Dark mirror: Milky Way mirrored on a pond in South Sardinia, Italy
Dark mirror, Southern Sardinia, Italy. In a perfect night of new moon, the Milky Way shows the bright core in all its magnificence. A faint reflection of it is perceivable on the still surface of a little pond, separated from the sea by a thin edge of rock.
Technically speaking, this is a fairly basic shot to execute. However, since the APS-C sensor of my camera and the lens I use are not exactly the best in class to shoot the Milky Way, I resorted to a “trick” which allows to improve the final image quality. Specifically, in order to capture as mush light as possible without incurring in an excessive noise penalty and avoiding at the same time the star trailing, I’ve blended 10 exposures for the sky, plus 4 for the foreground, with the addition of the dark frame.

