Tutorial: Exposure Bracketing and Photo Blending

One of the limitations of the digital camera vis a vis the human eye is it's inferior ability to discriminate between dark and light; the average human eye can distinguish approximately 2^20 - or approximately a 1,000,000x difference between darkest and lightest points. My high-end Olympus camera can only discriminate a 7,332x difference - 140-fold less. You've probably noticed when you take photos in high contrast light conditions such as a sunset or any scene where you have very bright parts and strong shadows that you either have a well exposed sky with extremely dark land or a well exposed land with a very pale sky. This lower discrimination power is why. But there are ways for overcoming this. In the days of analogue cameras, photographers would place a sheet of glass in front of the lens that was half smoky, half clear and use the smoky half to reduce the light in the sky. These days, most photographers achieve the same effect by taking multiple photos at different exposures (exposure bracketing) and then assemble them to a single image using software (photo blending). 

This is the final edit of one of my photos of the delightful Dolomitenhütte in the Lienzer Dolomiten that featured in my recent post Osttirol Revisited -  Part II.

The Dolomitenhütte at Sunset || Olympus 50 mm, f/5.6, 1/50 s, ISO 200

Exposure Bracketing

Some cameras, such as my Olympus OMD E-M1 Mk II, allow you to automatically take multiple exposures with varying levels of exposure compensation. One click of the button and the camera will rapidly take a series of three photos, one at the default setting, one with ¼ of the light ("2 stops under") and one with 4x the light ("2 stops over"; a "stop" in photographic terms is always half or double the light/exposure). If your camera doesn't offer this facility, you can almost certainly use exposure compensation (usually a dial labelled E.V. with a scale running from -3 to +3 in ⅓ steps). This is a magical dial that every photographer should be familiar with and using all the time, especially if you're shooting through an electronic viewfinder. Normally you need to do this with a tripod in order to be able to overlay the images 100%.

Exposure compensation scale (orange)

Photo Stacking/Blending

Most modern photo editing software allows you to compile multiple photos as layers and choose what parts of each layer should be visible in the final image. One prerequisite for the process is that the images be essentially compositionally identical, otherwise matching them up can be a pain. Like I say, normally this is assured by using a tripod to fix the camera in place, composing the photo carefully and then manually setting the focus. Normally. Unfortunately I tend to get a bit sloppy with these types of photo and shoot by hand and using auto-focus. 

The real art lies in blending the photos; defining which part of which photo is in the final image. Again, most modern programs offer the option of automated HDR image creation (HDR = high dynamic range, the art of compressing more levels of light into the final image than is possible with a single photo). Alternatively, the process can be done manually by opening multiple photos in layers. I prefer the latter process as it gives me a great deal more control over the final image. Here, the cleaner the edge defining the various layers the better, but invariably there are trees in the photo at the borders of the two layers and these are always a challenge to process. I've chosen a pretty straightforward image here that I manually masked for blending. I'll take you through the process as I do it in ON1 Photo Raw 2020, my photo editor of choice.

We'll start with the basic image, where you can see that the foreground is ok, if a bit dark, but the sky has no character whatsoever, a poor reflection of what we were seeing at the time. 

Native exposure - Olympus f/5.6, 1/15 s, ISO 200

The auto-bracketed shots are 2 stops under- and 2 stops over-exposed. In this example I didn't actually use the over-exposed image as it didn't fit the mood of the scene. As you can see from the under-exposed image, there's a lot more interesting stuff going on in the sky, but if you compare it to the final image, I've taken it even further. 

2 Stops Under Exposed - 1/60 s

2 Stops Over Exposed - 1/4 s

In the ON1 Photo Raw Browser module I select both images and then on the right click on the icon [Layers]. This generates a new image file in the Edit module where both images are simultaneously open. To start with you'll only see the top image, however, so don't be disconcerted. Any time you're working on the image from now on, you'll have to pay attention to which layer you're currently working on and you can click on them at the top of the right hand menu bar. The active layer has a turquoise highlight:

How the layers are displayed in ON1 Photo Raw, the blue circle indicates that the layer is selected (visible)

Masking

So how do you define which bit of which photo appears in the final image? Through an arcane process called masking. Masking defines which parts of a layer are visible (white in our case) and which parts of a layer are invisible (black). But the mask isn't limited to just black and just white, it can also be shades of grey, allowing nuances of layers.

