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Home » Travel » NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY : ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
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NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY : ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Kanika April 23, 2015 #Utah, Arches National Park, Blogger, Canon, couple, Galaxy, MePhoto, Milkyway, Moab, Nature, Night Photography, Nikon, PhotoPills, Rokinon, Sigma, Sony, stars, Travel 20 Comments

ULTIMATE

 

You must have figured it out by now that we are obsessed with Arches. I mean just think about it. A place so versatile where you cannot waste a single moment in day thinking you might miss any angle of this nature’s masterpiece. And night you do not want to sleep and slip on the limitless photography opportunities that this park provides. Atleast my Mr. Perfectionist did not want to miss any such chance what so ever.   So with a broken back, full camera equipment and  a Mustang, we decided to spend the entire  night chasing milky way and light painting a.k.a Night Photography at Arches National Park .

If you are keen in doing night photography at Arches and new to this area , here are few suggestions – cum – tips.

First and foremost gear list :

1) You will need  an advanced camera (i know that is obvious) that allows full manual exposure control of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. We  used Canon 6D and 60D. But here are few others that might interest you or I may say our recomendations :) .

Nikon : Nikon 610 , Nikon D800 , Nikon D810 , Nikon D4S

Canon: Canon 6D ,Canon 5D mark ii ,Canon 5d Mark iii

Sony : Sony a7S , Sony a7R

Cropped Sensor Cameras : Canon 7D Mark ii , Canon 70 D , Fuji XT1

 

Night Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

2) If you are already set on camera, to go with it , you will need a  good, fast-aperture wide-angle lens. Why? Because a slow lens will reseult in grainy photos. For most part of night photography  we used Rokinon 14 mm 2.8 and Canon EF 16-35 mm Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens……but here are few other recommendations :

Nikon : Nikon 14-24 2.8 , Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G 

Canon : Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM Lens , Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens

Rokinon :  Rokinon 14mm 2.8 , Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 , Rokinon 16mm 2.0

 

NIght Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

3) Since you will be shooting long exposure shots , you will definetly need a sturdy tripod. We love the tripod from MeFoto….  This tripod is just so perfect weightwise. It is neither too heavy , so you can take it with you on long hikes and nor is it  flimsy that would shake in light wind.

4) There are few more things that you just cannot miss : Wired Intervalometer ( because you do not want to touch your camera),  a medium to high speed SD/CF card (usually 30 mbps or higher) , speedlight with color gels and a headlamp.

5) If you specifically intend to capture milky-way , you must have an app to track the rise of galaxy in night time. PhotoPills is a great sky map app available for iphone users. For android you can use  Google Sky Map.

 

NIght Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

Location and Other Considerations : 

1) Arches National Park is big, so you definitely need to plan things ahead and scout the locations in advance. I will definitely advice to visit the site in day time once just so that it gets easy for you to navigate at night time.

2) One is alone , two is a company, and in this case a team. If you have a partner, take them along , you will need their help in a lot of things.

3) There are many companies in Arches that do photography tours  specially for night photography. If you are serious about it and new to night photography , book a tour with them.

 

NIght Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

Nerd Herd ( Focus/ISO/Speed) :

 1) A  full frame sensor gives the best in camera result. Though due to recent advancements crop sensor have become pretty good. If you don’t necessarily have a top notch camera , people have got excellent results from Sky tracker equipment().

2) Focusing is always a issue at night. You will need to turn off the autofocus ( remember camera cannot focus on the dim lights  at night ). and turn on the live view  and work your way down to required focus from infinity.

 

NIght Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

3) Never be afraid to push the limits of modern camera. For ISO anywhere from 3200 to 6400 will give a pretty good result. ISO settings will also depends on the photo enlargement prints you may wish. so do keep that in mind too..

4 ) The Shutter Speed is very important aspect of night photography and it depends on the lens and camera choice. Set you intervalometer to desired time from the table below. For a crisp sharp image the shutter speed is determined by the 500 Rule.

 

NIght Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

For eg: for a 24 mm lens on a full frame sensor : 500/24 = 20 sec approx before the Star trails start appearing in image (Earth is constantly rotating remember 😀 ) 14 mm will give you 500/14 = 35 sec approx of time.

You can use my cheat-sheet if that helps :

No.Lens (mm) Length Full Frame- secs Crop Sensor (1.5) – secs Crop Sensor (1.6) -secs
110 n/a 33 31
214 36 24 22
316 31 21 20
420 25 17 16
524 21 14 13
628 18 12 11
735 14 10 9
850 10 7 6
970 7 5 4
1085 6 4 4

 

NIght Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

 

NIght Photgraphy Arches National Park

 

So I guess that is a wrap 😉 .. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and  the tips we shared  will come handy to you. If you have any questions email to us or leave us a comment , we will be happy to answer your queries.  We will love to hear about your photography experiences at Arches National Park. If you do not want to miss any updates from us… subscribe to our blog :). Thank you for stopping by. Happy Travels!!

