Live, in Front of an Online Audience: National Parks at Night!

In early March, Gabriel Biderman and I jetted over the Atlantic to run our first international trip of the year, to the Lofoten Islands of Norway. Two weeks later we returned to a very different life.

For the past two and a half months we haven’t been traveling for workshops—neither Gabe nor I, nor our business partners Matt Hill, Tim Cooper and Lance Keimig. We miss being in the outdoors at night, so much that we made a video about it. We also immediately missed interacting directly with the community of night photographers, both inside and outside the ranks of our workshop alums.

In an effort to reach out, and as part of the global collective effort to give us all something to do in the confines of our homes, we launched a series of weekly livestreams, as well as an online post-production course. Since March 23, we’ve been online at least three times per week, either on YouTube or Instagram, chatting with workshop alums and other night photographers, engaging in public Q&A’s with industry experts, teaching Lightroom and helping folks with their images, and more.

We’ve shared notices of these endeavors on our Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts, but have yet to mention anything in our blog. Today, that changes. Below you can see a rundown of all the online programs we’ve been offering this spring, along with our plans for the immediate future.

#BlogChat

Our #BlogChat livestream on YouTube is something that had been in the works for a while. Every week for more than five years we’ve published a post in this blog. But there is always so much more to say than can be fit into a thousand or two thousand words. So now we chat about it online, too, and we field questions from the live comments. Yay for more words!

On Tuesday nights, Matt sits down in his studio in Catskill, New York, and leads a conversation with whoever wrote that week’s blog post. We started with a week of five straight #BlogChats centered on posts from our archive, and since then have conducted a weekly online discussion of that week’s topic. We intend for this is be a consistent program, even when we’re back on the road.

Some topics we’ve covered so far:

• Make Printing Part of Your Process

• Returning to Nature, Returning to the World: Where We're Ready to Go

• Six Steps to Shaking Up Your Night Photography

You can see all our #BlogChat videos here:

To receive a notification from YouTube whenever we go live, be sure to subscribe to our channel!

(Yes, I am, right this minute, writing a blog post about a video program about our blog posts. It does not escape me that this is very meta. Is it possible that this week’s #BlogChat will be a video about our blog post about videos about our blog posts? We’ll see!)

Ask NPAN Anything / Conversations

Instagram is the social media service designed for photographers, so of course we have always dedicated a lot of time to our profile and image grid there. What we hadn’t done was engage via the platform’s live capability. Two months ago, that changed.

At the beginning of April we launched Ask NPAN Anything, a weekly Wednesday-night exchange between Gabe and one other instructor, and whoever was watching on Instagram could chime in with questions about … well, about anything. We’re always open books, happy to discuss all topics related to night photography, national parks and dark skies. We’ve been doing that for half a decade in our “Five Questions” blog series, and Instagram is the perfect alternative format for doing that live.

Each week featured a theme. One time Gabe chatted with me about national parks, another time he chatted with Matt about night portraits, another time he chatted with Tim about post-processing—and all of these were open to questions from anyone watching.

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Then Gabe had an idea: What if we invite one of our friends to join us for a conversation? He reached out to JC Carey of Nikon, who was happy to come online and talk about Nikon cameras and lenses, his amazing work with strobes and his adventures photographing at night.

The next guest was Art Suwansang of BenQ, and everyone was able to ask great questions about monitors, calibration, etc. Then photographer Susan Magnano joined us to chat about being “stuck” living in an RV in the wilderness of Moab for two months during the COVID19 lockdown. This past week Ralph Lee Hopkins, a National Geographic photographer and the director of photography expeditions for Lindblad Expeditions, joined for a groupwide conversation about his amazing travels.

Because format and “the feel” of this livestream has changed a bit, we are announcing a new name for it: NPAN Conversations. Gabe will still host this every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET, and other NPAN instructors will still often be guests. Here’s a peek at what we’re planning for the next few weeks:

• June 3: Rafael Pons of PhotoPills

• June 10: To be announced, talking about tripods

• June 17: Lance Keimig, talking about night photography books

• June 24: Sandra Ramos, aka National Park Patch Lady, talking about getting to know the smaller units of the National Park Service

We also have long-term plans for guests that include a national park ranger, an astronomer and a street photographer, as well as industry experts in the fields of lighting, printing, lenses and more.

For all of these sessions, the floor will be open for questions, so be sure to join us on Wednesday nights on Instagram (@nationalparksatnight) or npan.co/instagram.

The Night Crew Image Review

One of the most important activities on many of our workshops is the Image Review. We gather during daytime to go over the photographs we’ve been making at night. It gives the group a chance to celebrate its successes and to learn from its challenges.

Now we have brought that experience online with The Night Crew Image Review. Each week we’ve put out a call for images, and then we’ve met with participants on Zoom to go over their submissions. We’ve seen some great work, and we’ve offered suggestions on everything from initial capture to cropping to post-production.

Moreover, we have simulcast the meetings live on our YouTube channel so that other photographers can hopefully learn from the experience and join in the chat discussion. You can see all the Night Crew Image Review sessions we’ve done here:

As of June, we’re changing the schedule for this program to once per month, on dates to be announced. You can still submit images at any time by visiting npan.co/imagereview. We’ll reach out when it’s your turn for the livestream group review so that you can join us on Zoom, and we’ll announce the simulcast on our social media channels.

If you need more immediate feedback, that’s actually a service we offer! We run one-on-one sessions with photographers on a regular basis, on topics as varied as:

• Catalog Clutter and Image Organization

• Gear Consultation, Camera Settings

• Image Review

• Lightroom and Photoshop

• Mentoring and Artistic Development

• Monitor Calibration

• Night Photography Techniques

• Pre-Workshop Education

• Travel Prep

This is a service we offer online as well as in-person when possible. For more information, visit our Tutoring page.

Lightroom Live

This is another idea we’d contemplated for a while, and this was the perfect time to launch it: an online course designed to teach Lightroom, the most important piece of software for photographers, focused on the two most important modules, Library and Develop.

You can see more about our Lightroom Live online course in this video:

We’ve run two sessions of Lightroom Live already, each with a full cohort of 12 participants who attended four two-hour classes. (We’re keeping these classes small to maximize the time that participants get with the instructors.) We recently announced two more sessions, each in June, each on weekends, each with seats available:

• Session 3: June 5, 6, 12, 13

• Session 4: June 20, 21, 27, 28

The course also comes with bonuses! When you register you’ll receive a download of our new video Lightroom: Correcting Your Catalog Chaos (which will be on sale to the public soon—stay tuned!), and at the end of the course you’ll receive an hour of one-on-one time with the instructor of your choice.

See our Lightroom Live online course page for more information and to register today.

