]

I've noticed over the years that you have a bit of an eye for the beach shot ! This one is along the lines of a professional advertising brochure photo.

Lovely,

Dave.

[DirkSteele]

Thanks. Just been lucky to be on some great beaches which have presented the photo op.

[JeremyS]

I think that would have put me off my dinner @DirkSteele 🙂

I would have probably wolfed everything down and gone to observe 

Superb shot!! 

[Xiga]

On 19/09/2020 at 17:47, DirkSteele said:

Apparently I take a lot of photos on holiday I then don't bother processing.  Taken in 2015, but only processed in the last couple of weeks (thanks to no vacation abroad due to Covid).  The Milky Way setting over Benguerra Island in Mozambique.  Almost all dinners are served on the beach and that night the staff set up all the tables in line and I thought it would make a good shot.  I ran back to the villa and grabbed my camera.

Composite of two images.  Foreground was a 2 sec exposure at ISO 800.  The nightsky was 25 seconds at ISO5000.  I actually think I pushed the ISO too much on this holiday and have only used 3200 ever since, as it came out a bit grainy.  Using an un-modified Canon 70D and Canon 14mm L lens at f/2.8 (effective 22mm due to crop sensor).

 

Great image Matthew. That looks lovely btw. How nice would it be to be there right now?! 

Hope you don't mind, but I was curious how good a job Topaz Denoise AI would do with the grain. Given it was working with just an 8 bit Jpg and not a 16bit Tiff file, i think it did really well (see below):

[DirkSteele]

Nice, that definitely improved it.

[Kimboman]

Very nice,its a shame that these beautiful skies are not available to most of us.

I know that we needs lights for all sorts of reasons, but wouldn't it be great to be able to switch them off a couple of nights a month.

I have been fortunate to live in Australia for a whiled had these types of Skys for weeks on end what a privilege.