Five Questions: Moonrises, Laowas, Acadia National Park and More

For every person who asks a question, a good hundred more probably had the same question and didn’t ask. So we like to share the questions we get and the answers we give.

This installment of our “Five Questions” series features inquiries about moonrises, Laowa lenses, the Nikon D780, night panoramas and Acadia National Park.

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks and other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything else related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

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1: Rad Moon Rising

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Supermoon over Death Valley National Park. Nikon D500 with a Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens at 200mm. 1/200, f/8, ISO 800. © 2016 Lance Keimig.

Q: Last year when driving home I passed a small lake that had a huge red/pink full moon rising over it. I tried to find out when this may happen again. Unfortunately I did not see how to get an easy answer to when there would be another full moon rising while the sun is setting, so I reverted to tedious data lookup. How can I plan this easier? And when will the moon still have a pinkish glow—when it beats the sun in rising, or when the sun beats it in setting? — A.B.

A: The full moon always rises near sunset, never at sunrise. The full moon does, however, set at sunrise. (The opposite, for both cases, is true of the new moon.) Either way is a good way to shoot the moon near the horizon during soft light.

The exact times vary quite a bit—by up to as much as an hour, depending on the exact timing of the full moon. In some months, the best timing may be one day before or after the full moon. The moon rises about 45 to 55 minutes later each day during its 28-day cycle, but the sunset time varies by only a minute or two. 

You can use PhotoPills or a website like TimeandDate.com to find out the date of the full moon each month, and then check the sunset and sunrise times within a couple of days of the full moon.

The “best” time for moon photography depends on the effect you are looking for, and the landscape where you are photographing. If you want a warm glow on the landscape, look for a moonrise that’s just before sunset. But I generally prefer a moonrise about 10 to 15 minutes after sunset, when the exposure balances nicely between the moon and the soft light on the land. By about 20 minutes after sunset, the exposure difference between the moon and the landscape is too great to capture in a single image.

The color in the moon is completely dependent on atmospheric conditions––the amount of dust, moisture or pollution in the air. The more particulates, the more color. When the moon is just rising, you are viewing it through hundreds of miles of atmosphere. When it is high in the sky, you are viewing it through a single layer of atmosphere, which is why it is almost always white. — Lance

2: Learning About Laowa

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Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/2 FE Zero-D lens for Nikon Z.

Q: I have the Nikon Z 6 and am looking for a wide-angle lens that I can use for night photography. I saw this lens on the B&H Photo website: Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/2 FE Zero-D for Nikon Z. What do you know about this lens/company? Quality? Performance? Any info? — Terry K.

A: Summary: It’s a yes.

Why? Four reasons.

1. It’s an incredibly small, light, fast and sharp lens.

2. At f/2.8, the coma almost disappears, and at f/4 it’s totally gone. To see a technical test I did, download and open these files in Photoshop and zoom to 100 percent. The star-field boxes are 100 percent crops. The gray zoom boxes are exaggerated zooms at 800-plus percent to show the actual shapes of stars. (Note: These are totally unedited photos. The chromatic aberrations can be easily removed, but I chose not to remove them for what were just test images.)

3. The metal lens hood is reversible.

4. It beat my Zeiss Distagon (gasp!) in regard to coma. Wow. And I have an extra stop of light when I need it. And it’s half the size.

So, yeah, the Laowa is fab.

There is one major downside, however, which may or may not matter to you: It does not have electronic contacts. So you will not have the metadata in Lightroom that identifies the lens or which aperture was used for the photographs. — Matt

3: Switching from Canon to D780

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Nikon D780.

Q: My Canon 6D has been pushed to its limits and I’m seeing too much ISO noise, so I’m looking into changing over to Nikon. Have you used the D780? — J.M.

A: The short answer: I’ll definitely be buying one. The image quality seems similar to or better than the Nikon Z 6, which is noticeably better than the D750 I’ve been using for several years. The D780 image quality at 12,800 is outstanding, and is definitely usable at 25,600. The camera also has extended shutter speeds down to 15 minutes.

They moved a couple of buttons around––which shouldn’t be an issue for you coming over from Canon. Other than that, it feels very comfortable and familiar for a Nikon user. I also like that they stuck with two SD card slots and didn’t go for the expensive XQD, or worse, one XQD and one SD slot.

For the long answer, see our recent blog post “Best of Both Worlds—The Nikon D780 Combines the Advantages of the D750 and Z 6.”

My suggestion is: Yes, jump on it! It may just be the last camera you’ll buy. — Lance

4: Night-Pano Follow-Ups

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Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park. Nikon D750 with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens. Sixteen stitched frames shot at 10 seconds, f/2.2, ISO 6400. © 2018 Matt Hill.