Other Endeavors

During all this non-travel time, we’ve been busy with other projects as well. Of course, we’ve still been writing blog posts, on topics ranging from the new Nikon D780 to a new intervalometer to ideas for long exposures at home and more.

We also recognized that five years of blog posts, over 200 in total, are a little unwieldy to look through when they’re organized only by date. So we created a brand new page on our website where you can see all our posts organized by topic. That’s about 300,000 words of free night photography education. We hope you enjoy!

We’ve also been busy on the publishing front. In April we released an e-book titled Great Balls of Fire: A Guide to Photographing Meteor Showers. It covers everything you’d want to know about the subject:

• which meteor events to target

• dream locations to photograph meteor showers

• how to scout, shoot and edit a meteor shower

• a gear guide for being perfectly equipped in the field

You can get more info and download the e-book here.

(Psst, psst! Want to know a secret? We’re also in the final stages of publishing our second e-book of the spring. Want a sneak peek?)

Wrapping Up

Of course, we have some more plans too. We’ll let you know as soon as they’re ready.

In the meantime, we’re excited to see you online! For more information and to stay updated about all of our livestream programs, visit npan.co/live.

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Returning to Nature, Returning to the World: Where We’re Ready to Go

It’s official. We at National Parks at Night have broken all previous records of days without travel.

The current situation does remind me a bit of being on the road with a photography group. As challenging as staying at home or in one place can be, one positive personal experience for me is that each night, to honor the first responders and essential workers of New York City, my wife Nancy and I cheer and clap with our neighborhood in Brooklyn at 7 p.m.

These few minutes have been perfectly timed with the sun setting to the west, so I’ve seen more sunsets than in any other two months of my life. Meeting new neighbors and feeling the warmth and beautiful light have added to the incredibly uplifting moments. That all reminds me of the many moments and shared adventures we have on our workshops, and that kicks my wanderlust into high gear!

While we have been focusing on cleaning our catalog clutter and re-editing images from past adventures, all of us at NPAN have also been dreaming about where we want to go next when all the travel restrictions are lifted. More than ever we are craving large green spaces to roam as well as magical dark skies to envelope ourselves in.

We love turning dreams into reality. So to inspire you to envision where you’d like to go next, we created this video that features some of the amazing places in the world we have explored.

In that same spirit, below all five of us share a place that we’re dreaming about, a place we are looking forward to exploring in the near future—hopefully with you!

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North Cascades National Park

by Chris Nicholson

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North Cascades National Park. © 2016 Chris Nicholson. Nikon D810 with a Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 lens. 10 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200.

I miss mountains. Pretty, snow-capped mountains. Especially ones reflecting in glassy alpine ponds.

I miss waking on foggy mornings and walking through grass damp with dew. I miss days warm enough for T-shirts followed by nights cold enough for coats. I miss thin, clean air, and how easy breathing is. I miss remote, quiet meadows centered among softly rustling forests, and I miss the trickling sounds of delicate cascades and the thunder of tall waterfalls.

I miss how rock feels beneath my trail shoes: thousands of feet of rock that don’t budge even a smidge under my step as I climb to reach heights to see over the endless miles of valleys and lakes below.

I miss Washington state’s North Cascades, and the national park that bears their name. The beauty there is at once still and dynamic, at once present and ancient, at once silent and alive. The mountains rise around in all directions. Layers and layers of peaks and ridges that recede toward the horizon. And above that horizon at night, the glorious Milky Way that floats among a million stars.

I’m feeling one with John Muir. Those mountains are calling, and I can barely wait to go.

All the Islands of Scotland

by Lance Keimig

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Sligachan, Isle of Skye, Scotland. © 2017 Lance Keimig. Nikon D750 with a Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200, f/11, ISO 100.

I’ve always had a thing for islands. Perhaps it’s because I’m a sucker for all things romantic––and what’s more romantic than a mist-shrouded shoreline, crashing waves and quiet fishing villages? Maybe it’s because I’m a bit of a rebel and an island has clear boundaries to push up against, be they geographical or cultural. Regardless, if you give me a map, my fingers will quickly find the coastline, searching for those offshore land masses just out of reach.

I had the good fortune of spending the month of August 1995 in Scotland. I was there for the glorious cacophony colloquially known as “The Fringe,” one of two concurrent arts festivals that take over the city of Edinburgh every summer. After almost three weeks in the city, I signed up for a jump-on/jump-off mini-bus tour and found myself making a loop around the country with extended stops on the Isle of Skye and Orkney. One is a very traditional and conservative island off the west coast, and the other an archipelago of islands off the north coast that is steeped in history yet is very modern and cosmopolitan. Two worlds equally fascinating and distinctly different.

That was a life-changing journey for me, and it marked the beginning of my career as a professional photographer. Three years later, I began teaching night photography workshops in San Francisco, and five years after I led my first photo tour to Scotland––to Skye and Orkney.

The rest is history, but I have a long way to go to visit All the Islands of Scotland. I doubt that NPAN will offer a trip to each of them, but you can know that I am scouting them all and will be planning trips to the very best to share with you in the coming years.

South Island

by Tim Cooper

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South Island, New Zealand. © 2017 Susan Magnano. Canon 5D Mark IV with a Canon 17-40mm f/4 lens. 30 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400.

Where do I want to explore in the near future? New Zealand’s South Island. I find the landscape there to be simply awe-inspiring.

In many ways it’s like North America in miniature. Starting in the east you have gentle coastlines that rise up into low country, and then farming plains like our eastern and central United States. Then the plains rise up to the Southern Alps, which easily rival our Rocky Mountains. On the western downslope, glaciers flow into rain forests much the way they do in Alaska and British Columbia. All of this on an island that you can cross in less than a day.

Similar as it may be, everything is just a little different. A little more green. A little more remote. Even the trees have a mystical quality about them. From the fjords in the south to the parks of the north, you’ll find magnificent and rocky coastlines, tree ferns twice the height of a human, mountains that rise straight up and spill glaciers into magical forests. It truly is a landscape lover’s paradise.

My first trip to South Island was nearly 20 years ago when on assignment for a magazine. While the magazine work came off fine, my efforts at personal photography failed miserably. I had taken an extra nine days to shoot for myself using my Wisner 4x5 camera loaded with a new type of holder for preloaded sheets of film. I shot nearly 100 sheets during my time there. Upon returning home I found that every sheet was blank. The new system had not been working properly and I didn’t know because I had never tested it before leaving! Ughhh. Talk about heartbreak. I must return!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

by Matt Hill

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Theodore Roosevelt National Park. © 2019 Matt Hill. Nikon Z 6 with an Irix 15mm f/2.4 Firefly lens, light painted with Luxli Cello and a Coast HP7R. 2 minutes, f/5.6, ISO 500.

