Instructors: Rex Naden & Rick Whitacre
Date: Sunday, October 4, 2015, 9am–3pm
Class Limit: 20 Students
Fee: $175 (includes light lunch)
Astro-landscape photography is a new art form combining classic dynamic landscapes with the Milky Way, planets, meteors, and the night sky. This workshop will cover everything you need to know to create your own astro-landscape photography images, as well as using the moon, starlight, and light painting for foreground illumination. The one-day workshop will be conducted indoors in a conference room environment. Night shooting will be simulated on real Canon, Nikon, and Sony setups. Post-processing will be demonstrated live. Participants are encouraged to obtain the necessary equipment and capture their own photos in the field after the workshop; good shooting dates and nearby locations will be recommended.
To get the most from this workshop, participants should:
- have a working knowledge of both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and
- have a late-model DSLR camera such as Canon, Nikon, or Sony.
The material covered will include:
- Planning your Shoot
- Safety and comfort concerns with night photography
- Equipment checklist
- Determining the best times and locations to shoot
- Planning your shoot
- Tips for having sufficient power for your camera to shoot all night
Techniques
- Capturing stars as Star Trails / Circles
- Capturing stars as points of light for Milky Way photography
- Capturing meteor showers
- The best camera settings for each type of capture
- Foreground lighting techniques
- Ambient lighting from the stars or the moon, and light pollution
- Light painting
- Pre-planning for blending of images in post-processing
- Techniques for minimizing noise
A simulated Shoot (in a dark room):
- Proper use of flashlights
- Camera set up
- Finding and adjusting your composition in the dark
- Focusing in the dark
Post-processing
- Getting the most out of your images in Lightroom and Photoshop
- Managing Noise
- Stacking for star trails
- Blending in low-noise or light-painted foregrounds
Instructors
Rex Naden’s passion is landscape photography. Since 2006, Rex has assisted photographer Charles Cramer in teaching Printing for the Fine Art Photographer at the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley and in Silicon Valley. Rex served for three years as a Trustee at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA, at a venue established by Ansel Adams and Cole Weston. His exhibiting artists included Jerry Uelsmann, Al Weber, Huntington Witherill, and Charles Cramer. He associated closely with David Bayles and Ted Orland, authors of Art and Fear. http://www.rexnaden.com
Rick Whitacre is an avid night photographer specializing in astro-landscape photography. His images have been selected for exhibitions at both the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA and the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden, CO. In April, 2013 he received an Honorable Mention for his Milky Way over Half Dome Panorama in the 2013 Statewide Photography Contest at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA. His image Strand of Pearls was short-listed in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 contest and was published in their Astronomy Photographer of the Year book. In 2013, Rick’s image Tenaya Lake Milky Way was also short-listed and appeared in the 2013 edition of their Astronomy Photographer of the Year book. In May of 2013, his image Golden Gate and Star Trails took 5th place in the International Earth and Sky Photo Contest 2013 held by The World at Night (TWAN). The images Alamere Milky Way and Camping Under the Stars – McWay Falls were also named as Notable Photos / Special Mention in the contest. http://www.whitacrephotography.com
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