Starlight Moraine

[maddogmurph]

It's refreshing to me to know that there are still places in the world that don't suffer from light pollution. The scale of this scene is hard to convey. The peak you're looking at is called Thulagi Culi and rises 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) from where I'm standing at 3,700 meters (12,000 feet) along the knife edge of a moraine in a place called Bimthang. This is one of the most amazing places on the planet and a place I'd like to go back to some day.  However, it's so remote that getting here took us about 9 days of trekking.

This one was tough on the noise reduction side. Shot at Iso 6400

[armand]

I like the feel, the technical part less so.
I take it you wanted to use just one shot? I don't think this particular scene would work from a single shot with the current sensors, the foreground is just too dark. You would need at least 2 exposures, a very long (minutes) for the foreground at lower ISO, and either a single exposure at iso 3200-6400 for the sky (and a bright lens, F2.8 or brighter), or alternatively multiple exposures at lower ISOs and then averaged. I'm sure you already know this but I'll write it just in case.

PS. you could probably get away with a single shot if you include just the snow covered mountains but then you lose the river

[maddogmurph]

I like the feel, the technical part less so.
I take it you wanted to use just one shot? I don't think this particular scene would work from a single shot with the current sensors, the foreground is just too dark. You would need at least 2 exposures, a very long (minutes) for the foreground at lower ISO, and either a single exposure at iso 3200-6400 for the sky (and a bright lens, F2.8 or brighter), or alternatively multiple exposures at lower ISOs and then averaged. I'm sure you already know this but I'll write it just in case.

PS. you could probably get away with a single shot if you include just the snow covered mountains but then you lose the river

Yep. What you see is what you get my friend. No other shots to work with as the stars were fading fast here and I was scrambling. The noise is awful to work with. It was fun in some ways just trying to figure out how to "save" the shot even though printing here would be rough. I did a lot of masking, noise reduction, resharpening, dodge/burn, despeckle, censor light leak/bleed issues (turning the sides magenta) etc. The other side of my thought here was that it was DARK. By dark I mean you couldn't see much - it was all starlight illumination. As it stands I almost feel like this photo is a testament to modern censors. This wouldn't be possible without two exposures in the past, but the dynamic range is such that we can nearly pull it off today. But to your point, not quite... the d850 would have done a better job, but not much. I'm curious how the new medium format Fuji's would do here with their higher dynamic range.

[rabanito]

Just trying to learn:
What I don't get is what the problem is with taking many exposures for the foreground.
This part of the picture is not moving at all. Then combine and adjust them in PP.
I see that you made a lot of PP for this image so that would have been even easier.
Well I'm assuming you used a tripod, of course

[David Eckels]

The peak you're looking at is called Thulagi Culi and rises 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) from where I'm standing at 3,700 meters (12,000 feet)

So that would make its elevation above sea level ~35,000 feet? Approximately 5,000+ feet higher than Everest?

[Paulo Bizarro]

Fantastic landscape. I actually prefer the foreground dark as it is, because it is more faithful to the original scene. I do a lot of long exposures at night, and often the result of exposing for 10 or 15 minutes is that it looks like it was shot during the day.

[MattBurt]

Lovely and yes, a bit noisy but still nice.
I find for the stars + landscape shots if you don't want to take multiples, a little bit of moonlight goes a long way.

[maddogmurph]

So that would make its elevation above sea level ~35,000 feet? Approximately 5,000+ feet higher than Everest?

Does he .. eat, leaves & shoots? or does he eat leaves, & shoots... So you probably worked it out. The mountain is at 7k meters. I was standing at 3.7k

[rabanito]

The other side of my thought here was that it was DARK. By dark I mean you couldn't see much - it was all starlight illumination.

Interesting- I was some years ago in the Pampa del Leoncito (Andes), where there is an observatory at about 2500m.
It was new moon and a clear sky.
After about one hour of eye adaptation you could see the landscape perfectly. Kind of "moonlight". Maybe more stars in the southern hemisphere? Or the position of the Milky Way?

[David Eckels]

Does he .. eat, leaves & shoots? or does he eat leaves, & shoots... So you probably worked it out. The mountain is at 7k meters. I was standing at 3.7k

I think it was eats, shoots, and leaves Yes, I figured that out, but couldn't resist a smart-ass moment
Beautiful place, congrats on the hard work getting in position at whatever altitude!