If I could go anywhere, I’d really like it to be someplace that has lots of things I enjoy. This park in North Dakota checks off lots of those boxes. And it was a total surprise to visit. Chris and I drove there last summer after learning that the elevator had broken at Wind Cave National Park. And boy, was the detour worth it. 

Roosevelt’s South Unit features a wondrous, windy river (the Little Missouri) with excellent lookouts, plus herds of bison and wandering wild horses. Outnumbering them all are the prairie dogs—watch your step or you’ll turn an ankle in their holes. Not to mention the badlands landscapes and the petrified forests.

Drive toward Polaris, and the North Unit has more wildlife, plus the cannonball concretions and even more views of another section of the Little Missouri.

Easily drivable, this less-known park is an ideal place to spend some quality time in nature and with stunning night skies. 

Easter Island

by Gabriel Biderman

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Rapa Nui National Park, Easter Island. © 2019 Tim Cooper. Fujifilm X-T2. A series of stacked images shot at 2 minutes, f/4, ISO 400.

When Nancy asked me 14 years ago where I wanted to go for our honeymoon, I didn’t skip a beat and said: “Easter Island.” As luck would have it, the enigma that is Easter Island had also been at the top of her bucket list since seventh grade. But then we did the research and realized Easter Island is a challenge to get to. It is 2,200 miles away from Chile and in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Remote is the understatement. So unfortunately the time and financial commitments didn’t make sense (however we had one heck of a honeymoon driving across the U.S. and visiting 14 baseball stadiums).

That was 2006. I can’t remember the first time I became aware of the mysteries of the moai, but I always loved ancient history, mythology and photographing sacred places. When Lance suggested our first Easter Island workshop that we offered in 2019, I quickly raised my hand to assist. But again, timing was not on my side. The workshop was a huge success and we decided to keep running more trips there as long as people are interested in going. And I’m going next! Even though our second Easter Island workshop isn’t until January, I have already starting thinking ahead and packing accordingly.

Most of Rapa Nui, as it’s known to the locals, is a national park. We have worked very closely with the park and local guides to get rare access to the moai at night. Most trips to Easter Island are a brief 2 to 3 days, but I’m looking forward to fully immersing ourselves on our 8-day adventure. I’ll be loading up infrared film for our day hikes and for photographing the moai under the Milky Way.

They say the third time is a charm, and Nancy already said she is coming on what she is calling part two of our honeymoon. If you can’t join us next year, stay tuned—2022 isn’t that far away!

Wrapping Up

So, that’s where we’re dreaming of going when we can travel again. Where are you dreaming of going? Share in the comments section, or on our Facebook page!

Gabriel Biderman is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He is a Brooklyn-based fine art and travel photographer, and author of Night Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots (Peachpit, 2014). During the daytime hours you'll often find Gabe at one of many photo events around the world working for B&H Photo’s road marketing team. See his portfolio and workshop lineup at www.ruinism.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

A Better Intervalometer: The Phottix Aion

Most night photographers struggle with the most basic requirement to make long exposures: an intervalometer. I believe I’ve found the solution: the Phottix Aion.

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The Phottix Aion.

What is an intervalometer?

The object of my study (some call it an obsession) is a tool called an intervalometer, which is essentially an external cable release on steroids.

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Example of a simple external shutter release.

A standard external cable release is simply a switch. Press the button, the shutter opens. Let go, it closes. Sometimes it has a lock that can hold that button down.

What an external cable release cannot do is execute timed intervals between exposures. This, along with programming shutter speeds, is necessary for goals such as star-trail stacking and time-lapses. For whatever the purpose, an intervalometer can make multiple programmed exposures.

Note: Some cameras now include this as a firmware feature. Hooray for progress! If yours does, then you may not need an external intervalometer. But before deciding, test it out. Many internal intervalometers can be confounding to configure, and most can’t overcome the camera’s native maximum shutter speed, which for most cameras is way too short for long exposures.

The Problems I Have With Intervalometers

So why do I care about this hard-to-pronounce camera accessory? It affects me when it does not work as expected. And it affects all our workshop attendees in the same manner. And it affects all night photographers in general. Here is a list of common issues:

The Cable Connection Breaks

This applies only to wired intervalometers, which is what most people own. Where the camera cable meets the body of the intervalometer, there is a “stress relief” molded into the cable. Despite that, all the rigors this connection goes through—bending back and forth during normal use, living all wrapped up in a backpack or bag, hanging off a camera or tripod—will eventually break the solder inside.

Then when we are inevitably someplace remote and interesting, suddenly the intervalometer stops firing the camera, and we start trying to hold the cable at just the right angle to reseal the connection and make it work. Which is does … sometimes.

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Vello dedicated wired Shutterboss for Nikon DC2 connection.

The Cable Connection is For Only One Camera

Again, this applies only to wired intervalometers. You are locked into the cable that works with your camera. Which is good—unless you switch systems, upgrade to a new model or rent a different body.

I understand this makes it easier for manufacturers to sell to people looking for something specific, to not waste resources and to give people only what they need. But not all manufacturers make it easy to order a replacement cable or a different cable.

The Backlight Lasts Only 10 Seconds

This is exactly one second less than it takes to make an adjustment. Just kidding. But seriously, the light should last longer. Ten seconds is hardly ever long enough to adjust a programmed setting, and never long enough to create one.

The Status Indicator Light Ruins Photographs

The little red light blinks to tell you an exposure or sequence is running, which is a nice gesture. But if the cable twists forward to where your lens is pointing, you can ruin your image and others’ around you. Yes, that little LED can shed enough light to be picked up on a long exposure.

There Can be Too Many Modes

This is particularly true of wireless intervalometers. Many that I’ve used default to a mode that has nothing to do with night photography. Right?! How dare they pander to daytime photography. Geesh.

Joking aside, you may have to cycle through modes to get to the classic “intervalometer mode” we require for night photography. Every … time … you … turn … it … on.

I do not Want to Use My Phone

There are some very interesting exposure controllers out there that require your phone’s computing power to perform programmed exposures or sequences. I have tried many, and none are for me. I want to be “present” during my night photography experience, I want to preserve my night vision, and I want to save my phone battery.

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The Phottix Aion transmitter (left) and receiver.

So What is the Best Option?

After much testing and firsthand experience with many, many manufacturers’ intervalometers—both in my own photography and by playing with what people bring to workshops—I affirm that the Phottix Aion is the best intervalometer you can buy. Here’s what I love about it:

You Can Set Exposure Durations in Tenths of Seconds

This matters when you are using the NPF Rule to determine star-point exposures, which can be very precise. Let’s say your NPF exposure is 11.72 seconds. With a standard intervalometer, you would have to round down to 11 seconds. Seven-tenths of a second doesn’t sound like much, but in this case it’s nearly 10 percent of the exposure. With the Aion, you can open the shutter for 11.7 seconds.

