{"id":45416,"date":"2023-05-25T12:21:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T12:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=37015"},"modified":"2023-05-25T12:32:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T12:32:37","slug":"how-to-capture-and-process-images-of-noctilucent-clouds","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-to-capture-and-process-images-of-noctilucent-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"How to capture and process images of noctilucent clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the best results, processing your noctilucent clouds images is all about subtlety with the settings, says Adrien Mauduit. <\/p>

By Iain Todd\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 25 May 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Despite the shorter, brighter nights, the summer skies are far from dull and can offer some remarkable subjects to photograph, including night shining, or noctilucent clouds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here we cover how you can easily take, process and produce stunning shots of noctilucent clouds in rather dim and backlit situations to correctly emphasise the details in their silvery tendrils without blowing out the highlights.<\/p>\n

Noctilucent clouds evolve rather slowly and the twilight gives you enough light to adjust your settings depending on your camera\u2019s and lens\u2019s abilities.<\/p>\n

Noctilucent clouds: what they are and how to see them<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Once your gear is set up, use the manual setting to set focus at infinity on a bright source of light in the far background (a star or a streetlight).<\/p>\n
If your camera has live view, use its built-in zoom.<\/p>\n
Since noctilucent clouds occur in a half-light situation, your main challenge will be to get the best dynamic range; in other words, not blowing out the highlights above the horizon while conserving enough data in the shadows to avoid noise!<\/p>\n

The goal is really to do minor general adjustments to keep a balanced and natural look. <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
The example picture in this feature was taken with a Sony <\/a>\u03b17R II camera and a Canon 100mm f\/2.8 lens with a shutter speed of three seconds to avoid motion blur while gathering enough light.<\/p>\n
The aperture was stopped down to 3.2 to increase sharpness and an ISO of 400 achieved good light levels and minimised noise.<\/p>\n
We recommend you take several shots at different settings to improve your chances of getting the right exposure.<\/p>\n
Setting the settings<\/h3>\n
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