So who tells the program which bits of each layer I want in the final image? Well, you do using masking brushes and gradients. You paint in (or out) the bits of the layers that you want. Clicking on the icon to the right of the layer thumbnail opens a panel giving you access to the masking tools. When you first open it, this panel will be completely white, indicating that all of this layer is visible.

Accessing the various Masking options

There are multiple ways to create a mask from the simple gradient tools, the brush as well as luminosity and colour range masks. Looking at the layer mask that I created for this image, I used the Masking Brush combined with the Perfect Brush option to get a hard edge on the hut itself, together with a slightly softer brush towards the bottom right corner:

Mask for the final image; the Native exposure image is on top, this black and white mask defines which parts of that image are visible over the darker underexposed layer

Ok, so apply that, and what do we get? Certainly a lot more appealing than either of the originals, but still a long way from the final image:

First Blend

So what else do we need to do to get from this to the final? There are a number of steps that I applied to each of the layers in order to really bring this image to life. In ON1 Photo Raw it generally doesn't matter what order you apply the steps in (there are exceptions, but they are too complex for this post. OK, I admit it. I don't know what they are, I just remember watching a YouTube video once where a bloke tried adding the effects in different orders and got different results. There. Happy now?). I don't generally adjust too much in the develop tab at the moment, concentrating almost exclusively on local adjustments

Background Layer (sky and left-hand foreground):

1. Cropped the image to give a more pleasing cut
2. Globally added the Effect Filter: Color Enhancer - Increase Color
3. Locally added a -1 EV Darken adjustment to the sky (gradient mask)
4. Removed the stray branch top left using the Retouch tool

Foreground Layer (cabin):

1. Locally added a +1 EV Lighten adjustment with +20 to the shadows and +30 Color Temperature to the area around the cabin lights

These I combined to form a New Stamped Layer (a new layer combining all of the visible parts of the image; right-click in one of the layers and choose this option).

Stamped Layer:

1. Globally added the Effect Filter: Vignette - Big Softy 50%
2. Globally added the Effect Filter: Color Enhancer - Warmer 50%
3. Locally added the Effect Filter: Tone Enhancer - Clarity on the cabin
4. Locally added the Effect Filter: Tone Enhancer - Tonal Contrast to the forest bottom left
5. Locally added a Vibrance adjustment to the sky
6. Other minor dodge and burn (local brightening and darkening) adjustments

And that was it. The first Color Enhancer added a touch of colour to the sky, amplified by the Darken adjustment. The Lighten adjustment with the colour warming added a pleasing glow to the lights in the cabin, even spilling over to the rocks outside. The Vignette focuses the viewer's vision on the central part of the image - I do this to almost all my images - it's part of my personal preset. The Clarity enhancer on the cabin brings out the texture of the wooden slats of the cabin and the Tonal Contrast enhancer brings a bit of definition to the dark forest bottom left - making it a bit less 'mushy'.

And that's it. A lot more editing that I'd normally employ, and certainly a lot more 'dodging and burning', but I think it's worth the effort. End-of-day photos are always a little more challenging due to the lighting conditions. If you have any thoughts or questions on the editing process, do leave them below.

- Dolomitenhütte at Sunset -

Osttirol Revisited - Part II

The dream is relatively straightforward and specific; buy up an old farmhouse with a barn but not too much land somewhere close to Lienz. The farmhouse has a large country-style kitchen with a massive table. The barn will be converted into holiday accommodation; downstairs the guest rooms and upstairs a massive open-air space that will serve as kitchen, dining room, living room, seminar room and anything else you'd chose to use it for. The barn will be available to rent for small groups of up to 10 people, mostly self-catering but with the option of breakfast in the farmhouse if needs be. It'll open for pretty much any type of group accommodation, but the focus will be on photo safaris and workshops in the surrounding mountains. Both the main chain of the Alps and Cortina - the heart of the Dolomites - will be within easy driving distance for day tours. When the kids visit, there will be plenty of room for them and when we get too infirm to run the photo safaris, we'll still have the additional income of the holiday let to fall back on. Like I say, straightforward and strangely specific.

Covered Bridge, Matrei || Olympus 25 mm, f/8, 1/40 s, ISO 200

In the meantime, I've got a few years to work on my photography and instructor skills. I'm not yet where I want to be, but I'm happy with the trajectory so far as I look back over the last two years. We'll keep you posted.

But back to our most recent foray to Osttirol.

Matrei and Kals

To change things up a bit, instead of hiking we decided to rent some trekking bikes and cycle up the valley along the Isel, a tour that I would recommend to anyone, especially the way round we did it; Lienz-Matrei-Lienz. The tour gains around 300 m in altitude over about 30 km - 300 m that are much more acceptable downward than up after lunch! 

