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Summer Stars over Half Dome: Musings and Making-of
Summer star trails over Half Dome - Film astrophotography in Yosemite Valley
The Night Sky
Stargazing has been a huge part of my connection to the natural world since I started camping as a child. Capturing pictures of the stars has thus been a natural extension of that childhood curiosity, burgeoning quickly into a creative fascination of mine early in my photographic journey. Catching a glimpse of our vast Milky Way, connecting the dots of ancient constellations first discovered by our ancestors, or watching incomprehensibly old stars roll through the sky, in person or through the lens, offers an unparalleled experience of scale. Little is as humbling as witnessing even a portion of the scope and grandeur of the cosmos.
Season by season, day by day, even hour by hour, we are surrounded by an incredibly dynamic environment here on Earth. In fact, change is the only thing that truly resists itself. Yet beyond the confines of this rock we call home, the celestial bodies dance to a different rhythm. One whose tempo falls so far out of our human range that the stars appear to stand still, but for the rotation of the earth itself. Star trail photos are my attempt at capturing a component of this cosmic dance as it moves along, transcending our limited perceptions of time.
Despite my early astro work being carried out in the digital world, it was only a natural progression to transition even this subset of my photographic pursuits to film. What more appropriate way to capture something as timeless as the stars than by returning to the resurgent medium of film and shooting from a monumental valley carved by glaciers over millions of years?
last shot of the night, captured with a vertical composition instead. another bracketed test shot at 15 minutes
A Hybrid Photographic Process
My photographic work largely follows a hybrid approach, exploring the intersection of analog and digital processes. I find that the analog, physical processes in any of my pursuits facilitates access to a deeper flow state than their succeeding, digital counterparts. This extends beyond shooting and developing film for photography, to using live instrumentation or analog synthesizers for music production, returning to pen and paper for writing, or even rowing through a manual transmission’s gears when driving. On the flip side, the modern, digital world affords incredible flexibility and opportunity that has no parallel in the analog world. Blending the two offers the best of each.
In photography, this means being able to embrace the methodical, tactile process of film exposure and development, then moving into a digital post-production workflow for freedom in scanning, inversion into a positive image (in the case of negative film), gamma correction, and finally, color correction and grading (in the case of color negatives). A digital workflow also introduces non-destructive editing possibilities and simplifies some of the difficulties of analog print process like dodging, burning, and spotting.
The Shot: Technical Details
This is actually the first astro shot I ever attempted on film, and was one of the first rolls I developed myself! In typical hybrid fashion, I used a more modern DC-Nikkor 135mm f/2 lens on my trusty, mechanical Nikon FM2n (save for the internal light meter, which is useless for astrophotography anyway). Shooting wide open at f/2 on Ilford HP5+ 400 for its wide range of midtones, I exposed the frame for roughly 13 minutes to account for reciprocity failure. I developed the roll in Kodak HC-110 dilution H (1:63) for 7.5 min at 75ºF (it was hot here!). I scanned the roll with my DSLR setup (ironically using an older, manual-focus, AI-s macro lens) and inverted manually with Lightroom curves.
Film Astrophotography: Considerations
I actually prefer my older, manual focus AI-s lenses for astro work as they have a hard infinity stop, eliminating the trial-by-error focusing game necessary on modern autofocus lenses. For this particular frame, however, I wanted a tighter crop than available through any of my legacy glass, and the 135mm is the longest lens I have with an aperture control ring, allowing me to still control the aperture while on my FM2n body. Focusing was aided by the Nikon’s split prism focusing screen, and turned out great!
Despite the additional logistics of shooting on film, I find that film tends to create smoother, cleaner star trail images due to its lower sensitivity to dimmer stars, and the continuous nature of the exposure. No more skipped frames or over-crowded skies that are common on digital! These can be fixed, of course, in digital shots, but this can be arguably a more involved process than simply shooting and developing! But there is a real risk in film astrophotography of camera shake disrupting the trajectory of the trails, whether due to strong wind (and an improperly braced tripod) or an accidental bump. This, too, can potentially be remedied in post, but may prove to be more effort than it is worth.
The biggest issue with film astrophotography, however, is reciprocity failure. Negative film’s overexposure latitude helps a great deal, but knowing how long to keep the shutter open for is still greatest difficulty in using film for long exposures metered at 15s and above. Exposure time compensation factors and generous testing is the only solution, in combination with researching other photographers’ successful settings to use as anchor points for your own tests.
Final Thoughts
Astrophotography comes with a hefty set of logistical and technical considerations on its own, as does film photography. Embarking on the two in tandem then makes for quite an endeavor! But as with most things, the increase in required input effort makes the outcome that much more satisfying! Pulling this roll out of the development tank and seeing the inverted star trails was an incredible moment in my photography career, and I already have a few other trips and shots planned to recreate that experience! More to come, including on color and medium format film from Joshua Tree, so stay tuned!
-v