Photos of the highest mountains in the world through the eyes of a professional Ukrainian photographer
On the International Day of Mountains on December 11, established by the UN so that we at least sometimes remember what a sensitive and fragile system these giant stone monoliths really are, we decided to please you with a selection of amazing pictures of the Himalayas taken by a professional Ukrainian photographer Anton Yankov .
Anton Yankovoy took his first shot in early childhood at his father's Zenit, but he did not set himself the goal of becoming a photographer. He started shooting seriously at a more mature age, learning everything on his own and inspired by the examples of Steve Macari and Michael Kenna. On the this moment Anton is a member of the European Association of Professional Photographers, and his footage is regularly featured in travel magazines and travel communities. Anton travels extensively in Asia, but most of his photographs are taken in the Nepalese Himalayas. Several times a year, he conducts photo tours - trips in which he teaches those who want to take pictures of mountain landscapes. Exhibitions of his works are regularly held in Kyiv. His photographs, both fantastic and realistic, subtly resemble the paintings of N. Roerich and convey the atmosphere of the Himalayas - that endless peace and quiet that radiate the largest mountains in the world.
Photographer, blogger and traveler Anton Yankovoy continues to talk about the features of shooting the starry sky and night landscapes.
There are two main approaches to night photography:
1) shooting static stars, when in the final image we see them the same as our eye perceives them - in the form of many points in the sky;
2) shooting tracks using very long exposure, in which the photograph captures the trajectory of the movement of stars in the sky around the South or North Pole of the world.
Let's take a look at each of them in more detail...
Shooting static stars
In astrophotography, a guided parallax mount is used to image static stars, star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, and more. A parallax mount is such a mount, one of the axes of which can be installed parallel to the axis of the world, directed to the North Pole. Guiding is the process of controlling and correcting the tracking of a camera or telescope for the movement of celestial objects - usually as a result of the daily rotation of the sky - during an exposure.
Of course, all this is very interesting, but for some reason it seems to me that most ordinary photographers do not have such special devices, so in this article we will consider shooting only using a simple tripod, and those who are interested in astrophotography will easily find a lot of information on this topic in the Internet.
So, what do we need to know in order to take a picture with a static, without tracks, starry sky? The most important thing to remember is the simple rule of 600, which is this: if you divide 600 by the focal length of your lens (35mm camera equivalent), we get the maximum shutter speed at which the stars in the sky look like dots, not dashes. So, for a 15mm lens, the maximum shutter speed when shooting static stars will be 600 / 15 = 40 seconds, and for a 50mm lens - 600 / 50 = 12 seconds.
Based on this rule, we set the resulting shutter speed in the camera and, if possible, leave the aperture as open as possible, which would give an acceptable picture quality. Now we just have to choose the ISO value at which we get a balanced exposed image.
Note. Mirror blocking can significantly increase the sharpness of exposures comparable in duration to mirror positioning time (~1/30 to 2 seconds). On the other hand, mirror shake is negligible for shutter speeds that are much longer; as a consequence, the blocking of the mirror in most cases when night shooting not critical.
Shooting tracks
Shooting the rotation of the starry sky requires the longest exposures - from 10 minutes to several hours, depending on focal length and how long trajectories you want to get in the picture. It is difficult to calculate the exact shutter speed, it can only be determined based on your personal experience and preferences for the length of the tracks. For example, I know that a 50mm lens needs an exposure time of 20–40 minutes for tracks that are beautiful to my taste, a 24mm lens needs about 90–120 minutes, and so on.
There are two main approaches to shooting such scenes:
1) shooting in one frame;
2) shooting a continuous series of images with their subsequent stitching in specialized software.
Until recently, almost all photographers who wanted to capture the circular rotation of stars in a picture used the first method. I highly recommend the second option. But in order for you to decide for yourself what is preferable for you, let's look at all the disadvantages of the first and the advantages of the second approach.
So, the disadvantages of shooting in one frame:
- the difficulty of calculating the correct exposure pair, in which the picture would be balanced both in shadows and in light. It is sad to find an overexposed or underexposed image even after a half-hour exposure, not to mention exposures lasting several hours;
- when using even the most modern digital technology at ultra-long exposures, strong, sometimes simply unbearable, digital noise appears in the pictures (even at relatively low ISO values);
- high risk of movement with such long exposures;
- if you don’t notice in time how your front lens is fogged up, write wasted.
