Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Airglow
Well, the sky did it again for me! I captured this scene just after 12 am on the 4th of July. Three times now from this or a very near location, I have seen a very similar scene. Incredible bands of an atmospheric phenomena known as airglow are readily apparent in this image. In my experience, airglow is stronger as soon as astronomical twilight ends. It is caused by the way sunlight reacts with atmospheric gases, mostly oxygen and nitrogen. There is a fancy $10 word for it….chemiluminescence. Most times it appears as just a green cast to the sky, but occasionally, gravity waves can ripple it into these fantastic bands. I could see these bands with my unaided eyes as faint bluish light. The camera sees them in their true green tint. They can also have a magenta tone to them caused by various elements and altitudes in the atmosphere. It was 35º and quite windy here on the ridge at 9,587’ and I was not dressed for it! The next morning my legs were sore from jumping up and down, in an attempt to get warm for the 30 minutes or so it took to take the 90 images that went into creating this “stacked panorama”.
Specific Feedback
I used the "sterographic"projection in PTGui in an attempt to straighten out the airglow bands. With a standard projection, they tend to swoop back down on the ends which is less like they really do. Do you like them straight like this or more swoopy? This projection left a roughly circular area at the top center with no image. I uploaded it to Photoshop and used the liquify filter to pull the sky up to fill the void, then had to use it in other areas to make the arch look more like it’s supposed to. It’s so difficult to get the temp and tone right when the sky is already so green. How do you like the super green sky?
Technical Details
Nikon D850
Sigma Art 14-24 2.8
ISO 6400, f/2.8, 13 seconds, 14mm
6 image panorama with each image stacked from 10 light and 30 dark TIFF images stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker. Merged in PTGui Pro. Processed in Lightroom, Topaz sharpen, and the Ministars action in Photoshop.
Critique Template
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