The cycle ride up to Matrei was good fun if a little challenging in places. The bikes we'd rented from Probike Lienz (for a very reasonable price) admirably did the job of getting us up the valley and the views on the trail, which changes from one side of the river to the other, are varied. We found Matrei asleep at lunchtime, the streets practically deserted. Part Corona, part mid-day slump on a hot day. Quizzing the waiter in the pizzeria, even without Corona the village is quiet on sunny summer days as the tourists are all up in the mountains at midday.

Old Matrei || Olympus 24 mm, f/8, 1/40 s, ISO 200

After visiting the National Park Centre (really a must if you're in town), it was out into the streets. There are a couple of really quaint corners of old Matrei near the Park Centre, including the neighbouring Pfarre Matrei church, a couple of old wooden houses and the lovely covered bridge over the Bretterwandbach stream that bisects the village. 

Parish Church, Matrei || Olympus 13 mm, f/8, 1/200 s, ISO 200

One of my favourite scenes of the day was a little church on the hillside above the Isel in the tiny village of Gereiter.

St. Niklas, Matrei || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/100 s, ISO 200

We stopped off on the way back to go up the Hochstein chairlifts and take in the view down the Drau valley. Of course, if you're up here already, you may as well come down on the Osttirodler, probably the coolest summer Rodelbahn out there.

The next day saw us up in Kals, a picturesque village at the foot of the Großglockner, July is still a little bit ahead of the main summer season and so only the cable car open was the one up to the Adlerlounge and so we headed up to the Rotenkogel before hitting the thoroughly recommendable Kals Matreier Törl Hütte. If you're ever up there, just don't forget to ask for Gina 😉. 

Towards the Großglockner || Olympus 12 mm, f/16, 1/125 s, ISO 200

Kals Matreier Törl Hütte || Olympus 34 mm, f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200

On the way back we stopped off at the spectacular Staniska waterfall - always worth a visit either on the way to or from Kals from Lienz and really low hanging fruit - you have to walk 10 m from the car park to set up your camera! Generally I prefer shooting waterfalls in more subdued light because of the high contrast situation you'll often find, but the full-on afternoon sunshine here didn't detract too much. I used a variable ND filter here to reduce the light level so that I could shoot at 1/10 s to blur the water.

Staniska Waterfall || Olympus 14 mm, f/22, 1/10 s, ISO 64

Lienzer Dolomites

If you've seen any photos of the Lienzer Dolomites, you'll have probably seen shots of the beautiful Dolomitenhütte. This delightful hut lies at the starting point of many tours in the Lienzer Dolomites. You can drive up from the valley to 1,600, saving yourself a 1,000 m slog up a fairly boring track. From the Kreithof it's a toll road. Unless... We were camping at the Tristacher See and wanted to drive up for dinner at the hut accompanied by shooting the sunset. We drove up to the toll booth and found the barrier up and the hut unoccupied. Asking at the Hütte the road is open from 17.00 onward and you can drive up to the hut without paying the € 8.50 fee.

In the Stube, Dolomitenhütte || Olympus 44 mm, f/4, 1/3 s, ISO 200

Unfortunately the terrace was full, but inside the hut is very appealing too and so we settled down to dinner, waiting for the sun to set. We were not disappointed! The light was challenging - classical sunset problems of bright skies and dark foregrounds. I started writing how I overcome this problem in this post but decided that it was probably better in a post of its own. I'll post it later and link here.

Dolomitenhütte at Sunset I || Olympus 50 mm, f/5.6, 1/50 s, ISO 200

Dolomitenhütte at Sunset II || Olympus 23 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 s, ISO 200

The next day Sharon drove me up to the Kreithof and then went off with the kids to do another Klettersteig that was outside of my comfortable power to weight ratio, leaving me to meander down to Lavant on my own and take time over the photos. It was another case of everything going different than planned: I'd understood that there was a small gorge on the descent to the valley and a massive waterfall just beyond the village at the bottom. The gorge proved to be pretty much unshootable and I couldn't get to the waterfall because there was too much shooting! The Austrian army was using their firing range  at the bottom of the Frauenbach waterfall, preventing access. 