The advantages of taking a series of shots with relatively fast shutter speeds and then combining them into one frame:
- ease of calculation of exposure pairs for shots with a short shutter speed (usually no more than 30–60 seconds), which will make up our series;
- exclusion of the possibility of overexposure / underexposure;
- relatively imperceptible digital noise in the pictures, which after stitching all the frames becomes even more uniform, if not completely indistinguishable;
- when selecting frames for final stitching, you can simply exclude images with movement or glue only the number of them that was taken before/after the camera shift. Thus, we are completely insured against this problem;
- the ability to control the length of star tracks. If we don't like the excessive length of the trajectories of the stars in the final image, we can simply exclude some of the images from the series, thereby changing the length of the tracks;
- as a result, we get not only one final frame with star tracks, but also a large number of shots with a static starry sky, some of which can be very successful;
- if during the shooting of the series we did not notice how the front lens fogged up, then we can use only successful frames when stitching, excluding defective ones;
- it is possible to use a series of obtained photographs for editing videos with the rapid movement of stars across the sky.
Note. When shooting a series of night shots, do not forget to uncheck the Long Exposure Noise Reduction camera settings, otherwise the shutter speed you set will be doubled (the second half of the shutter speed will be noise reduction, subtracting the noise map from the picture you took).
As we can see from this comparison, the advantages of the second approach are much greater. It remains only to make out a few nuances of shooting similar series. To begin with, it is worth noting that it is desirable to shoot them in RAW format with low-quality duplication in JPG, in order to later make it easier and faster to experiment with stitching a different number of frames without their preliminary scrupulous conversion. If we talk about the duration of exposures, then I personally advise using shutter speeds calculated according to the 600 rule for shooting a series of night shots.
Next, we set all other exposure parameters - ISO and aperture, connect the programmable cable release to the camera, which was already described earlier, set the minimum interval between shots (1 second) and the number of shots in the series (if set to 0, then shooting will continue indefinitely , until the battery in the camera or in the cable runs out). That's all! We press the "Start" button and get comfortable in order to comfortably spend the next few hours.
Finding the poles
If you need to get pronounced circles of rotation in the picture, then the lens should be directed to the North Star (in the Northern Hemisphere) or Octant Sigma (in the Southern Hemisphere). For shooting landscapes with a starry sky, it is good to have basic knowledge of astronomy, in particular, to be able to determine the direction of the Earth's rotation relative to the starry sky.
Since the majority of the Russian-speaking population lives mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and travels around it, let's look at it first.
Due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis, it seems to us that it is the starry sky that is moving. In the Northern Hemisphere, this rotation is counterclockwise around a point called the North Pole of the World. Near this point is the North Star.
Everyone knows that the Earth rotates around its axis with a period of ~24 hours. It rotates about 0.25° per minute. Therefore, in one hour for each star, a 15-degree arc is obtained. It is longer if the star is at a greater distance from the Polaris.
The North Star is a supergiant, but finding it is not always easy, since the distance from it to the Earth is 472 light years. Therefore, in order to find the North Star, you must first determine the characteristic configuration of the seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major, resembling a ladle (asterism Big Dipper), and then through two stars of the ladle wall opposite the handle, mentally draw a line on which five times put off the distance between these extreme stars. Approximately at the end of this line is the North Star, which is also the brightest in the constellation Ursa Minor, also similar to a bucket, although not so pronounced and noticeable in the sky.
The North Star is always located above the northern point of the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere, which allows it to be used for orientation on the ground, and by its height above the horizon, you can determine at what geographical latitude we are.
Do you want to compare the North Star with the Sun? So she:
- 6 times heavier than the Sun;
- more than the Sun 120 times;
- radiates heat and light 10,000 times more than the Sun;
- just like the Sun, yellow.
But a ray of light from the Sun reaches the Earth in just 8 minutes, and from the Polar - in 472 years, which means that at the present time we see the star as it was in the time of Columbus.
South Pole of Peace
In the Southern Hemisphere, the only star that points to the South Pole of the World is Sigma Octanta. But it is also barely distinguishable and does not stand out from the rest of the stars at all, so it is absolutely impossible to use it for navigational purposes, like the North Star in the constellation Ursa Minor. The position of this star can only be determined using the constellation of the Southern Cross, whose long bar points to the South celestial pole (a line drawn through the gamma and alpha of the Southern Cross approximately passes through the South celestial pole at a distance of 4.5 times further than the distance between these stars).