Q: After reading your blog post on how to plan and shoot a panorama, I have a few questions:

1. I have an Acratech GP-ss ball head, which can be mounted upside down and used as a leveling base. So I presume I wouldn’t need a separate leveling base—or would you recommend having one anyway?

2. I want to rotate my setup exactly 30 degrees between each frame. How could I do that without turning on my headlamp?

3. I’ve seen some photographers use a Nodal Ninja Advanced Rotator. It has different settings with click stops to confirm you’ve reached a pre-set degree. I believe it could be of help as I wouldn’t have to engage my red light. Are you familiar with these rotators? — Roger R.

A: I’m so happy to see you’re inspired to get out and shoot some night panos! My answers:

1. I am a fan of having a separate leveling base (and I have the Acratech). It honestly doesn’t add much to the operating size and weight, and it benefits all my setups (not just panos). Leveling is simply faster with a leveling base than by adjusting tripod legs. That said, I have not attempted using the GP-ss inverted, but that’s a curious and wonderful thing it’s capable of doing!

2. You may consider getting some glow-in-the-dark model airplane paint and making 30-degree ticks on your pano base, as well as making reference points (two, three or four) on the top part. Come to think of it, I may do that myself!

3. I know two people I really trust who have used rotators, including Gabe. They require setup and calibration. But having those clicks is very helpful for confidence and maintaining your night vision.

   There are other options for indexing rotators that have detents—be sure to examine the intervals you can choose:

• Sunwayfoto DDP-64SI and DDY-64I Indexing Rotator Combo

• Nodal Ninja Advanced Rotator RD8-II

• Sunwayfoto DDP-64M Indexing Rotator

• Manfrotto 300N (3414) Panoramic Head

Keep in mind that all this gear is great to have for leveling up control over the process of shooting a pano at night, but it’s not required. The most important thing is the proper planning and technique that we covered in the original post. Have fun with your panos! — Matt

5: Acadia Aspirations

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Eagle Lake, Acadia National Park. Nikon D3s with a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, light-painted with moonlight and a Coast HP7R warmed with a 1/2 CTO gel. 20 seconds, f/8, ISO 3200. © 2017 Chris Nicholson.

Q: My husband and I are planning on going to Acadia. We’ve never been to Maine before. We started looking for places to go and stay mainly for night photography with ocean, rivers or lakes with views in or around the park. The area is huge! Was hoping you could give some suggestions on specific areas to stay and go. — Eileen M.

A: You could drive in pretty much any random direction, and you’ll be fine. 😊

Acadia is actually a pretty small park, relatively. But there’s a lot of diversity there for photography.

Anywhere along the Ocean Road will be great for coastal/ocean scenes, and if you’re up for a 20- to 30-minute walk, then I highly recommend Great Head at sunrise. Good spots more accessible from the car include Boulder Beach, Monument Cove and the cliffs in between; Sand Beach; and anywhere along the road between Sand Beach and where the road goes back into the forest.

For lakes, Jordan Pond and Eagle Lake are my favorites. And again, if you’re up for a hike, then I suggest taking the Jordan Pond loop trail all the way around (know that there is a short section that requires going over rocks). In that same area of the park, I recommend hiking up South Bubble for the views over Jordan Pond and the coast, then to Bubble Rock, then from there up to North Bubble, then along the ridge toward a beautiful granite overlook of Eagle Lake.

From late spring to early autumn, you can shoot the Milky Way over Eagle Lake from the main parking lot at the north end.

Also, if you want a quieter experience, check out the Schoodic Peninsula, which is the only part of the park that’s on the mainland. It’s about a 45-minute drive from Mount Desert Island. It has beautiful coastal scenery along almost the whole loop drive. At low tide you can walk out to Little Moose Island, which is beautiful as well. If there’s a storm while you’re in the area, the point of Schoodic Penninsula is where you want to be the next day to shoot the waves crashing on the rocks, in the last couple of hours of the tide coming in. (Just don’t get too close to the treacherous water.)

For more information, I can recommend two excellent photography guides: Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, and How and The Photographer’s Guide to Acadia, both written by photographer friends of mine, Colleen Miniuk-Sperry and Mike Hudson, respectively. You could also check out my book, Photographing National Parks, for some more general ideas on Acadia and for tips about scouting your shoot.

As for places to stay: Bar Harbor is the center of activity, and has restaurants, coffee shops, etc. It can also be “bustling” when a cruise ship is anchored. If you’d like a quieter experience, consider Southwest Harbor on the west side of the island (known locally as “the quiet side”).