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NPF exposures (seen here in PhotoPills) are almost always precise into the tenths (and hundredths) of seconds.

It Comes with all The cables for Nikon, Canon and Sony

Well, not all the cables, but if you have a camera that uses one of these connections, you are covered:

• Canon 2.5mm sub-mini

• Canon 3-pin

• Nikon 10-pin

• Nikon DC-2

• Sony Multi-Terminal

(Sorry, Fuji, Pentax and Olympus owners.)

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The Aion connectors.

It Remembers Its Mode

If you turn the Aion off and on, it will return to the last mode you used. Yay for efficiency and time management!

The Crosspad Buttons are Separated

One of the most frustrating things to watch is when someone new to night photography is trying to make an adjustment to the exposure or interval settings on a traditional intervalometer. A big part of the issue is that due to the control button’s one-piece construction, the difference between side-to-side and top-to-bottom adjustments is so minute that photographers easily change to the next setting instead of changing the value. Heck, it happens to me too. And I hate it.

The Aion fixed that—thank you! It features four separate buttons for up, down, right and left.

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Most intervalometers have one main “arrows” button to press multiple directions; the Aion has the improved feature of four different arrow buttons, so you always know what direction you’re pressing.

You Can Use it Wirelessly or Wired

This is not a new feature to wireless intervalometers. But I still enjoy it.

Here are some examples of when it’s ideal to have a wireless trigger that is also an intervalometer:

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Group shots that you’re in. (I’m sitting in the middle. Hi!)

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Creative portraits that require many tries to execute.

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Light painting far from the camera with short exposures.

The Countdown Time Shows Quantity of Exposures Remaining

This is not very important, but is good to understand. The Vello Shutterboss shows the exposure number you are currently on. The Phottix Aion shows how many remain. I prefer the latter. It lets me know not how much work is done, but rather how much work is left to go.

You Can Disconnect the Pieces

The issue with stressing the connection by continually wrapping up the cable and eventually breaking it is completely avoided. How? With the Aion, you can disconnect the cable when stowing the units. That alone will guarantee many more nights of photographing under the stars.

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The cable plug pulls out, eliminating the biggest stress point of traditional intervalometers.

Selfies are Easier

Since you have a wireless transmitter with on-screen countdowns, making self-portraits under the stars, or including yourself as a human element in the scene, is easy. Doing so wirelessly is also safer than running back and forth to and from the camera in darkness.

Half-Press for Focus

The large button is for normal “Bulb” exposures: Press and hold to open the shutter then release to close it. But the button also has a two-stage functionality similar to the shutter release on your camera. You can half-press the button to autofocus. Combined with the wireless capability, you could focus on yourself in the scene!

What Could be Better

As much as I love the Aion, I’d love to see a few improvements in the next model. A few things I can nitpick:

1. It doesn’t include batteries. Four AAAs are inexpensive and easy to source. Not all wireless receivers use standard batteries.

2. The Mode button is where the backlight button is on other intervalometers. I am still re-training my fingers to find the backlight button without having to look for it, or to return to the “delay” or top-most mode.

3. The crosspad buttons are smaller than traditional intervalometers. And the keys are slick and rounded. (But the separated buttons are still better than the single crosspad button of other intervalometers.)

Video

If you’re more of a watch-what-I-mean kind of person, please enjoy this video comparison:

(And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!)

Wrapping Up

The Phottix Aion is a big improvement over our previous intervalometer of choice, the Vello Shutterboss II.

Yes, the Aion costs nearly twice as much (actually on par with the Vello Wireless Shutterboss). So you can choose to carry two wired Shutterboss units for the same money, or one Aion that is likely to be more reliable.

Sadly, this is not the perfect solution. That still does not exist. I am not saying this to throw shade on any manufacturers. Night photography, despite its popularity, is still a niche. And perhaps the opportunity to make the right tool is too small for many manufacturers.

(If you are a manufacturer reading this post and want to collaborate with NPAN to make the ideal intervalometer, we are ready. In fact, we have begun the long-term process of defining the ideal solution. Ping us to start the conversation.)

For all of you night photographers out there, we hope this helps you make better star-point stacks, star trails, time-lapses, portraits, and whatever genius and creative ideas you realize with your cameras.

Let us know what you think in the comments or on our Facebook page, especially if you own or an Aion.

Matt Hill is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. See more about his photography, art, workshops and writing at MattHillArt.com. Follow Matt on Twitter Instagram Facebook.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Five Questions: Moonrises, Laowas, Acadia National Park and More

For every person who asks a question, a good hundred more probably had the same question and didn’t ask. So we like to share the questions we get and the answers we give.

This installment of our “Five Questions” series features inquiries about moonrises, Laowa lenses, the Nikon D780, night panoramas and Acadia National Park.

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks and other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything else related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

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1: Rad Moon Rising

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Supermoon over Death Valley National Park. Nikon D500 with a Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens at 200mm. 1/200, f/8, ISO 800. © 2016 Lance Keimig.

Q: Last year when driving home I passed a small lake that had a huge red/pink full moon rising over it. I tried to find out when this may happen again. Unfortunately I did not see how to get an easy answer to when there would be another full moon rising while the sun is setting, so I reverted to tedious data lookup. How can I plan this easier? And when will the moon still have a pinkish glow—when it beats the sun in rising, or when the sun beats it in setting? — A.B.

A: The full moon always rises near sunset, never at sunrise. The full moon does, however, set at sunrise. (The opposite, for both cases, is true of the new moon.) Either way is a good way to shoot the moon near the horizon during soft light.

The exact times vary quite a bit—by up to as much as an hour, depending on the exact timing of the full moon. In some months, the best timing may be one day before or after the full moon. The moon rises about 45 to 55 minutes later each day during its 28-day cycle, but the sunset time varies by only a minute or two. 

You can use PhotoPills or a website like TimeandDate.com to find out the date of the full moon each month, and then check the sunset and sunrise times within a couple of days of the full moon.

The “best” time for moon photography depends on the effect you are looking for, and the landscape where you are photographing. If you want a warm glow on the landscape, look for a moonrise that’s just before sunset. But I generally prefer a moonrise about 10 to 15 minutes after sunset, when the exposure balances nicely between the moon and the soft light on the land. By about 20 minutes after sunset, the exposure difference between the moon and the landscape is too great to capture in a single image.

