. N I G H T S C A P E R • Photo by Royce Milky Way over old barn in Skull Valley, Utah. Photographed last Tuesday. My Grandfather herded sheep in this valley when my father was only 7 years old, so this valley has a lot of significance to me! THE IMPORTANCE OF ASTRONOMICAL DUSK TIMING: Astronomical Dusk is when the sun is 18 degrees or more below the horizon. Once it reaches this period, the night sky is as dark as it is going to get, and the stars appear their brightest. Photographing even a few minutes before this period can greatly reduce your Milky Way contrast and change your sky coloration. Swipe to see --> BTS: I had set up my composition just after sunset (7:20pm) according to my planning with @photopills. At 8:40pm I could see that the yellow star, Antares, was about to slip behind the left barn vent, so I started exposing a stack of 12 exposures, even though the Astronomical Dusk period would not start for another 10 minutes (8:50pm). After exposing that stack, I moved my tripod about 20 feet, and recomposed for another stack, starting at 2 minutes after the Astro Dusk. Although I didn't like this composition as well as the first, the sky contrast and coloration was much better than the first. Trying to overcome the problems of exposing before the Astro Dusk proved too great in post processing, especially in the western sky area — however, sometimes I like the twilight element... What are your thoughts? TECHNIQUE & EXIF: Stack & Blend • Canon 6D (H-alpha modified by @SpencersCamera) + Canon 24mm f/1.4 • Both pre-Astro Dusk and post-Astro Dusk images taken at 13 sec, f/2.8, ISO 8000 (stack of 12 "light" frames and 6 "dark" frames) for the sky. Stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker. Sky stack blended in Photoshop layers with a foreground exposure of 60 secs, f/2.8, ISO 4000 • Both images received the same post processing “S” Curves in Ps for final sky contrast and color. . . . . . . . . #nightscaper #nightscape #nightphotography #wowutah #VisitUtah #werutah #beautahful #amazing_longexpo #amazingearth #amazingphotohunter #astrophoto #fantasticuniverse #longexposure_shots #milkywaygalaxy