Finally, it’s good to know that due to the current public health situation, Maine has instituted a temporary 14-day quarantine for visitors from out of state. The order is expected to expire sometime between July 1 and August 31, depending on the outcome of some pending regulatory decisions. You’ll want to confirm the status before traveling. — Chris

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Five Questions: Flashlight Filters, Night Photography with Film, Adobe Bridge and More

We like getting questions. Sometimes they challenge us, sometimes they fascinate us, and sometimes they allow us to fill in the gaps of the things we teach on workshops and in our blog.

This installment of our “Five Questions” series features inquiries about making custom filters for color-correcting flashlights, Pentax’s built-in equatorial tracking, film photography at night, Viltrox lenses and using Adobe Bridge with Lightroom.

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks or other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything else related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

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1. Making Custom Color-Correction Filters

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Coast Portland LF100 flashlight filters.

Q: Thanks for your recent post on color temperature. Can you describe how you physically make a filter for the flashlight? Tons of gaffer tape? — Will

A: You could use gaffer tape, or you could just wrap the gel around the end of the flashlight and hold it there with your hand or a rubber band. But there’s a more elegant way. In Part I of that series, Tim told how he attaches the gel to the flashlight. Personally, I like to use double-sided tape to adhere the gel to the clear filter, which gives me a nice, clean piece of gear to work with.

However, the first time I did this, I used standard-size clear tape. It didn’t fit across the whole filter, so I needed to use three pieces side-by-side, which created shadow lines in my flashlight beam. Not a huge problem, but it wasn’t polished enough for me. Moreover, one of the reasons I love using a Coast HP7R to light paint is because the illumination is even across the whole beam. So, shadows from my filter wouldn’t do.

Because of that, I instead started using clear mounting sheets. They come in 8.5x11 sheets, from which I can cut a piece that covers the whole filter. I cut a square piece large enough to cover the clear plastic disc, then use sharp scissors to trim the edges to align with the circle. Then I peel off the backing, adhere a square of filter gel, and finish by trimming that as well. If I need two gels, I repeat the process on the other side of the disc.

Then I can pop my custom filter in the holder, and light paint with precise color with no fuss. — Chris

2. Equatorial Tracking with Pentax

Q: I rarely see anything about the use of equatorial mounts in general, or more specifically what Pentax claims to have with their K1 being able to simulate an equatorial mount for up to 3 minutes. I purchased the K1 thinking that this was the way to go, but as I am just starting in astro-landscape photography, I would be interested in your thoughts on these approaches to letting the shutter stay open a little while longer. — Ray B.

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Pentax K1.

A: None of us have shot with a Pentax K1, but I have a couple of friends who have, and the AstroTracer feature does indeed perform as advertised. Since you already have the camera, I definitely recommend that you give it a go. Just bear in mind that you will still have to do a separate shot for the landscape or foreground, as it will be blurred in the tracer image. (The AstroTracer tracks the sky, so the camera will not be synchronous with the earth!)

For general astro-landscape photography, typical exposures are 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400. With the AstroTracer, you should be able to get 2 or 3 minutes at f/2.8 to f/3.5 and ISO 1600, depending on your lens.

We would love to see your results. Please send us a couple of images, or better yet, share on our Facebook page. — Lance

3. Film Photography at Night

Q: Greetings from Portugal! I make landscape photos with long exposures, including night photography. I shoot in black and white with digital, but also with film (Tri-X), and recently I got some Acros. What are your views about these two options? — Verissimo

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Figure 1. Click to englarge.

A: Thank you for reaching out, all the way from Portugal! I’ve used film for night photography for over 20 years—less and less over the last 2 or 3, but lately I’ve been resurging. (Keep your eye out for a post about that soon!)

Figure 1 is an excerpt from my book Night Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots, with a chart that compares the film reciprocity of Tri-X and Acros.

As you can see, Tri-X is not a good film for night photography, unless you want to be pushed to very long exposures very quickly. A 15-minute exposure for digital would need to be doubled for Acros (30 minutes), but quadrupled for Tri-X. That’s 1 hour, and anything over 15 minutes is not recommended for Tri-X. This means that with Tri-X at night, you can shoot only under full moon or in brightly lit urban conditions.

Last summer there was some very good news for film night photographers, as Fujifilm brought back Acros after a yearlong hiatus. One of our most beloved black-and-white films, Acros has very low reciprocity failure and can be used successfully under a variety of low-light conditions.

Another thing to consider is that when shooting film at night you are technically overexposing the lights to get a better burn into the silver. To compensate, I advise that you reduce your development times by 10 percent or so to get the best results. Use my chart and -10 percent as a starting point to cook up solutions that best fit your style and the chemicals you use. — Gabe

4. Viltrox 20mm

Q: In your recent blog post “How to Plan, Shoot and Edit a Milky Way Arch Panorama,” I have to say I am a bit confused by this statement: “Lately I’ve fallen in love with the Viltrox 20mm f/1.8, because it comes in a Nikon Z-mount and is crazy-easy to focus manually.” I am unable to find this lens in a non-Z-mount. Maybe you can point me in the right direction? Also, do you know how the Viltrox compares to the Nikon F-mount 20mm f/1.8G combined with the FTZ Adapter? — Eunice

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The Viltrox 20mm f/1.8 Z-mount lens.