The color in the moon is completely dependent on atmospheric conditions––the amount of dust, moisture or pollution in the air. The more particulates, the more color. When the moon is just rising, you are viewing it through hundreds of miles of atmosphere. When it is high in the sky, you are viewing it through a single layer of atmosphere, which is why it is almost always white. — Lance

2: Learning About Laowa

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Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/2 FE Zero-D lens for Nikon Z.

Q: I have the Nikon Z 6 and am looking for a wide-angle lens that I can use for night photography. I saw this lens on the B&H Photo website: Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/2 FE Zero-D for Nikon Z. What do you know about this lens/company? Quality? Performance? Any info? — Terry K.

A: Summary: It’s a yes.

Why? Four reasons.

1. It’s an incredibly small, light, fast and sharp lens.

2. At f/2.8, the coma almost disappears, and at f/4 it’s totally gone. To see a technical test I did, download and open these files in Photoshop and zoom to 100 percent. The star-field boxes are 100 percent crops. The gray zoom boxes are exaggerated zooms at 800-plus percent to show the actual shapes of stars. (Note: These are totally unedited photos. The chromatic aberrations can be easily removed, but I chose not to remove them for what were just test images.)

3. The metal lens hood is reversible.

4. It beat my Zeiss Distagon (gasp!) in regard to coma. Wow. And I have an extra stop of light when I need it. And it’s half the size.

So, yeah, the Laowa is fab.

There is one major downside, however, which may or may not matter to you: It does not have electronic contacts. So you will not have the metadata in Lightroom that identifies the lens or which aperture was used for the photographs. — Matt

3: Switching from Canon to D780

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Nikon D780.

Q: My Canon 6D has been pushed to its limits and I’m seeing too much ISO noise, so I’m looking into changing over to Nikon. Have you used the D780? — J.M.

A: The short answer: I’ll definitely be buying one. The image quality seems similar to or better than the Nikon Z 6, which is noticeably better than the D750 I’ve been using for several years. The D780 image quality at 12,800 is outstanding, and is definitely usable at 25,600. The camera also has extended shutter speeds down to 15 minutes.

They moved a couple of buttons around––which shouldn’t be an issue for you coming over from Canon. Other than that, it feels very comfortable and familiar for a Nikon user. I also like that they stuck with two SD card slots and didn’t go for the expensive XQD, or worse, one XQD and one SD slot.

For the long answer, see our recent blog post “Best of Both Worlds—The Nikon D780 Combines the Advantages of the D750 and Z 6.”

My suggestion is: Yes, jump on it! It may just be the last camera you’ll buy. — Lance

4: Night-Pano Follow-Ups

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Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park. Nikon D750 with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens. Sixteen stitched frames shot at 10 seconds, f/2.2, ISO 6400. © 2018 Matt Hill.

Q: After reading your blog post on how to plan and shoot a panorama, I have a few questions:

1. I have an Acratech GP-ss ball head, which can be mounted upside down and used as a leveling base. So I presume I wouldn’t need a separate leveling base—or would you recommend having one anyway?

2. I want to rotate my setup exactly 30 degrees between each frame. How could I do that without turning on my headlamp?

3. I’ve seen some photographers use a Nodal Ninja Advanced Rotator. It has different settings with click stops to confirm you’ve reached a pre-set degree. I believe it could be of help as I wouldn’t have to engage my red light. Are you familiar with these rotators? — Roger R.

A: I’m so happy to see you’re inspired to get out and shoot some night panos! My answers:

1. I am a fan of having a separate leveling base (and I have the Acratech). It honestly doesn’t add much to the operating size and weight, and it benefits all my setups (not just panos). Leveling is simply faster with a leveling base than by adjusting tripod legs. That said, I have not attempted using the GP-ss inverted, but that’s a curious and wonderful thing it’s capable of doing!

2. You may consider getting some glow-in-the-dark model airplane paint and making 30-degree ticks on your pano base, as well as making reference points (two, three or four) on the top part. Come to think of it, I may do that myself!

3. I know two people I really trust who have used rotators, including Gabe. They require setup and calibration. But having those clicks is very helpful for confidence and maintaining your night vision.

   There are other options for indexing rotators that have detents—be sure to examine the intervals you can choose:

• Sunwayfoto DDP-64SI and DDY-64I Indexing Rotator Combo

• Nodal Ninja Advanced Rotator RD8-II

• Sunwayfoto DDP-64M Indexing Rotator

• Manfrotto 300N (3414) Panoramic Head

Keep in mind that all this gear is great to have for leveling up control over the process of shooting a pano at night, but it’s not required. The most important thing is the proper planning and technique that we covered in the original post. Have fun with your panos! — Matt

5: Acadia Aspirations

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Eagle Lake, Acadia National Park. Nikon D3s with a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, light-painted with moonlight and a Coast HP7R warmed with a 1/2 CTO gel. 20 seconds, f/8, ISO 3200. © 2017 Chris Nicholson.

Q: My husband and I are planning on going to Acadia. We’ve never been to Maine before. We started looking for places to go and stay mainly for night photography with ocean, rivers or lakes with views in or around the park. The area is huge! Was hoping you could give some suggestions on specific areas to stay and go. — Eileen M.

A: You could drive in pretty much any random direction, and you’ll be fine. 😊

Acadia is actually a pretty small park, relatively. But there’s a lot of diversity there for photography.

Anywhere along the Ocean Road will be great for coastal/ocean scenes, and if you’re up for a 20- to 30-minute walk, then I highly recommend Great Head at sunrise. Good spots more accessible from the car include Boulder Beach, Monument Cove and the cliffs in between; Sand Beach; and anywhere along the road between Sand Beach and where the road goes back into the forest.

For lakes, Jordan Pond and Eagle Lake are my favorites. And again, if you’re up for a hike, then I suggest taking the Jordan Pond loop trail all the way around (know that there is a short section that requires going over rocks). In that same area of the park, I recommend hiking up South Bubble for the views over Jordan Pond and the coast, then to Bubble Rock, then from there up to North Bubble, then along the ridge toward a beautiful granite overlook of Eagle Lake.

From late spring to early autumn, you can shoot the Milky Way over Eagle Lake from the main parking lot at the north end.

Also, if you want a quieter experience, check out the Schoodic Peninsula, which is the only part of the park that’s on the mainland. It’s about a 45-minute drive from Mount Desert Island. It has beautiful coastal scenery along almost the whole loop drive. At low tide you can walk out to Little Moose Island, which is beautiful as well. If there’s a storm while you’re in the area, the point of Schoodic Penninsula is where you want to be the next day to shoot the waves crashing on the rocks, in the last couple of hours of the tide coming in. (Just don’t get too close to the treacherous water.)