Southern Cross (lat. Crux) - the most known constellation Southern Hemisphere and at the same time the smallest constellation in the sky. It borders the constellations Centaurus and Mukha. Four bright stars form an easily recognizable asterism. The constellation is easy to find in the sky: it is located near the Coal Sack Nebula, which is visible to the naked eye as a dark spot against the background of the Milky Way.
Useful programs
Work examples
To inspire you, in addition to my work, I will give an example of 10 more the best photos stars that I managed to find on the Internet. Experiment and you will succeed!
© Chris Gray | Photo - winner of the National Geographic Photo Contest - 2009
© Tom Lowe | Photo - Winner of Astronomy Photographer of the Year - 2010 | 32 sec, f/3.2, ISO 3200, 16mm AF (Canon 5D Mark II + Canon EF 16–35mm f/2.8 L USM)
© Mark Adamus; brightest point - planet Jupiter | 45 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 16mm FR (Canon 1Ds Mark III + Canon EF 16–35 mm f/2.8 L USM)
Conclusion
OK it's all over Now! Now you know what stars are, what they eat with and how to shoot them. I will be glad to any questions and comments.
In conclusion, I would like to say: in addition to the fact that the night is a great time for photography, it is also an amazing, mystical time when you can be alone with yourself, get away from everyday life and worldly fuss, plunge into the dark abyss in order to rethink life's values. and just look at your being from the outside.
Anton Jankovoy is a professional travel-photographer, shooting in such genres as travel, landscape and portrait photography; member of Federation of European Photographers (FEP) and Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF); the head manager of Zhytomyr photographers club "Photosphere" and the author of the project "Photo-Travel". Lately travels much, arranges seminars and master classes on travel photography. Participated in many domestic and international photo-exhibitions. There were few personal exhibitions including "Open Space" exhibition (2013) of Anton"s starry night landscapes pictures together with a Hubble Space Telescope"s photos, on a territory of CIS. Anton has obtained a bronze award at the "FEP (Federation of European Photographers) Professional Photographer of the Year 2011" and bronze award in the russian speaking countries at "Best Photographer 2011". He works with such a big agencies, companies and publishing houses as Apple, National Geographic, Asus, Getty Images, Yahoo, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Bauer Media Group, Silverkris Airlines, El Pais, The Independent , Daily Record, british Digital Photo, Digital SLR Photography Magazine, Practical Photography, Photographer, PhotoTravel, PhotoDelo, Himalaya MapHouse, Mumbai Mirror, Go Launcher, Photography Masterclass Magazine and etc.
Anton Jankovoy: “My only aspiration in a photography is to wake up in everybody realization the meaning of life. That is the only one way to feel this world the way it is and how it was created for us, the way the children see it"
Interests: The East, travelling, photography, mysticism, esoterism, raw food diet, mountains, nature, silence
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Professional travel photographer shooting in such genres as travel, landscape, genre, genre and staged portrait; member of the Federation of European Photographers (FEP) and the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF); head of the Zhytomyr Club of Photographers "Photosphere"; founder of the project "PHOTO-TRAVEL". Recently, he has been traveling a lot, organizing various photo tours and master classes in travel photography. Participated in dozens of collective photo exhibitions, both international and national scale. Several personal exhibitions were held on the territory of the CIS, including an exhibition of Anton's starry landscapes together with photographs of the distant space of the Hubble orbital telescope ("Open Space", 2013). In 2011, Anton took third place in the official competition "The Best Professional Photographer of Europe", as well as bronze in the first national photo award "BEST PHOTOGRAPHER 2011", which was held among all Russian-speaking photographers of our planet. Anton works with such well-known agencies, publications and companies as Apple, National Geographic, Asus, Getty Images, Yahoo, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Bauer Media Group, Silverkris Airlines, El Pais, The Independent, Daily Record, British Digital Photo, Digital SLR Photography Magazine, Practical Photography, Photographer, PhotoTravel, Photo Business, Himalaya MapHouse, Mumbai Mirror, Go Launcher, Photography Masterclass Magazine, etc.
Anton Yankovoy: “My only aspiration in photography is to awaken awareness of life in every person. After all, this is the only real way to feel this world, as it was created for us from the very beginning and the way children see it.”
Interests: East, travel, photography, mysticism, esotericism, raw food, mountains, nature, silence