A: Viltrox is a relative newcomer to the lens market. They presently make the 20mm f/1.8 lens only in a Sony E-mount and a Nikon Z-mount. The latter is not yet available through U.S. retailers, but you can order one directly through Viltrox on Amazon. The Viltrox website is not so up-to-date, but here is some information about the two focal lengths they make (20mm and 85mm). For most of what they manufacture that is available in the U.S., check out B&H Photo.

As for your other question, I have not compared those two lenses directly, so I cannot comment about the optics. But I can comment on the physical attributes.

The Nikon 20mm f/1.8G is substantially lighter, but then you do need to factor in the FTZ Adapter, which adds a little weight. The 20mm is very sharp, though it does suffer from more coma than the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, which is why the latter is legendary among night photographers.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Viltrox: heavier, manual focus only, has coma until stopped down to at least f/2.8, all metal lens barrel, comes with adapter to use screw-on filters 

• Nikon: lighter, requires adapter, auto and manual focus, also has coma until stopped down to at least f/2.8, plastic lens housing, can use screw-on filters natively

— Matt

5. Bridge to Lightroom?

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Adobe Bridge—meant for using with Photoshop, not generally with Lightroom.

Q: At a recent workshop you said not to use Adobe Bridge to edit photos before importing them into Lightroom, but rather use just Lightroom. If you import from Bridge, that changes the equation somewhat? Most folks in my camera club swear by Bridge. — Brien R.

A: If someone is not using Lightroom, then by all means they should be using Bridge. But there just isn’t any good reason I can think of to use Bridge before Lightroom. Everything that Bridge does is something that’s built into Lightroom, so using Bridge beforehand is just adding extra steps to accomplish the same tasks.

I’m not claiming that there’s not some truly efficacious reason out there to use Bridge first, but it would be a major exception to the rule, something that would fit a very specific, out-of-the-ordinary need. As an indication of how unusual that need would be, know that between Lance, Tim and I, we don’t know any professional photographer who uses Bridge before Lightroom. — Chris

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Five Questions: Sony, Z Options, Flying Objects, Third-Party Software and More

We get a fair number of questions. We try to answer them all, and we like to share this information exchange with any night photographer interested in listening in.

This installment of our “Five Questions” series features inquiries about enhancing Sony live view, the Nikon Z6 versus the Z 7, identifying flying objects, using Nikon lenses on Canon bodies, and third-party post-processing software.

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks or other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything else related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

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1. Bright Monitoring for Sony Cameras

Q: In your recent blog post about the Nikon Z 6, you mentioned that Sony recently added a Bright Monitoring mode to their A7 and 6000 cameras that makes it easier to compose at night. Where do I find that? You also said it could use some improvement. Where does it fall short? – N.N.

A: It is a bit hidden in their menus, so it’s best to assign the feature to a button. To find it:

1. Change your camera to manual focus. It won’t let you select Bright Monitoring if you are in any of the AF modes.

2. Navigate to the Camera Settings2 tab in the menu, and look for Custom Key for stills (the icon that looks like a picture of a mountain).

3. Assign a button to activate Bright Monitoring.

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This lets the camera decrease the FPS refresh rate so that you can better see and compose in dark scenarios.

Where it falls short is here: Because you are in manual focus mode, if you zoom in on your LCD or EVF to finesse your focus, the camera automatically jumps out of Bright Monitoring and the screen goes back to normal (i.e., dark), which makes it hard to focus. So then you need to revert back to one of our “8 Ways to Focus in the Dark.”

So yeah, it has room for improvement. You can use it to compose, but not to focus. Still, it’s a very cool feature, and it could be added as a firmware upgrade by any camera manufacturer. (Hint hint.) — Gabe

2. Nikon Z 6 or Z 7 at Night?

Q: I’ve been sitting on the fence about buying a Nikon Z 6 or Z 7. Your recent article makes me want to go ahead and get one, but I’m curious how the Z 7 compares with the Z 6 at night. I currently shoot my night (and day) pics with the D850. — Deb

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A: The short answer is that the Z 6 is better for night photography than the Z 7. The long answer? Here it goes:

The Z 7 has a very similar sensor to your D850, so if you like the image quality you are getting now, then the Z 7 would give you about the same results in a smaller body. And those results are amazing.

But at night things change. The issue with higher-megapixel cameras (typically over about 40 megapixels) is that it’s harder to achieve cleaner high ISOs, particularly past 6400. This is true for the Z 7, whereas the Z 6 can easily shoot 2 to 3 stops beyond that—it’s a low-light machine.

