Manly Beacon at night with star trails, Death Valley NP, CA, USA
Manly Beacon is Death Valley’s most iconic feature, seen in millions of photographs from Zabriskie Point, including the image on the cover of the park map and brochure. So naturally I thought it would be fun to light it up at night.
One evening during our recent trip to Death Valley, Claudia and I, accompanied by our friend Robert Eckhardt, started down the Golden Canyon Trail from Zabriskie Point, carrying my powerful (3200 lumens), battery-powered spotlight, and radios for communication. Robert and I wanted a lower vantage point where the Beacon would poke up into the sky, and found a perfect spot. We set up our cameras and made some dusk exposures. Then after dark I hiked about half a mile further down the trail, carrying the spotlight and a radio, to a location I thought would work for the light-painting. Claudia acted as radio operator, and Robert tripped the shutters on both our cameras, while I used the spotlight to illuminate the Beacon.
We took a guess at the exposure, initially leaving the shutters open for 30 seconds at f/4, with the ISO set to 2500. According to Claudia and Robert’s radio reports, this exposure – surprisingly – turned out to be perfect. It did take several tries to get the lighting balance just right, but the problem was that the ridges underneath the Beacon weren’t getting lit from this spot. So I climbed back up the trail to a different location, closer to the cameras, which proved to be perfect for lighting those foreground ridges.
With the lighting done, Robert and I started capturing star-trail sequences, and all three of us chatted and dozed for the next 90 minutes. After the star-trail sequences were done, we hiked out and drove back to our campsites at Furnace Creek.
Putting the images together wasn’t too difficult. Again, as with the sand dune image, I stacked the images together in Photoshop and used the Lighten blending mode, adding layer masks to mask off the sky in the light-painting layers, and mask off the ground in the star-trail layers. There are 23 exposures included in the final image: two light-painting layers, plus 21 four-minute exposures for the star trails.
This was another really fun night. I wasn’t sure whether it would be possible to light something this big, but it actually turned out to be relatively easy with that spotlight. In fact I think it might be possible to light something bigger! 🙂
— Michael Frye
Related Posts: Sand Dune and the Milky Way; Nice Curves
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Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
Great story, Michael, and a terrific image. I also loved your sand dune image. I’ll have to sign up for a Death Valley workshop, looks like.
Thanks Robin!
Michael, Have you tried Dr Brown’s Stack-a-Matic? It’s a photoshop script created by Russell Brown and Scott Martin, and it automates the process you describe, and also adds an empty layer mask to each image in case you need to correct any accidents. Available for free at RussellBrown.com
I haven’t tried it Lance, but I’ll give it a try.
“… we hiked out and drove back to your campsites at Furnace Creek…”
No, mine is at Stovepipe Wells. 😉
Michael, I enjoyed both this image, as well as the Mesquite Dunes photo. Can you give me the brand name of the light that you used for the Beacon photo? Did you use the same light for the sand dunes?
Thank you.
Thanks Hadley. No, I did not use the same light for both images. If you check the comments for the previous post about the sand dune photo you’ll find a link to the Surefire lights I used for that image. This one was lit with something similar to this:
http://www.larsonelectronics.com/p-413-rechargeable-hid-light-with-rotating-tilting-magnetic-base-rl-11-m.aspx
Except the one I have was only $400-something when I bought it many years ago, didn’t have the magnetic base, and I thought the color temperature was 3200K, not 4300K – but I could have that last part wrong. But even 4300K is much a much better color temperature for light painting than LED lights. It also has a very long-lasting battery compared to cheaper spotlights. But having said all that, this light is much too bright for most light-painting subjects. It only works for very big or distant objects – though it is also useful for navigating, focusing, and composing in the dark. It’s actually fairly lightweight for the amount of power it puts out, though it’s a bit bulky.
Michael, thank you for the information. I look forward to your next post.
You’re welcome Hadley – thanks!
Phenomenal shot Michael!
Thanks Michael!
Beautiful work as usual, Michael! Thanks for sharing the technical info.
Thank you Ken, and you’re welcome!
Michael,
Fascinating shot (and good information!).
Doug
Thanks Doug!
Michael,
I echo Lance,s comments on the Stack-I-Natic program by Dr. Brown. A very useful, free tool. It’s sure gratifying to see the technical side produce an an image that fits the vision for the shot. Better still, when it gives you the impetus to try a larger scale shot with that light! I very much enjoyed the technical description and end result, Michael. Well done, again!
Once again you give me inspiration and a (distant!) target to aim for, Michael.
I am amazed and impressed that you could get such lighting from a torch! Would you mind telling me (a) the distance from the light source to the subject, and (b) what focal length you used? Many thanks.
Thanks Geoff! The focal length was 50mm. Robert used 35mm, and that also worked well. I can only take a wild guess at the distance from light source to the Beacon; maybe 200 yards?