Orion on a clear winter night in downtown Calgary and shining over the pedestrian Peace Bridge over the Bow River. I shot this on January 20, 2018. This is a real scene, though the sky is a single longer exposure of 6 seconds at ISO 400, while the ground is a blend of 4 exposures from 1.6 to 8 seconds at ISO 100, all at f/2.8 with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750. A NISI Natural Night filter helped cut through light pollution and provide a more natural blue sky, though this was a moonless night. The ground images were blended with luminosity masks generated with ADP Pro v3, to prevent the lights on the bridge from blowing out too much. Star diffraction spikes added with Astronomy Tools actions.
The constellation of Orion the hunter, with its complex of nebulosity and colourful stars, enhanced here with the addition of diffraction spikes for artistic effect. This is a stack of 5 x 2-minute exposures taken from home on January 19, 2018, on a clear night, using the 50mm Sigma lens at f/2.5 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Tracked on the Star Adventrer Mini tracker. The key added element was the use of a NISI Natural Night light-pollution reduction filter in a test to see how well it brought out nebulosity and suppressed sky glow and gradients compared to a filterless shot. It did work and provided more nebulosity and reduced gradients toward the bottom of the frame. Star diffraction spikes added with Astronomy Tools actions.