The other issue for me (and this is a literally a big one) is that the file size created by the Z 7 averages about 85 MB for an uncompressed RAW file. The Z 6 is in the 35 MB range. This gives you more detail (which is great for making very large prints), but at two costs:

1. Stars will start to trail faster on a higher-resolution camera. So when you want to shoot star points, not only will you be losing a couple of stops in ISO due the reason I mentioned above, but you’ll also lose another half-stop in shutter speed.

2. The bigger file size fills up memory cards and hard drives twice as fast. If you are going to do star stacking (which is something I do a lot at night), then your computer will be working twice as hard, for twice as long, while blending or stacking 60 or 100 85 MB files. For that reason, the most needed accessory to go along with higher-megapixel cameras is a new computer or hard drive for all the wonderful files they produce.

My honest suggestion to you is this: If you currently love your D850, keep it as your high detail/dynamic range daytime camera. It will also be fine under most moonlit conditions at night. But for shooting the Milky Way and moonless nights, invest in a Z 6. — Gabe

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© 2019 Sue Wilson.

3. Identified Flying Objects

Q: I was out taking photos last night and I just started looking at them. I came across this grouping of three photos that have three distinct lines in the sky. The photos are consecutive (the ones before and after do not have anything). Would these lines be three jets? Just curious as to whether you have captured or seen something like this. — Sue

A: Those three lines are typically what we see from commercial airliners. There are lights on the end of the wingtips and sometimes one in the middle, so it’s most likely you are seeing a large airliner with a broad wingspan, or a large military aircraft that also has a sizable wingspan and perhaps is flying lower to the ground.

A fun side project of night photography can be identifying airborne objects in our images. See my blog post from last year, “How to Tell the Difference Between Planes, Satellites and Meteors.” — Matt

4. Nikon Lenses on Canon Cameras?

Q: In your recent blog post “The Simmer Dim: Photographing in Twilight that Lasts Till Morning,” the caption below the first picture says it was shot with a Canon 5D and a Nikkor lens. Can one really do such a thing? — Henry

Stones of Stenness, Orkney, Scotland. Canon 5D with a Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 PC lens. 30 seconds, f/8, ISO 800.

A: There are adapters that allow you to use Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Contax lenses on Canon DSLRs. And that’s a good thing, because I have a bag full of film-camera perspective control lenses that I use this way! I’m still using the old PC Nikon lenses, as well as a couple of Olympus Zuiko Shift PC (Perspective Control) lenses. They are great quality, and way cheaper than the modern equivalents, especially when bought used on eBay.

You can adapt all sorts of lenses to all sorts of cameras (though manual-focus Canon FD lenses cannot be adapted to other cameras because of the flange that was used to stop down the aperture). There’s a price to pay in performance, though. Using old film-camera lenses on digital cameras is 100 percent manual—no auto focus, manual aperture control, and no metadata in your software. — Lance

5. Third-Party Software for Stars and HDR

Q: There are some other programs you guys use a lot for star trails and HDR. What are they? – J.K.

A: All five of us use Lightroom and Photoshop for almost all of our star-trail images. Adobe has done a good job over the years of watching the market for third-party tools that fill a real need for photographers, and then adopting, and then improving upon, the best solutions.

That said, there are a few exceptions in our personal workflows:

1. For creating star stacks, Lance and Gabe sometimes use StarStax, which fills the gaps in the trails created when multiple images are stacked together.

2. Lance also likes Dr. Brown’s Stack-a-Matic, which is a Photoshop script that automates creating masks on each stacked layer.

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HDR night image of Las Vegas, which Tim created in PhotoMatix.

As for HDR, most of us use Lightroom, which creates a 32-bit DNG file from your bracketed exposures, which you can then develop or tone-map as usual. The exception here is Tim, who instead often uses PhotoMatix for creating HDR images in cases where Lightroom fails with ghosting or complex blends.

Incidentally, the only three third-party solutions we really use often accomplish tasks other than what you asked about:

1. LRTimelapse for creating time lapse videos

2. Silver Efex Pro for black-and-white conversions

3. Starry Landscape Stacker for making low-noise star-point images

What third-party software solutions do you all use? Let us know in the comments sections below, or on our Facebook page. — Chris

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Five Questions: Very Large Files, Pollution Filters, Fuji lenses and More

This installment of our “Five Questions” series features inquiries about large image files, light pollution filters, lenses for Fuji, organizing files in Lightroom and old Canon cameras..

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks or other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything else related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

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1. Giant Files Missing from Lightroom

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A 4 GB, 38-layer PSB file from Matt. Files this big don’t show up in the Lightroom catalog.