Emerald Beetle || Olympus 100 mm, f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 200

Harebells || Olympus 66 mm, f/4.5, 1/400 s, ISO 200

None of this stopped me from getting some lovely woodland images on the walk down and some decent shots of the St. Ulrich church above the village. There's a 'Stations of the Cross' path leading up to St. Ulrich and I followed this down into the old part of Lavant. The path comes out an old farm that looked like just the sort of place that I'd envisioned. After establishing that the Frauenbach waterfall was off the ticket for the day I went into a local restaurant to sate my thirst. The village lies at the northern foot of some pretty steep mountains. Speaking to the locals at the restaurant I discovered that the village doesn't see sun for two months a year - it simply doesn't get high enough behind the Lienzer Dolomites to shine. That's Lavant crossed off the list then!

St. Ulrich, Lavant || Olympus 29 mm, f/4, 1/500 s, ISO 200

The Wicked Woman

On our last day, the kids decided that they weren't getting enough exercise and went off mountainbiking on their own, leaving Sharon and I to drive up to the Hochsteinhütte above Lienz and from there to hike up the wonderfully named "Böses Weibele" - I think literally the Evil Wench. One of the many attractive things about Osttirol is the sheer variability of the mountains, from the high Alps of the Groß Venediger and Großglockner to the impressive crags of the Lienzer Dolomites and the more gentle slopes of the Vilgratener Mountains to the west. 

Down the Drau Valley || Olympus 13 mm, f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

The Böses Weibele was a fitting final tour - an Ausklang or finale. Only 500 m up from the 2,000 m high car park. The trail leads along a gently climbing long ridge up to the Weibele with amazing views both of the Drau and Isel valleys. As we were approaching the summit, Sharon spotted a bird hovering above the slopes not far from us - a kestrel. He/she didn't appear to be in any hurry, giving me time to swap out lenses for my longer-reaching Panasonic f/4-5.6 100-300 mm lens. She disappeared for a moment, swooping down on some prey, drifted down away towards Assling before returning to her starting point, letting me snap away in continuous shooting mode. Don't ask me how many shots I rattled off! This was about the best I could make of it. A shot I'm happy with, especially as the bird is nicely lit against a relatively dark background rather than being a black silhouette against a bright sky, but it's still not absolutely sharp. Probably my favourite shot of our time in Osttirol though as I've been looking at getting an image like this of a kestrel for a while.

Kestrel on the Böses Weibele || Olympus 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000 s, ISO 500

Feedback on the First Workshops

"Apparently, if you try to cram two years of learning into 4-6 hour 1-2-1 workshop, the participants can find it a bit too much. Who knew?"

The Old Gypsum Mill || Olympus f/5.6, 1/125 s, ISO 1250 

I’ve now run my first two workshops for volunteer guinea-pigs recruited from among my local friends on the understanding that they would give me in-depth feedback on the sessions in lieu of payment. We had two great afternoons, one hiking in the local mountains in less than perfect weather and one shooting flowers in a friend’s back garden. We had several “aha” moments as they learned things about their cameras that they didn’t know before and both have got some great shots out of the sessions. But what did I learn?

Over the last 18 months I’ve invested a lot of time in my photographic education. I’ve read books, I’ve watched a ton of videos and online courses on photography and post-processing and I’ve endeavoured to put a lot of it into practice in the field. I think that most people would agree with me when I say that I’ve come a long way photographically in that time. I’ve almost completely changed my approach to photographing and my philosophy of photography. A lot of things are now obvious that would have been a complete mystery to me even two years ago. I was an idiot to think that I could convey the significant parts of that learning in a single session, but that’s what I set out to do. Twice. In my defence, the second session was probably much better structured than the first. But I need to trim it down much further, or at least give the students more time to take each aspect of the teaching on board before progressing to the next.

Let’s take a look at the two sessions and try to assess what works and what doesn’t and look at how to build this into planning future workshops.

In the Pöllat River || Olympus f/11, 2 s, ISO 200

Session 1: In The Pöllat Gorge

The first session was held at one of my favourite local spots – the Pöllat gorge below the fabulous Neuschwanstein castle near Füssen. My student, a friend from the Munich choir that I sing with, had previously been a teacher – a huge plus for me, as this was someone who had first-hand experience of teaching methods and knew what he was talking about when it came to feedback. We’d had a chance to chat a little about photography on the way down in the car and I’d already sounded him out concerning what he wanted to learn.

The fun part about this session was that Andrew had a relatively clear idea of the images he wanted to get, but wasn’t always clear on how to achieve those images technically. This was definitely something I could help with.

