BOTTLED UP SPACE
An abstract piece showing things of very large scale, at a very small scale
How it was made
This project used a few images that I had already taken from the past and utilized for this composite, so the time it took to create it was much less. However, the overall amount of time put into each photo makes this image worth many hours.
To start, the idea for this composite was simple, to show off something that can be just as big as our own galaxy, but down to a scale that makes moss look big. I’ve always been interested in space and learning about it so that’s where the whole space theme comes from, alongside my liking for photography.
The Base Image
This was the base image I used to get started with. Using small miniature bottles that are about the size of a quarter. There were two images taken, one with focus to the back bottle, and one in focus to the front one.
And this is the entire setup to obtain that base image. Using an inverted tripod to get the macro shot of the two bottles on the patch of moss.
The Images of Space
These images weren’t taken for this project in particular, however they were some of my better ones that I thought would work well for it. These images are also not super easy to capture, requiring some sort of computerized mount to follow the night sky, and a lot of time. More Astrophotography stuff can be found HERE on my site.
Here are both setups that I used to obtain all 3 astro-images used in this composite. This was probably the overall lengthiest part of it. After both mounts were setup, balanced, and going, a couple hours worth of data was shot.
To start off, the galaxy and nebula images looked something like this. A single shot from the camera, no stacking or processing done. Here is a RAW file from the Orion Nebula.
After shooting a total of approximately 400 images of the galaxy, and 44 images of the nebula. They can be stacked, and post processed afterwards in photoshop to bring out their details. This is the Orion Nebula after being stacked, proccessed, and cropped
Putting It Together
Step 1: Add a gradient map to the image to create the effect of night
Step 2: Add the moon into the image with lighting effects
Step 3: Add in the Orion Nebula with lighting effects
Step 4: Add in Bode’s Galaxy with some extra scattered stars falling in and out of focus
Step 5: Add a final curves adjustment to the whole image and make final tweaks
Final Image
Ethan Gardiner 