For more information, I can recommend two excellent photography guides: Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, and How and The Photographer’s Guide to Acadia, both written by photographer friends of mine, Colleen Miniuk-Sperry and Mike Hudson, respectively. You could also check out my book, Photographing National Parks, for some more general ideas on Acadia and for tips about scouting your shoot.

As for places to stay: Bar Harbor is the center of activity, and has restaurants, coffee shops, etc. It can also be “bustling” when a cruise ship is anchored. If you’d like a quieter experience, consider Southwest Harbor on the west side of the island (known locally as “the quiet side”).

Finally, it’s good to know that due to the current public health situation, Maine has instituted a temporary 14-day quarantine for visitors from out of state. The order is expected to expire sometime between July 1 and August 31, depending on the outcome of some pending regulatory decisions. You’ll want to confirm the status before traveling. — Chris

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Best of Both Worlds—The Nikon D780 Combines the Advantages of the D750 and Z 6

A little over 2 years ago, I did some extensive testing of the Nikon D5, D750, D810 and the then-newly released D850. The comparison was to determine which was the best camera for night photography. I concluded that the answer depended on your needs and budget––I recommended the D750 as a great camera at an extraordinary value, the D850 for those who make large prints on a regular basis, and the D5 for sports and wildlife photographers who also shoot at night and who have a healthy budget.

Then, in September 2019, Gabe wrote a post exclaiming hands-down that “the Nikon Z 6 is the best camera for night photography.” I’ve had a few opportunities to use the Z 6 at night since then, and it’s an awesome camera for sure.

Then I recently had the chance to work with the newly released Nikon D780, courtesy of B&H Photo. It’s widely reported that the Z 6 and D780 share the same sensor, and the comparative images I’ve shot indeed look very similar. But there is one subtle difference that makes the image quality of the D780 ever so slightly better than that of the Z 6, especially for night photography in extreme low light. More on that later.

This rundown of the D780 is not intended to be a general review for everyone considering a new camera, but is rather tailored to the needs of the night photographer. If you are a wedding, wildlife or sports photographer, or someone who shoots a lot of video, then my review may be of limited usefulness to you. In this article, I’ll evaluate the camera based on image quality at high ISOs in extreme low-light situations, for long exposures, and also in mixed artificial low-light situations typically found in urban areas at night. I’ll also be discussing the various features and functions as they relate to night photography in general.

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Rattle Dragon meets its match. Nikon D780 with an Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens. 1.3 seconds, f/4, ISO 6400. This image has been processed in Photoshop for effect.

Key Features

The camera features a 24.5-megapixel FX-Format BSI CMOS sensor and EXPEED 6 Processor, which is reported to be the same sensor as that of the Z 6––with one slight modification.

Similar to its predecessor, the D780 features a tilting screen. The 3.2-inch, 2.36m-dot LCD is also a touch screen that functions well for intuitive control over playback and menu navigation, as well as touch control over autofocus and shutter functions. It would be nice if the screen had an articulating arm; as it is, the tilt screen is of limited usefulness in the vertical orientation, but is great for working from high and especially low angles in the horizontal orientation.

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The D780 sports dual SD memory card slots like the D750, rather than the single XQD slot of the Z-system cameras. The former supports both overflow recording and simultaneous recording on both cards for peace of mind. It also accommodates the UHS-II standard, enabling fast write speeds for video and multi-shot sequences.

When used with the D780, the EN-EL15b lithium-ion battery is rated for an impressive 2,260 shots per charge without live view enabled, or 360 with live view. The battery can be charged via USB-C. For comparison, I recently got 554 25-second exposures out of a relatively new battery in the D750 (with live view and playback disabled) when shooting the Lyrid meteor shower.

The camera has variable aspect ratios of 1x1, 3x2 and 16x9, an in-camera monochrome mode, meter capabilities down to -3 EV, and shutter speeds down to 900 seconds (or 15 minutes).

Long Exposure

Yes, you read that right. Hallelujah! We finally have a Nikon DSLR with onboard shutter speeds that go beyond 30 seconds. There is a menu setting to enable extended shutter speeds, but once you turn it on, it’s a sticky setting, unlike Canon’s awkward Bulb Timer mode on the 5D Mark IV that requires going to the menu every time you use it.

We night photographers would have preferred even longer shutter speeds, but the D780 does have the Time mode, which, unlike the D750, does not automatically shut off at 1,694 seconds. Camera manufacturers have long been reticent to have programmed long-exposure times out of fear of long-exposure noise.

The primary implication of the extended shutter speeds is the elimination of the need for an external intervalometer in many situations. The extended shutter speeds combined with the internal intervalometer (or the easier-to-use but more limited self timer) allow for shooting stack sequences up to 2 hours, 15 minutes with the self-timer and virtually any length with the internal intervalometer.

I’ve been using the Time setting on the D750 and D850 and timing exposures either with my phone, or more often just by feel, because I never liked dealing with the fiddly and fragile intervalometers. For many night photographers, the onboard long shutter speed is a game-changing feature, even if it is only a convenience and has no effect on image quality.

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Echo Canyon Road, Death Valley National Park. An example of the range of tones in a black and white image shot under moonlight. Conversion in Lightroom, Adobe Monochrome profile, with no additional software. Nikon D780 with an Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens. 1 minute, f/5.6, ISO 400.

Autofocus

One of the things that has improved the most over the D750 is autofocus performance in both the viewfinder with a 51-point autofocus system, and also a hybrid system for live-view focusing. The hybrid system is adopted from the Z-series cameras, and switches between phase-detection and contrast-detection autofocus based on conditions. It covers approximately 90 percent of the frame with 273 focus points, making it easy for the camera to focus on subjects at the edges.

There is a low-light autofocus mode that extends autofocus capabilities down to -6 EV. The viewfinder autofocus system is accurate down to -3 EV. Under ideal conditions, this should allow for autofocus with live view in light as low as a quarter moon, and with the viewfinder under the light of a full moon. But autofocus on the Milky Way core is a long ways off still, as it is about -10 or -11 EV.

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Velociraptor, Borrego Springs, California. Nikon D780 with a Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 lens at 22mm. 1 minute, f/5.6, ISO 500. A collaborative light-painted image made during a recent workshop under cloudy moonlit skies.

Live View

The live view interface is derived from the Z 6. It’s mostly familiar for Nikon DSLR shooters, but requires a little getting used to. The good news is that live view image quality in low light is much improved, and focusing on stars, or on dark foreground subjects with a flashlight, is much easier than with older Nikons.

I did find that I got the best live view image in low light conditions using the video mode set to the slowest possible shutter speed, just like with the D750. This is a workaround—not an ideal field workflow—as you must remember to turn off the live view before taking the picture, or the RAW file will be cropped to the 16:9 aspect ratio. Still, it is a big and welcome improvement.

Customization

A customizable 12-position menu can be accessed by pushing the i button on the back of the D780 or tapping the i icon in live view. The i menu is an easily accessible place to store settings that you change frequently. The camera allows users to customize different i menus for shooting stills through the optical viewfinder, for shooting stills in live view and for shooting video.

The D780 offers two customizable buttons on the front of the camera that can be set to any one of a long list of functions; you can view them all here. Additionally, the AF-On and AE-L/AF-L buttons can be customized, and the bracket button on the front of the camera can also be customized to shoot multi-exposure images or HDRs.

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Build Quality

Comfortable in the hand and familiar to any Nikon user, the D780 offers a solidly built camera with full weather sealing in a relatively lightweight body. On first glance, it looks very much like the D750, but is just a little smaller with a few button changes. For a full-frame DSLR as capable as the D780, it’s compact and ergonomic. It’s basically a D750/Z 6 hybrid.

A Few Random Features

The live view activation button has been moved up to the right of the viewfinder, and the video record button is on the top deck, next to the newly located ISO button.

These changes require some adaptation, but the new position of the ISO button will be familiar to users of the newer Nikon cameras. It is a better and more logical position than on the D750, which has it second from the bottom on the button stack to the left of the rear LCD. Testing the D780, I inadvertently activated video recording several times while reaching for the ISO, but my fingers learned relatively quickly which button was which.

I know that I said I wouldn’t talk about video in this review, but quickly: Video shooting is much improved, and the D780 can shoot UHD 4K at up to 30 frames per second, or HD at up to 120 frames per second.

Moreover, there is now the option to create time-lapses from images shot with the Interval Timer Shooting mode instead of the Time-Lapse Movie option of the D850, which means you can keep the RAW files and still produce an in-camera time-lapse on the go. The D780 also has the same focus stacking mode as the D850.

The D780 is compatible with most Nikon F-mount lenses, including AI-S and all Nikon AF models.

On the negative side, there is no option for a battery grip, and the pop-up flash of the D750 is absent from its descendant. I suspect some people will miss these features, but they are relatively minor issues for a night photographer. Also, the intervalometer connects with the same fussy DC2 port. It’s difficult to identify the correct orientation of the plug, especially in the dark. Fortunately, it’s necessary only for timed exposures longer than 15 minutes.

Wish List

Although the D780 has most of the features that I would want on my dream camera, there are a few things would make it the hands-down ideal for a night photographer:

• Extended shutter speeds down another couple of stops to 1 hour. I’m grateful for the extension to 15 minutes, but why stop there?

• Image quality at ISO 25,600 comparable to what we get at 6400 on the D750/Z 6/D780. Those extra 2 stops would provide the much-needed wiggle room that astro-landscape photographers often need with our exposure variables. NPF Rule, anyone?

• An easier way to access the brightest possible live view image in low-light situations. The live view interface of the D780 is the same as the Z 6 and much cleaner and easier to use than that of the D750. However, a workaround is still required to get the best possible live view image at night.

• The flip lever to close the optical viewfinder (which prevents light from entering the back of the camera during long exposures) that’s found on the D810, D850 and D4-D6.

• The D500, D850 and D5-D6 have backlit buttons for ease of use in the dark. Their absence on the D780 is a distinction from the top-of-the-line models that cost considerably more.

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Fern and Waterfall, Portland, Oregon. A daylight image showing the dynamic range and color depth of the D780 sensor. Nikon D780 with a Nikon 24-120mm f/4G lens at 120 mm. 1/50, f/8, ISO 100.

A couple of features from other manufacturers that would be amazing to see developed for Nikon:

• Many Canon cameras have the ability to hold images in the buffer and process Long Exposure Noise Reduction while you keep shooting new images. They also have an auto-LENR feature that applies noise reduction as needed and that doesn’t necessarily double the exposure length. I’d like both these features in a Nikon body. Imagine being able to use LENR for all your shots without having to wait for it!

• The Astrotracer feature of the Pentax K1 for getting around the longest usable shutter speed limitation in astro-landscape photography is based on in-camera image stabilization. It’s not likely ever to appear on a Nikon camera, but it sure would be sweet to have.

Image Quality

What surprised me when I began comparing images from the D750, Z 6 and D780 was not how good the D780’s image quality is, but how well the 6-year-old D750’s images stood up to the newer cameras. That’s not to say that the D780 is in any way a disappointment––to the contrary, the overall image quality is among the best of any 24-megapixel camera that I’ve used.

In the limited testing I was able to do, any difference in image quality at ISO 6400 and 12,800 was negligible. There may be slightly less noise in the shadows on the newer cameras up to ISO 12,800. It was only at ISO 25,600 where the D780 and Z 6 were noticeably better. At ISO 25,600 on the D750, colors begin to bleed outside of detail boundaries and the image really starts to fall apart.

This begins to happen in a similar way at ISO 51,200 with the D780 and Z 6. The newer cameras essentially add one stop of usable ISO, but most photographers will probably still not want to shoot higher than 6400 or possibly 12,800 for nighttime landscape imaging. (There are pixel-peeping opportunities at the end of this post.)

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Inyo Mine, Death Valley National Park. Examples of the D780’s high ISO capabilities. The RAW files can be downloaded for evaluation purposes (see the link at the end of this post). Nikon D780 with a Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 at 20mm. From left to right: 6 seconds, f/4, ISO 12,800; 3 seconds, f/4, ISO 25,600; 1.6 seconds, f/4, ISO 51,200.

I did get to shoot in a contrasty mixed-light urban environment, and was impressed with the ability to pull detail out of deep shadows while preserving highlights, but wasn’t able to do side-by-side comparison testing of different cameras in that environment. DXO Mark rates the sensor on the Z 6 (and the D780 by extrapolation) at 14.3 stops at base ISO compared to 14.5 stops for the D750. This minor difference of one-third of a stop probably cannot be appreciated in real-world situations as opposed to in the testing lab. More importantly, the new sensor tests at a full stop more (9.3) dynamic range at ISO 6400, which is the standard setting for astro-landscape photography.

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The Kenworth of my Dreams, Portland, Oregon. The D780 is remarkably well-suited to urban night photography. Highlight and shadow detail is preserved and color rendering is gorgeous. Nikon D780 with a Nikon 28mm f/3.5 PC lens. 30 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.

Despite having the D780 for a while, I didn’t have the chance to photograph with it under starlight conditions––mostly due to lunar phase timing while I had it in California and an extended period of overcast skies here in Vermont. I have used the Z 6 for astro-landscape photography, and it produces some of the best Milky Way images I’ve ever seen. Assuming that the D780 has the same sensor as the Z 6, albeit with a few tweaks in how the images are processed, then both are class-leading for astro-landscape imaging.

ISO Invariance

Like the D750 and D850, the D780 sensor is ISO-invariant, meaning that you can underexpose by several stops to preserve highlights and bring up the shadows in post-processing without majorly compromising overall image quality. This is likely due to the dual-gain sensor that has been featured in many of the best-performing cameras released in the last few years.

The pixels in dual-gain sensors have two readout modes, the first at native and modestly increased ISOs for maximum dynamic range, and another for lower noise at higher ISOs at the expense of dynamic range. The D850 high-ISO readout mode kicks in at ISO 1600. I have not been able to determine when it switches over in the Z 6 and D780, but it’s probably similar to the D850.

The Orange Chair, Portland, Oregon. An example illustrating the ISO invariance of the D780 sensor. Intentional underexposure by 3 stops preserves the highlight detail in the windows. Nikon D780 with a Nikon 28mm f/3.5 PC lens. 20 seconds, f/11, ISO 100.

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Lightroom basic settings for “The Orange Chair” photograph. Deep shadow detail recovered with only minimal added noise in post-processing. The RAW file adjustments on the image show an increase of +3.00 on the Exposure slider.

A Final Note on Image Quality

At the beginning of this article I mentioned a slight image quality improvement over the Z 6, and this has to do with the on-sensor phase-detection autofocus system. This is an advantageous feature, because it allows for phase-detection autofocus during live view. However, some of the pixel sites on the sensor are utilized for autofocus, which can cause a subtle banding effect in very deep shadows—especially when the exposure is raised in post-processing.

The D750 does not have this on-sensor system, and thus does not have this issue. The D780 does feature on-sensor phase-detection autofocus (the first Nikon DSLR to do so), but the banding issue has been resolved.

Conclusion

With so many great cameras to choose from, night photographers are not lacking for options. These days the debate is often about whether or not to make the switch from DSLR to mirrorless.

The D780 offers the best of both worlds in the form of a hybrid of the D750 and Z 6. The D780 has the phase-detection autofocus, the 4K video and the live view features of the Z 6 in a solid, compact DSLR body with a backside illuminated dual-gain sensor with great image quality at native, high and extreme ISOs. And don’t forget about the extended shutter speeds down to 15 minutes that virtually eliminate the need for an external intervalometer.

It’s not the perfect camera for night photography––we’re still waiting for that one, and likely always will be—but the D780 comes very close.

Many photographers have made the switch to mirrorless for the reduction in size and weight, and others have resisted the change because they are not ready to sacrifice their FX lenses or don’t want to deal with an adapter to use them. Personally, I prefer the user experience of the DSLR, and don’t feel that the modest decrease in size and weight of switching to mirrorless is worth the trade-offs. When I reviewed the D850 2 years ago, I concluded that upgrading from a D750 to D850 wasn’t worth it for me, as the primary benefit was increased resolution that I didn’t need and backlit buttons that were convenient but not worth the added cost or extra weight in my bag.

Now with the introduction of the D780, it’s once again time to consider an upgrade. I’m buying one.

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which night photographers is the D780 for?

D750 owners

As one of Nikon’s most successful cameras ever, the D750 is hard to beat, though it is getting a little long in the tooth, having been released in 2014. With the D780, there’s a modest gain in image quality, especially at higher ISOs. However, most of the improvements have more to do with an updated user experience than better image quality. If you love your D750, but it has seen better days, or you are simply ready for an upgrade, you will not be disappointed with the D780.

Older Nikon full-frame camera owners

If you’ve been holding on to that D600, D610, D800 or even the D810, it’s time to upgrade. For D810 owners who need the higher resolution for huge prints, the D850 is probably a better choice for you.

Canon Shooters

Specifically, those who are dissatisfied with high ISO image quality, or struggle to use live view for focusing in the dark with their 5D Mark IV. Canon’s live view used to be one reason for a night photographer to choose Canon over Nikon. That changed with the inability to get a bright enough image for live view focusing with the 5D Mark IV and the greatly improved low-light live view performance in the Nikon Z 6, Z 7 and D780. The D780 has superior high ISO image quality for astro-landscape photography and wider dynamic range for urban night photography than any Canon camera.

APS-C Camera Owners

Yes, you. It’s time. It’s true that recent crop-sensor cameras do a much better job at high ISO than the older ones, but they cannot compare to the image quality of a modern full-frame sensor. For those on a budget, the D750 is still an outstanding value at $1,500. The $1,800 Z 6 is also a great option—it just depends on your preference for mirrorless or a DSLR. If you can afford it, get the D780. It’s worth the extra cost.

Z 6 Converts Who Love Their New Camera, but Miss Their DSLR

I know of at least one person who bought a Z 6 but switched to a D780 for this very reason. If I had bought a Z 6, I’d probably be in this category too.

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Pixel Study: High ISOs

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ISO 6400

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ISO 12,800

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ISO 25,600

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Nikon D780 with an Irix 15mm f/2.4 lens. 1/4, f/5, ISO 51,200.

I shot the same image on the same night with the same lens and settings to test image quality at high ISOs between the D750, D780 and Z 6. The images were made under clear, moonlit skies, and the subject was illuminated with a Luxli Viola on a light stand. The lighting was unchanged during the testing, except that the moon rose higher into the sky, which altered the shadows.

I tested each camera at ISO 6400, ISO 12,800 and ISO 25,600. There is very little difference between the three cameras at ISO 6400 and ISO 12,800, but the D750 image starts to deteriorate at ISO 25,600.

I also tested the D780 at ISO 51,200. At this extreme ISO, the image from the D780 deteriorates in the same way as the D750 does at ISO 25,600. The colors start to bleed outside of contrast edges. Color noise is still easily managed by Lightroom’s default correction, and there is no sign of background pattern noise. Luminance noise is significant.

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Download Test Images

So you can make your own evaluations, we are providing a selection of images made during the testing I did for this article at npan.co/D780testimages. They are mostly DNG files with embedded metadata. Feel free to download the files and manipulate them for evaluative purposes.

Warning: It might take awhile to download these, and we recommend not doing so with a mobile device using a cellular data connection. The files total nearly half a gigabyte.

(All images are © 2020 Lance Keimig, and may not be printed or republished without express written consent of the author.)

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Your Thoughts

Have you had a chance to shoot with the Nikon D780 yet? We’d love to hear your impressions and see your night images! Please leave your thoughts and photos in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.

Lance Keimig is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He has been photographing at night for 30 years, and is the author of Night Photography and Light Painting: Finding Your Way in the Dark (Focal Press, 2015). Learn more about his images and workshops at www.thenightskye.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT