The Milky Way arches over a field of yellow canola on a dark summer night.
The night was beautifully clear and moonless with a glow to the north of perpetual twilight still lingering. The Milky Way was obvious so I hiked to the middle of the canola field next to my house, visible here lit by the red lights at left.
To shoot this panorama I used the same technique as in the The Colour of Dark panorama image from last month which has proved quite popular: I shot eight exposures at 45° spacings using the 8mm fish eye lens. Each was a 60 second exposure at ISO 4000 and f/3.5. I assembled the panorama using PTGui software, from images processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
The sky was well exposed but the ground was still dark, lit only by starlight. It took some processing in Camera Raw (Shadow Detail) and Photoshop (Shadows and Highlights) to bring out the yellow field of canola in the foreground.
While the sky looked neutral grey to the eye, I’ve punched up the colours a lot to reveal the blue twilight, green and magenta aurora to the north, bands of greenish airglow across the sky, and yellow glows of light pollution.
The odd streaks of light on the canola are reflections of the horizon lights in the soaking wet dew on the canola. It was a very damp night after a day of rain.
– Alan, July 7, 2013 / © 2013 Alan Dyer
The Amazing Sky 
How lucky you are to have access to the awesome night sky – beautiful image – do you shoot with a modified dslr?
Hi Eriki, I do have a modified DSLR but I didn’t use it in this case. They are only of benefit when shooting red nebulas in deep sky imaging.
Cool! I can see The Prancing Horse. In New Zealand, they see that upside down, and some see a Kiwi Bird.
cheers, Dave (from my iPhone)
Reblogged this on bearspawprint and commented:
Oh the colors the colors
May I reblog this?
Yes, please do. Thanks! — Alan
Thank you thank you the colors oh the colors also the low bow oooooooeeeee