Milky Way over Tahquamenon Falls In The Michigan Upper Peninsula

Well, after a lot of planning and traveling and driving, I was finally able to obtain a shot that I have had in my mind for some time.

I have always liked the idea of photographing the Milky Way over the Falls in Northern Michigan.

In order to get this shot, it would require a series of events to be in line, just perfect, to get that right feel and look.

I used my Dark Sky Map app on my android phone to first determine just where the darkest skies are up there. It proved to be about as dark as it can get on the map! Good news. Check out the app here. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pa.lightpollutionmap&hl=en_US

Next, I would have to make sure that the Milky Way would be visible and also there the moon would be in the equation. If the moon was up, or showing, it creates too much light and doesn’t allow proper exposure of the milky way. I would then use my photo pills app to determine all of these particulars. Sure enough the Milky Way would be position right where the river would meet the horizon and it would, indeed, be placed perfectly in place.

Check out the Photo Pills App here. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photopills.android.photopills&hl=en_US

Lastly, I would need to have a cloudless night. And in Michigan, this is almost a rarity.

Well, after some planning, and some risk, we made the trip to the UP. We drove 3.5 hours to St Ignace and then at 2:45 AM we were up and on our way to the State Park, arriving at around 4 AM. We would have about One hour and 15 minutes to work the magic.

This was also my first opportunity to light the landscape with my Newer Low Level Landscape lights.

You can see and purchase the lights here.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079F9TX4V/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TJ6JH6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FJ0RGD0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It worked and I am very pleased with the result.

The lighting is something that I have wanted to experiment with for some time now. This was my first opportunity. This required getting there a bit earlier than necessary to set them up. Although it only took a few minutes to get them in place. The beauty of using these lights is the steady flow of light. No light painting, no flashlights, no bright lights. The lights were set to a very low setting. That’s all it takes to get the landscape properly lit for such a shot.

So what were my settings and what did I use?

Of course, Tripod is mandatory. I used my Nikon d500 as the camera, a Sigma 18-35 Art lens. I had the Newer Lights set up to my very far left and my immediate right. I was standing closest to the falls as you can see.

For the camera set up, I did make this shot in the Portrait Orientation (long side up and down) and took a series of shots, 5 total, and then later stitched them together in Lightroom. I set my camera on Timer mode and also set the Exposure Delay to 2 seconds. This means the shot was actually taken 5 seconds AFTER I pushed the shutter button.

Focus was set to manual at infinity and I also Hyperfocused the shot using Photo Pills (Video to Follow).

White balance is set initially to 2800, as I prefer a blueish sky. ISO set at 3200. Focal Length is 1.8 and using the rule of 500, I opened the shutter for 15 seconds. In order to get that number, because my camera is a crop sensor model, this means that my 18mm, is actually 27mm. 18x1.5. That number is 27 and so that means I use the 500 number and divide it by 27, which I then round DOWN to the nearest number, which is 15 seconds (as my camera goes from 15-20 seconds with no increment in between.

Yes, there are edits in Lightroom that help to accentuate the Milky Way, but I try hard not to over do it. I don’t like it when it looks fake, or over blown, like something you might seen in The Avengers while they are in deep space.

It turned out to be a pretty neat adventure. Although, I did, while driving through the UP in the middle of the early morning hours, hit a beautiful red fox. It was killed on impact and it sure did cause damage to the rental car. Here’s hoping the rental car insurance was a wise buy!