Q: I have run into an issue with large file sizes when image stacking. In Lightroom, after I choose Open as Layers in Photoshop, the final layered file is greater than 2 GB. I saved it in PSB large document format. The file was saved to the disk, but is not showing up in my Lightroom catalog like PSD files do, nor does it show up in the Import window in Lightroom. It looks like Lightroom cannot see the file at all. So I tried flattening the file, but then I got a moiré pattern in the image. Have you seen this before? What is your process for saving and working with very large Photoshop files? — Craig

A: That is correct—for some reason, Adobe hasn’t allowed Lightroom to see PSB files. So your options are to either work with that file only in Photoshop, or to flatten it so it saves as a smaller PSD file.

But yes, flattening can occasionally create its own challenges. We have seen that moiré issue with stacked photos before. It happens sometimes, but not others, and we haven’t been able to identify a pattern of when or why. We’ve asked others who are Adobe-knowledgeable, and haven’t found an answer—but we’ll keep trying! What I can tell you is that the moiré seems to happen more often when working with images from higher-resolution cameras, and that sizing down the image a little before flattening seems to help. — Chris

2. Filtering Light Pollution

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Light pollution from Miami over Everglades National Park. Nikon D3s, Nikon 17-24mm f/2.8. 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400. © 2013 Chris Nicholson.

Q: Do you use light pollution filters of any kind? I don’t remember any of you mentioning them, and I don’t see them in your gear list. Are they just a scam? It seems like such a filter would help when you can’t get to a dark sky area. — Brien

A: Night sky filters mostly help with color shifts from light pollution, and can increase contrast in the sky. We’ve tried a couple of them, but have not tested them scientifically––yet. There will be a blog post comparing them for effectiveness before too long.

That said, I think the general consensus is these filters they can improve skies somewhat, but probably don’t provide $250 to $300 worth of improvement, which is what they tend to cost. I wouldn’t call them scams, but I also probably wouldn’t call them a great investment if resources are limited.

If you decide to try one, please let us know what you think by sharing in the Comments section or on our Facebook page. — Lance

3. Night Lenses for Fuji

Q: I own a Fuji X-T2 and have a 14mm f/2.8 lens. I notice that at least one of you has posted photos using an X-T2 with their 10-24mm f/4 lens. These photos look great. I have been looking at that lens and/or the Fuji 16mm f/1.4 to get a stop or two of additional light, given that the tests I see appear to indicate the corners are much softer at f/1.4, better at f/2 and pretty good at f/2.8. My interest in the 10-24mm is the flexibility and range down to 10mm, but I am concerned about the stops of light I would give up. What is your experience with these lenses, and do you think I should instead look more deeply at a Samyang or Rokinon 12mm or 10mm? — Larry G.

A: Several of us have been shooting with Fujifilm since the X system came out, and our two favorite lenses for the night are the Fuji 10-24mm f/4 and the 16mm f/1.4.

The 10-24mm gives an excellent zoom range that’s good for including lots of night sky. The f/4 does limit light, which makes it challenging for Milky Way shots, but if you were to shoot at ISO 6400 or 12,800 and use Starry Landscape Stacker, then you could get away with it. However, the 16mm f/1.4 would be our preferred Milky Way lens for Fuji—it’s an excellent focal length and you can shoot wide open or stop down to f/2 without a worry.

That being said, if I were to buy into the Fujifilm lens system now, I’d have to give their new 8-16mm f/2.8 lens some serious consideration. It’s wider, faster and heavier than the 10-24mm, but the f/2.8 aperture gives it the versatility to shoot in any day or night situation.

On the higher end of tried-and-tested night lenses, I’d also recommend:

• The Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8 is similar to the Fujifilm 16mm f/1.4 in image quality, but is wider.

For budget and manual focus lenses:

• I’m not a fan of the Rokinon/Samyang lenses—I’ve had too many with soft, out-of-focus edges. (Though I might try Samyang’s new 10mm f/2.8.)

• Matt and I both own the inexpensive 7Artisans lenses—the 12mm f/2.8 is pretty good and Matt really likes his 7.5mm f/2.8 fisheye.

Finally, with adapters, any lens can be at your disposal:

• Our favorite night lens is the Irix 15mm f/2.4 that comes in Canon, Nikon and Pentax mounts. It’s manual focus with a click stop at true infinity, it has hyperfocus markings, and you can lock your focus. It comes in two versions: Firefly and Blackstone. Optically they’re the same, but the Firefly is polycarbonate and the Blackstone is magnesium alloy. The former is lighter, and is best for hikers and photographers who are otherwise weight-conscious; the latter is more rugged, made for extreme situations, and has engraved fluorescent markings that are easy to read at night. — Gabriel

4. Organizing Photos in Lightroom

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Q: I really want to move into Lightroom, but I do not organize my images by date. It just won’t work for me because I really want to group photos by place and such so I can look at a “place” together with all times I’ve been there. I know that’s what collections are for, but I cannot even begin to fathom reorganizing everything into dates and collections. Can I use Lightroom that way? — Therese I.

