Light: The Language of Photography: Uphill Skies

These images are not particularly in any order. And certainly, they look quite bad online. The actual print versions are fine, although there has been issues with the "dark skies" ones.

The location is a beach called Uphill, North Somerset. About 1 O'clock in the morning. I used a wide angle (12-24mm Sigma.)

There is a mathematical formula (Often aided by a phone app) called the rule of 500. You take your focal length (Say 12mm) and you divide 500 by it.

This gives you a basic time of exposure (In this case, 41seconds.) This prevents the stars blurring as the world rotates. It may seem a very short time, but it is evident in many exposure, so - unless that is what you are looking for - must take that into account. You can adjust ISO and aperture accordingly.

Orion was in the skies, and more importantly, there was no moon. I played with the (plentiful) light pollution, and created many images. There are a few where the light pollution is not evident, and some where I've allowed it to overwhelm the image.

My final selection is a personal choice. The light pollution is not overwhelming, and creates a nice silhouette of the surrounding bay. I also like the fact that the street lighting casts a shadow of myself over the entire landscape, while still maintaining the starfield.