Photo by David Kelly

Canyonlands at Night

This is a composite Milky Way shot (composite of separate landscape and sky images). We had scouted areas for a Milky Way shot in Canyonlands, Islands in the Sky district. Grandview Point was the end of the road, and furthest south. Further south were just canyons with very little habitation. This made the area, and the direction south where the Milky Way was, very dark. It was perfect for a night sky image with little to no light pollution. I framed the image to contain some foreground elements (rocks and fence), and some prominent elements to include the butte. It was a spectacular night.

Editing notesThe separate images were both acquired on September 28, 2024. Both component images of the composite were acquired with an Olympus E-M1 Mark II, using a Laowa 10mm lens at f/2.2. The foreground image was acquired first about an hour after sunset (but before full darkness) with the exposure at 120s using ISO 200. The sky image was acquired after full darkness with 60s exposure and ISO 2000, using a star tracker. I edited the foreground image to bring out the shadows a little, but reduce any highlights. I also needed to edit the more distant objects darker since some haziness resulted from enhancing the shadows. When I layered the composite, I masked the sky of the foreground picture, and used the sky image. The sky image was edited to bring out the highlights and midtones, while reducing some of the shadows. I used curves to really enhance this contrast. Finally, I adjusted the white balance to bluer tones. I also used the color match filter on the foreground to get consistent tones in the sky and foreground.

E-M1MarkII
ƒ/2.2
10mm
ISO 2000
60/1 sec

Canyonlands at Night

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