A: You’re in luck, because the Lightroom engineers designed the catalog to be pliable enough to use in whatever way feels comfortable to individual photographers. So when organizing photos, do whatever makes sense to you.

There are two strategies I see most often:

• Organize into folders by date, and use keywords, collections, etc., to catalog and find them. This is what I do. That works very well for the way I think, because I have a very good memory for dates—show me an image of mine and I can tell you the month and year I shot it. A folder in my catalog might be “2016-05-20_Acadia.” So I do have location info in the folder name, but it’s only secondary. However, this approach doesn’t necessarily work so well for a fair number of other people whose brains don’t categorize information the same way mine does. Many other folks tend to …

• Organize images into folders by region, country, city, etc. So there might be a folder structure of United States -> Southwest -> Arizona -> Grand Canyon. Using this strategy, you could still search by date, as that info is built into the metadata.

Really, it just comes down to which way your brain tracks these things better. Like I said, I’m in Group 1, as are Gabe, Matt and Lance. Tim is in Group 2. Lightroom is flexible enough to make your own system within the confines of the software. The important thing is to pick a strategy that is easy enough to implement while effective enough to be useful, and then to be diligent about sticking with the procedure you choose so that you can always find your images quickly and effortlessly. — Chris

5. Old Canon vs. New Anything

Q: What is your thought on the Canon XSi for landscape and night photography? I was thinking of upgrading to a their DLSR cameras, but was wondering if a Nikon camera would be a better option. — Nichole P.

A: The Canon XSi is more or less an entry level camera from 2008, and, to put it mildly, would be a subpar choice for night photography. We recommend a current camera that is at least one notch up from entry level.

To an extent, it matters what kind of photography you’d like to do. If you want to photograph the Milky Way, then the above recommendation is a minimum, and we’d encourage you to step up to a full-frame camera like the Canon 6D Mark II, or even the original 6D (which you could get on eBay for about $500) if you are on a tight budget. Over at Nikon, the D750 is an outstanding value, or the D5500 or D5600 would be OK.

Most importantly, I recommend buying a current generation camera. Even with lower-priced models, current cameras are far superior to those that were made even just a few years ago. — Lance

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Five Questions: Great Smoky Mountains, Zion, Bryce, Black and White Printing, and More

You ask questions, we give answers. (And then you ask more questions, and we give more answers. Let’s keep the conversation rollin’!)

This installment of our “Five Questions” series features inquiries about camera choice, Lightroom’s Dehaze feature, file settings for black and white printing, and location info at Great Smoky Mountains, Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks.

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks or other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything else related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

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1. Great Smoky Mountains Closed at Night?

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Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Nikon D850 with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens. 30 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 64. © 2018 Matt Hill.

Q: Your Smoky Mountains National Park workshop looks interesting, but isn’t the park closed at night? I once tried to get in before dawn and the gate was locked. — Linda

A: Yes, the workshop will be both interesting and fun. (Promise!)

Great Smoky Mountains is usually open 24/7/365.25. But there’s a caveat. You may have been trying to enter Cades Cove—one of the most popular destinations at GSM. The gates at the beginning of that 11-mile loop road are closed at dusk and opened at dawn. But that is only to keep motorvehicles out; visitors can park nearby and walk or bike through Cades Cove anytime.

In fact, we will be going into Cades Cove twice during our workshop. The first time will be on foot. We’ll saunter a comfortable walking distance, which still offers plenty of shooting opportunities, such as the horse meadow, Sparks Lane, the Carter Shields Cabin and the Oliver Cabin. Our second jaunt into Cades Cove will be as an add-on opportunity that will avail the entire loop road to us.

Night photography in Cades Cove can be a blast, and is worth venturing into for sure. You’ll find amazing sky views, as well as loads to light paint. — Matt

Note: We still have a few spots open for our Great Smoky Mountains workshop this spring. Interested? Click here!

2. Missing dehaze

Q: How come my Lightroom 6 does not have the Dehaze slider? Are there any add-ons to LR that have the same quality Dehaze function that I can use?  — Bailing L.

A: The reason Dehaze slider isn't showing up for you in Lightroom 6 is because the feature wasn't added until the next version of the software, which was when the subscription-only model of Lightroom Creative Cloud was launched. In fact, Dehaze was the major feature added to the program right after launch to entice more people to sign up.

And I gotta say, while I’m not a fan of the subscription-only model, there’s an argument to be made that the Dehaze feature alone is worth the upgrade. It's an amazing tool with a lot of ancillary uses. One such application is to make starry skies and the Milky Way “pop,” as can be seen in this blog post by Tim.