PhotoCredits : PhotoStains

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About Author

Kanika

Her love of travel and documenting it has led to the start of this blog which she hopes keep evolving and turns into something more broadly-encompassing with time. She holds a full-time day job and is here to inspire people to travel more with their 9 to 5 jobs. Through this blog she intends to share her stories from trips, give travel preparation tips and pointers for where, when and how-to's.

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20 Comments

  1. Meg Reply
    April 24, 2015 at 8:41 pm

    absolutely stunning! Amazing photography ..xoxo

    • Kanika Reply
      April 27, 2015 at 1:40 am

      Thanks so much :)

  2. Aileen Reply
    April 25, 2015 at 11:52 pm

    Wow… just WOW. These photos are amazing! I should definitely start learning more about my Canon’s settings and lens. Thank you so much for this post and for taking the time to put all the details in! I’ve already bookmarked it for future reference. 😉

    • Kanika Reply
      April 27, 2015 at 1:39 am

      THank you for stopping by. do let me know when you plan to visit Arches.

  3. Megan Kennedy Reply
    April 26, 2015 at 2:18 am

    Stunning photos and great tips. You captured an incredible area of the world beautifully.

    • Kanika Reply
      April 27, 2015 at 1:38 am

      Thank you so much for the kind words.. have you been to Utah ?

  4. Jolanta aka Casual Traveler Reply
    April 26, 2015 at 2:50 am

    Gorgeous photos from a gorgeous place! I’ve never been to Arches, but the other day I was talking to my son about going somewhere away from the cities to see the stars better. Maybe we’ll make it to Arches some day.

  5. Escaping Abroad Reply
    April 26, 2015 at 2:52 am

    I was just experimenting with some night photography of my own in Havasu Falls! Yours came out outstanding.. especially love the third shot!

    • Kanika Reply
      May 3, 2015 at 3:35 pm

      Thank you so much for the kind words. My personal fav is the last one. :)

  6. Meg Jerrard Reply
    April 26, 2015 at 4:24 am

    I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this but your photography is AMAZING. We just purchased our first DSLR and got a Nikon D5300, hoping to start shooting some better quality photos and learn more about night photography. We’ve been using a Canon Powershot SX50 until now which has been awesome in sunlight but sucks at night. Thanks for the inspiration!!

    • Kanika Reply
      April 27, 2015 at 1:37 am

      Thank you so much for the kind words… Do let me know how does your experience with Nikon D5300 go… For any help and assistance we are here :)

  7. Charles McCool Reply
    May 4, 2015 at 10:12 pm

    I usually just take pictures with my smartphone so I am by no means a photography guru. Your shots are inspiring and remarkable. Glad I saw them.

  8. vipan sudha Reply
    May 12, 2015 at 12:37 pm

    par-excellence photography. Man behind the machine really matters

    • Kanika Reply
      May 13, 2015 at 1:54 am

      Thank you.. you know him 😉

  9. Sanj Reply
    June 12, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    Can you please recommend some tour companies? I would love to do this (as I had in Zion), but I will need a good teacher. I have the necessary equipment. Thanks

    • Kanika Reply
      July 23, 2015 at 12:37 am

      Sorry for late reply but I will definitely get back to you on this.

  10. ming Reply
    May 21, 2016 at 9:32 pm

    hello, i’m going to arches np the beginning of june and would love to photograph and time lapse the milky way. have never time lapsed before but was able to get some of the milky way in atacama desert in the past. i just got photopill and i’m just trying to learn how to use it. i will be hiking arches during the day and at night doing the sunset at delicate arch. then going for dinner and resting. but at night i would like to take some photos, but don’t want to do a long hike to delicate. any recommendations for other arches that are photographic that are easier to get to? also if you have a guides name for me too i may like to use one especially for first time time lapse? thanks, ming

    • Kanika Reply
      June 9, 2016 at 1:26 am

      Hello ,

      Hope this message finds you just in time. Double arch and north and south arches are easily accessible and are very photogenic at night. Other than that balanced rock looks amazing too with the galaxy.

  11. Dhanya Reply
    October 14, 2016 at 7:20 am

    Wow! Wow! Wowww!! I am a great fan of Utah. Would love to camp and gaze the night sky and live the amazing experience.

    • Kanika Reply
      November 8, 2016 at 2:01 am

      Oooh definetly , when are you planning to go :)

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