Parking the car at the Tegelberg car park (much cheaper than parking in Hohenschwangau at the bottom of the castle), we trekked along the base of the mountain, the clouds lingering in the trees above us. Excellent opportunity for composition questions 1 and 2: (1) What catches your attention, and (2) what aspect of the subject do you want to emphasise or caricature? (thanks Joshua Cripps!)

Moody, Misty Forest || Olympus f/5, 1/200 s, ISO 500

Arriving at the bottom of the Pöllat gorge, I was dismayed to see that the gorgeous wooden mill race had been very badly damaged in the recent storms. I sincerely hope that they repair it using the original wood, since this has always been a complete eye-catcher and really strong element for photos here. As it was, the heavy flow was just gushing out of the broken end of the trellis into a mess of tree branches. Such a shame.

After we'd walked around the bottom of the gorge for a bit, scouting compositions, we went a few meters downstream where it was a little quieter so that we could chat about how to emphasise the water movement, leading into a discussion of long exposures and tripods. I'd established in advance that Andrew would be using the Nikon 18-55 mm kit lens and managed to source a cheap step-up ring of the right diameter so that he could use my filter system to create a series of shots with different exposures.

Shooting in the Pöllat || Huawei P30 Pro

Having had a good long session at the bottom of the gorge, we walked up through the shady forest, looking for other compositions. There are some nice shots to be had of the falls as well as some nice intimate forest landscapes - what my father calls my signature shots. The moss was particularly appealing 

Moss Micro Landscape || Olympus f/4, 1/8 s, ISO 200

At this point, I forgot a bit that I was supposed to be leading a workshop and got side-tracked by taking my own images - wrong of me I know, but too easy to do in the circumstances. In future, I'm really going to have to put my own shots in the background, unless they're to make a teaching point.

Carrying on up to the path between Neuschwanstein and the Marienbrücke, we were rewarded by a moody view over Hohenschwangau with the sun breaking through the clouds. An impossible shot for Andrew's camera, but no match for modern exposure bracketing. Once again, I was putting my own photos first. But come on, who would have said no to this:

God-Rays over Hohenschwangau || Olympus Exposure Bracketing

After waiting a while in vain to see whether the weather would provide us with anything better, we headed on up to the Marienbrücke, the bridge overlooking Neuschwanstein, to see whether the light would allow us to catch any useful shots. Andrew took quite a few from the bridge and we toyed with the concept of including some foreground in a shot in order to establish a bit of 3-dimensionality to the scene.

It was quite late by the time we got back to the car and we were both starving, so we looked for a suitable hostelry. Waiting for food, I had a chance to go through my workshop cheat-sheets with him. In my mind I had planned to shoot and then go over the theory in the hope that he would be more receptive to the concepts - a teaching style that we often use at work. In reality, it would have been helpful to look at them beforehand and then try to put some of it into practice in the field.

Session 2: A Munich Garden

For the second session I visited my friend in her garden in Munich. Because one of her primary photographic interests was flowers and because they have a beautiful flower garden, this really worked out nicely. The weather was definitely playing ball this time as well, which really helped. It had rained just before I got there, but we had a great 4 h in the garden in lovely late afternoon light, shooting anything and everything in sight.

This time we were able to sit down before we started and look at some of the concepts that help me focus on what makes a good photo. I was delighted that my friend was able to make the intuitive jumps from the things I was pointing out (more here) to compositional consequences. Once we'd got some of the basics out of the way, we were able to knuckle down to the two issues that she had highlighted approaching the workshop; exposure and focus.

Reach for the Sky || Olympus f/8, 1/250 s, ISO 200

After explaining the various ways in which cameras measure exposure and the shortcomings of assuming that everything is 50% grey, we looked around for potential examples. She has a beautiful honeysuckle growing up the side of the garage. Against the sky, most cameras will underexpose the subject to avoid an overly-bright image, leaving the subject quite dull. Exposure compensation to the rescue (once we'd found out how to in the manual).

Essence of Hydrangea || Olympus f/8, 1/40 s, ISO 200

Looking back, we should have spent a little while at least concentrating on exposure, but I was so excited with the progress that I was all for moving swiftly on to the next issue; focus. Once we figured out how to give her back the control over what the camera was focusing on we even got a chance to look at the concept of depth of field before switching over to her macro lens and fiddling about with focus magnification in a foreign camera system.

Old Wooden Chair || Olympus f/8

All in all we had a great afternoon/evening working through various technical and compositional aspects before I was gently told to stop - I'd passed on enough information and time was required to process and practice.