If you don’t want to upgrade, there is one alternative that I’ve heard about, but I’ve never tested it: Prolost Dehaze. If you take it for a spin, please let us know how it works out for you. — Chris

3. Things to Shoot in Zion and Bryce

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The Amphitheater at dusk, Bryce Canyon National Park. Fuji X-T2 with a 10-24mm f/4 lens at 10mm. 3 seconds, f/7.1, ISO 200. © 2018 Tim Cooper.

Q: I’ve already booked hotels for your Valley of Fire and Grand Canyon workshops. So excited! While in the region, I'm thinking about hitting Bryce Canyon and Zion. Do you have any advice about good areas to shoot without 4-mile hikes? — Julianne K.

A: There’s a ton to see and shoot at both parks without having to hit long trails.

In Zion, be sure to drive into the main canyon and also up through the tunnel toward Checkerboard Mesa. Stop at any pullout along these roads and enjoy the incredible scenery! You can’t miss.

For short walks in Zion I recommend:

• Weeping Rock and the trails around it

• Temple of Sinawava and the trail to The Narrows (though not into The Narrows, as that’s a more serious endeavor)

• the area near the bridge that crosses Pine Creek

At Bryce, any viewpoints along the 15-mile road offer awesome overlooks of the canyon. Think sunrise for these viewpoints (especially Sunrise Point).

Middle-of-the-day shooting is better when you hike down a bit below the rim. Check out Navajo Loop Trail and Queens Garden Trail. No need to hike the entire loop of either, but just going down a little will get you into some terrific scenery! — Tim

Note: Due to a cancellation, a spot just opened up for our Bryce Canyon workshop this summer. Interested? Click here!

4. Choice for Multipurpose Camera

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Q: I have two specific photography interests—night and underwater. I’ve been using a Canon 5D Mark III for night photography and time-lapse. I also use a Nikon D7000 for underwater. I’m planning to replace the D7000 with a higher-resolution camera, hopefully one that I can use for both underwater and night photography. My options are to buy an underwater housing and lenses for the 5D Mark II, or stay with a DX-format (Nikon D500) with a new housing, or go with something else like a Nikon D850. I would like to get to the point where I am using Nikon or Canon, not both. Which camera would you recommend to meet my needs? — Richard R.

A: Camera choice is a personal decision, and there are lots of factors to consider. I have yet to find the perfect camera, or one that offers everything I’m looking for in one package.

Given that you have Canon glass for full-frame cameras, I’d concentrate on comparing the 5D Mark IV to the D850. I think the Mark IV is the best camera Canon has ever made, and the first one that surpasses the 6D for high ISO night photography. The D850 is an awesome camera, but if you use live view focusing at night, I’d probably go with the Mark IV, especially if you have a number of L lenses. Why not rent them both and see which feels better?

The D500 is certainly a capable camera, but if you can afford to go full-frame, I think you’ll be happier that way. If you favor wide lenses, definitely go full-frame; if you tend to shoot long, then the D500 might be a better choice. — Lance

5. Image Settings for Printing in Black and White

Q: I sent a black and white image from the Sloss Furnaces workshop to Bay Photo to have printed for the NPAN exhibit there. I converted to black and white in Lightroom, exported to Photoshop for star stacking, flattened, and then brought the file back in to Lightroom. But Bay Photo is telling me that the image is not in the correct format—that instead of grayscale it needs to be converted back to RGB to make a black and white print. So I then tried keeping the photo in color and just dropping Saturation and Hue to 0 to create a black and white image “in color,” but that washed out the shadows. I’m lost here. Any suggestions or insight? — Martha H.

A: Very cool that you’ll be participating in the exhibit! This is the third park that our workshop attendees will have a show in. It will be running April 1 to June 1 at the Sloss Furnaces visitor center.

As for your question: In short, any file that is sent to a printer should be an RGB image, not grayscale. Even if you convert an image to black and while in Lightroom, it still sends an RGB image over to Photoshop. Below is a screenshot of an image that I converted to black and white in Lightroom and then sent to Photoshop. If I go to Image > Mode, you can see that the file is a 16-bit RGB image. This is normal and the way it should be.

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The difference? An RGB image can be black and white, or it can be color. A grayscale image can only be black and white. My guess is that you did something in Photoshop to convert it, intentionally or not.

To fix the problem for Bay Photo:

1. Reopen that image in Photoshop (from Lightroom, choose Photo > Edit In > Edit in Adobe Photoshop CC 2019).

2. Go to Image > Mode, and click on RGB Color.

3. Save the file.

Now when you export the image from Lightroom, you will create a JPG in RGB. — Tim

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT