Do you need some help to take your Canon
photography to the next level? Let us know
what you’d like help with and we could pair you
up with a top pro for the day! Send an email
to [email protected] with ‘PhotoPlus
Apprentice’ in the subject line, and include your
telephone number and address.BE OUR NEXT APPRENTICE
16 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
THEAPPRENTICE
COLIN’S COMMENT
For this shot, we set
up my Canon EOS R
on Chris’ equatorial mount
again to track the stars for a
minute and a half to make
sure they were nicely exposed. I then took a
second shorter exposure to get a sharp
foreground and illuminated the abbey with
my torch to make sure this stood out and
combined the two images in Photoshop to
create the final result. It was a real privilege to
be this month’s PhotoPlus Apprentice and I
loved every minute of it. As someone who
predominantly photographs wildlife this was a
real eye opener and has taught me much more
about my Canon kit – I didn’t even know it was
capable of some bits! I’ll definitely be giving
this a go again on the next clear night!CHRIS’S VERDICT
Astrophotography
is usually done
sporadically, as you have to wait
for the perfect conditions to get
the best shots. This photoshoot
was no different and when I rang Colin to see if he
was available to meet up that very night, he was
totally up for it and even got there before me!
We worked on the Hot Shots together and he was
eager to try out some of his own compositions
too. As a wildlife photographer with a Canon
EOS R and 150-600mm telephoto lens, Chris
already has the basic equipment he needs to get
into astrophotography. If he catches the astro
bug it would be well worth him adding an
equatorial mount to his gear wish list, as this will
make it ever more likely for him to get the best
possible astro photographs.EXPERT INSIGHT
PAINT WITH LIGHT
WHILE THE shutter is rolling you can shine a
bright torch, or fire a flash, at your foreground to
illuminate it like we have here on the abbey and it
will really help it to pop out of the landscape. Just be
sure to check your exposure when you’re done to make sure you’ve illuminated all
of the structure and lit evenly too. If it’s quite a large structure you can light up
different parts in multiple exposures and merge them together in Photoshop.