Lessons Learned

What Went Well

Let's start with what went well:

• The second workshop was much better structured than the first, working through the teaching materials and having a chance to put it all into practice.
• Knowing both locations well before the shoots was essential. Even then there were surprises, like the demolished mill race at the Pöllat gorge.
• Both locations were good and had some 'gimme' images where you couldn't really go wrong, whether Schloss Neuschwanstein or my friends gorgeous garden.
• Having a few toys to hand to play with worked well, such as the ND filters for the gorge and my tiny fish-eye lens as a demonstration of how aperture works.
• Getting the students to fill out a self-assessment form (below) well in advance of the workshop so that I could prepare a session to fit their individual needs worked really well.
• The handouts I had prepared turned out to be really good teaching aids.
• After the first workshop we sat down and went through a handful of the best images, looking at technique and possible tips. The offer is still out on the second workshop, but, life!

Challenges

• One of the time-consuming aspects of both workshops was becoming familiar with other peoples’ cameras. After 18 months with my Olympus I can operate it pretty much blindfolded. Previously I’d been using a Panasonic bridge camera and so had at least a working knowledge of the menu structure. My students had Nikon and Cannon cameras respectively and finding functions in the various menus took time. If students aren’t familiar with their cameras, it’s essential that they bring the manual with them. It was also challenging switching between a mirrorless camera with all of the associated ease of use and the more flighty DSLRs.
• The weather and, more importantly, the light during the first workshop was extremely challenging. But that’s life sometimes.
• It’s important to establish ahead of time which lenses your students are bringing to the workshop. I’m used to the flexibility of being able to choose between ultra-wide angle, long telephoto and everything in between. Students aren’t always going to be able to bring that variety to the workshop and the location needs to be planned accordingly.

What Didn’t Go So Well

• Looking back, although the first workshop was fun, setting out without covering at least the basic theory was a mistake. I was all gung-ho for the location and thought I could explain as we went. I couldn’t.
• After the first few shots, I also assumed that the student was doing ok and didn’t need as much help or feedback. In future I’ll have to be more proactive in checking in with them.

Looking Forward

Looking forward, I think I will have to offer either one or the other; either a photo safari or a photography workshop. It’s much easier to concentrate on teaching skills in a calmer environment with few distractions, where we can sit down, talk about the principles and then put them into action.

On the other hand, once someone has mastered the basics, it will still be fun to head out to the hills to look at how to put those skills into practice.

Fairy-Tale Neuschwanstein || Olympus f/4.5, 1/8 s, ISO 800

My Questionnaires

I've created two questionnaires, one to give me a feel for the student's needs, one for them to give me feedback on the workshop so that I can continue to improve as an instructor. I'll reproduce them here for anyone wanting to use and adapt. I've created these using Google docs, and the answers flow directly into a table. I'm a huge fan of Google docs as they allow me to access the information on the go using a variety of platforms.

Student Assessment Form

I ask a lot about my students because I really want to understand their needs and offer a tailor-made session. It also helps them to assess where they are and think a bit about the issues involved. I also ask them either in advance of - or during the session how they would define a "good" photo. Although a straightforward question, it really helps focus on the issues.

Student Feedback Form

Feeback is critical to the process of becoming a better instructor - which is a huge part of the process for me. Here's my Student Feedback Form

In Seach of the Milky Way - From Dusk 'Til Dawn in the Allgäu

At the end of May I scouted a possible location for an astro shoot in the Allgäu mountains come next new moon. A good milky way photos lives and dies by the foreground and I wanted somewhere with a good view over the alps. The middle of June arrived and the forecast for Friday and Saturday was awful; clouds, rain, the lot. Nothing doing. The next weather window was going to be Tuesday night. To make matters worse, the initiator of the whole idea - my friend Matthias - couldn't make it as he was stuck up at work in northern Bavaria. But an old school friend who happens to live in Munich was interested enough to bite when I announced my intentions on Facebook and so Martin and I ended up heading down to Fischen im Allgäu early Tuesday evening to see what we could see. Meteorologically we were on a rising tide - there were still some clouds around but the weather was definitely clearing from the north and so we were optimistic.

The Shoot

Waiting For The Moon To Set || Huawei P30 Pro

Dusk

Driving down there were still cloud remnants lurking in all the wrong places, but the northerly wind was driving them deeper into the alps and so we weren't too concerned. We set off from the car-park in the early evening light. Normally, like most people, I spend most of my time in the mountains during the day. Unless I'm staying in one of the mountain huts, I'm generally back down in the valley for dinner. This evening's experience may get me to revisit that schedule. There's a good reason why landscape photographers choose to shoot at the ends of the day; the light quality is very different. It's softer, gentler and less blue. Watching the pastel colours changing on the Vorarlberg mountains in the gathering dusk made me start rethinking how I plan my days in the Alps.

As the Sun Goes Down || Olympus f/7.1, 1/80 s, ISO 200

It was great to see that not all of the snow had disappeared in the intervening weeks; I find the last snowfields really make a photo like this and I don't shy back from exaggerating them in post-processing like  here (above).

The Pastel Colours of Evening || Olympus f/7.1, 1/160 s, ISO 200

All the Layers || Olympus f/7.1, 1/30 s, ISO 200

Moonset

I'd promised my school chum a relatively easy hike up to the first mountain top that I'd identified. Unfortunately we didn't make it all the way and ended up about 100 m below the summit on a slight shoulder. The location was optimal for the first spectacle of the evening - the fresh new moon was due to set behind the peak above us and our location appeared to be optimal for that. My smartphone app (Sky View) was showing me where the moon should be in the sky, but for the life of me I couldn't find it. I was beginning to fret that either (a) the app was playing up, or (b) there wasn't going to be enough moon to see. As the sky darkened and I still couldn't see it Martin spotted it - why we hadn't seen it before was a complete mystery as it was so clear at this point.

Well It's Obvious Now! || Olympus f/8, 1/5 s, ISO 200

Setting Moon || Olympus 100 mm f/5.6, 0.6 s, ISO 400

Before we turned our attention to the stars that were beginning to appear in twos and threes there was one more dusk photo to grab before the technical stuff began:

When Purple Comes Out To Play || Olympus f/5.6, 40 s, ISO 200

As fun as it was to shoot the setting moon, it cost me my first milky way shots as I wasn't set up to get a good foreground photo during the blue hour that I could use to blend into the final image in post. The shot I ended up getting was ok, probably one of my better photos of the Milky Way per se, but the foreground is lacklustre. I don't know whether it would have been any better 100 m higher up either, but the lesson is that you need to be in position early, you need to get your foreground shots in in good time and you can only recon on about two good astro shots per night, one after the sun goes down and one before it rises, unless you're shooting with multiple cameras.

Collision Imminent || Olympus 300 mm f/5.6, 0.6 s, ISO 1600, Composite Image

Milky Way

The challenge with astrophography is the low light levels. You need an open aperture and relatively high ISO with a wide angle lens to get enough light to the sensor before the earth's rotation turns the star points into lines - the so-called star trails. As a rule of thumb, the maximum exposure time before this happens is 500/focal length* (400 if you're being conservative). So for my 16 mm equivalent wide angle lens, I can shoot for 25 s. In order to further increase light-sensitivity, we need to increase the ISO. Small sensor cameras (I shoot with an Olympus micro four-thirds crop sensor, technically a small sensor camera) are notorious for being sensitive to high ISO, the images tend to have a lot of unsightly noise - a random phenomenon that causes an unsightly buzz in the image. But being random, there's a solution: If you take multiple shots and then take the average of those shots, the noise is diminished. The challenge is that the software performing the calculations needs to take into account the fact that the stars are moving - if it didn't you'd end up with the trails again. All in all quite a technical feat, especially when there's a foreground involved. Fortunately the free Windows software Sequator can do all of this - it's what it was written for. It's not the most user-friendly app, but if you know what you're doing (or in my case if you know someone who knows what they're doing), it's extremely powerful. The trick seems to be not using too many of the features, but more of that below.

*25 mm equivalent, so with my micro four-thirds sensor I need to double my focal length

First Starlight - Stacked but Unprocessed || Olympus 8 mm, f/2.8, 25 s, ISO 6400, Stacked

We could just about make out the trail of the Milky Way in the Allgäu sky. From our vantage point I tried several series of shots, with and without my Haida Clear Light filter and Tiffen Fog filter and with the new 7Artisans 7.5 mm fish-eye. In the end I liked the unfiltered images through the Panasonic Leica 8-18 mm the best. The above image is stacked to reduce noise but otherwise unprocessed. The sheer clarity of the image just blows me away. The detail in the Milky Way is amazing. But I don't think this is a good Milky Way photo. It's a good photo of the Milky Way, but like I said earlier, a good Milky Way photo stands or falls by the foreground and I wasn't satisfied with what I was getting here, so after a cup of tea  and a pasty (thanks Martin, those were life-savers) I lay down for a 45 min shut-eye before heading up to the ridge, where I knew just the spot.

With Haido Clear Sky Filter, Unprocessed

7Artisans 7.5 mm Fish-eye Lens, Unprocessed

One of the greatest challenges with astro photography is finding infinity on the focus dial. Looking through the viewfinder you're confronted with an almost completely black image - finding something to focus on can be extremely difficult. If there's a bright light a couple of miles off this works relatively well, as at this distance there's effectively no focal change between 2 miles and infinity. It was quite a challenge in the dark though, and I had to hunt through the magnified viewfinder on the Olympus to locate Jupiter (bright spot in the middle of the images above) and twiddle the focus ring of the lens to render the tiny fuzzy light as tight and small as possible. Then it's shoot and hope. You can examine the images on the camera display, but you're never entirely sure whether your photo is sharp or not until you get the image on the computer screen.

Despite being pitch dark, it was easy enough to find my way by the light of my head-torch, having scouted the area less than a month before. I located the second spot relatively easily and set up the tripod again. A few ultra-high-ISO shots helped me frame the photo correctly. I also tried some low ISO long exposures with a bit of light painting so that I would have a foreground to go with it. This is a separate image that is blended with the processed astro image in post processing (see last image). This final photo here has to be my favourite image of the year so far. I didn't get a huge number of finished shots that I was happy with, but at the end of the day, if you come away with at least one, that's a win.

Milky Way Over The Allgäu || Olympus 8 mm, f/2.8, 25 s ISO 6400, Stacked

I carried on shooting for a while after this into the blue light of pre-dawn before giving up and catching a few more minutes sleep lent against my rucksack. It was a mild night with little wind and the ground was comfortable and dry beneath me, not a sound to be heard.

Birdsong and a yipping fox in the valley below alerted me to the coming dawn. By the light of the red band of cloud to the east I could just make out a small peat pond nearby that I'd just avoided in the dark. In retrospect I should have taken a lower vantage point for this shot. This is two images blended in ON1 Photo Raw, one for the sky, one for the foreground. I took the liberty of brightening the tufts of cotton grass to emphasise them in the pre-dawn light.

Mountain Tarn at Dawn || Olympus f/5.6, 1/6 s, ISO 200

Then it was down to find Martin and head down to the car. I found him warming himself over his camping stove and ready to return to the valley. As I waited for him to pack his things there was time for one last shot of the sun rising on the mountain escarpment opposite us. 

The Red Light Of Dawn || Olympus f/5.6, 1/30 s, ISO 200

Processing the Images

If you're not interested in the nitty-gritty of processing astro photography you can probably stop reading here and scan to the last images. It's very easy to over-process Milky Way photos: I spent two evenings working on this last shot only to have Sharon (correctly) tell me that it was too speckled and she didn't like the foreground. I've left this technical bit to the end for my techie friends who'll be interested in this stuff (hi Matthias!). 

Before the images can be 'stacked' (averaged), they need to be in tiff format. ON1 Photo Raw, my post-processing software can export tiffs, but they're the wrong format for my stacking software, Sequator. The images have to be opened in Olympus Workspace and exported as tiffs from there. For each image I used 10 star images and two control images with the lens cap on (lights and darks respectively).

Crop of main image

Unprocessed image OOC	Stacked in Sequator 10 Star images, 2 Noise images (with lens cap on), Align stars, Freeze ground, Sky region: Partial, otherwise all default settings	Processed in ON1 Photo Raw 2020 Develop: Contrast +24, Highlights +18, Midtones +15, Shadows -20, Whites +45, Temperature +40, Tint -3 Effects: Sharpening, Noise Reduction (Moderate), Tone Enhancer (Shadows Lighter on foreground; Midtone Contrast Boost, 50%), LUTs (1983, 35%), Sunshine (Sunglow, 50%), Curves (mild S-curve), Dynamic contrast on Milky Way

I also tried a blend of my favourite image with the light-painted foreground in ON1 Photo Raw. It's not perfect as I seem to have adjusted the camera between frames and had to stretch the resulting images to fit. I'd be interested to hear which image you prefer, this one with more detail in the foreground trees, or the original "Milky Way Over The Allgäu" above. My jury is still out on this one.

Milky Way Over The Allgäu II || Olympus 8 mm, f/2.8, 25 s ISO 6400, Stacked and Blended