Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is one of three trees captured with the Milky Way - all were distinctive in their own right but the “Bonsai Tree” was the one that helped me most closely relate the “unknown” of the Milky Way and Universe with the “known” world.
I thought there were four elements in the composition: the Milky Way, the rock shelf on the left, the tree in the center and the scrub bush on the right. I tried various angles and heights and this one seemed to present the elements in the best perspective.
This was an outstanding workshop (David Kingham & Jennifer Renwick) and satisfied all the things I was looking for: remote, quiet area, good group camaraderie, and gentle but directed instruction, critique, and suggestions.
Specific Feedback
I had a couple of challenges with this image: getting the “right” perspective (more from the left, more from the right, or head-on as shot to try to get a balanced image incorporating the four elements. Lighting and taming it in the post-processing was a challenge, also. I am no more than slightly intermediate in post-processing skills. In order to get enough light to illuminate the tree, the LED’s made the rock on the left and the main trunk of the tree too bright. I wanted the Milky Way to be brighter and really “pop” but defaulted to my “artistic direction” to keep everything as reasonably natural as possible. The smoke plume muted the Milky Way in reality and I chose to be real. Maybe next time there won’t be smoke or clouds to obscure the Milky Way.
Technical Details
NiKon D-810
Nikkor f2.8 14-24 mm
Focal length - 24 mm
ISO 6400
Exposure 18 seconds
In order to keep the stars as “sharp” as possible, I selected a higher ISO so I could lower my exposure time.
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Mighty fine capture. I can’t see that anything needs changing. Well done. Side note: I just got this lens for hopefully shooting the northern lights in September. I have not gotten a chance to do any astral photography with it yet but this fine photo has inspired me to go out and see what I can get with it.
Thanks, Dave.
You won’t regret getting the lens; it did a great job of getting Aurora images in Iceland a few years ago. For me, it took some practice to ensure really sharply focused images. Have fun.
An excellent image! The lighting is well-balanced and I love the darker vignette at the base – often difficult to control with lights. Whether you darkened it in post or the lights were well-directed, it looks completely natural and well-considered. The stars are good quality – are we finally getting some good starscape lenses? It looks like you used a subtle star filter, as the effect is very nicely controlled. Some filters give garish results. I like the neutral sky BG and the galactic core color is realistic. Smoke and clouds are so common it’s frustrating. You had a wonderfully dark area.
The building isn’t a great feature. A lower perspective would probably have eliminated the very nice FG. Thanks to the smoke, the bottom area of the sky is featureless and it could be possible to clone out the roof. It would be tricky-to-impossible to work around the tree and bush, but a gradient removal might be made to look natural, blending the sky into the top of the roof. Or make the roof look like a large rock. The clone tool set to Darken could clone some sky over the roof and leave the lighter bush untouched. That is one case where there is virtually pixel-level “masking”.
A very nice result! I’m sure everyone would love to see your other compositions.
Hi Diane,
Thank you for your comments, observations, and suggestions - all are appreciated. In reference to darkening the base, the lights were very well controlled but I did darken it more in LR - tried to make it as subtle as possible and not detracting from the rock structure and tree. Regarding the star sharpness, that’s the lens only - no filters or post-processing. I spent an inordinate amount of time “dialing in” the focus and I think it helped going to the higher ISO and shorter exposure time, too. I agree with your comment about the building and will try your suggestion of cloning out the roof. Make it look like a rock - I’ll give that a try, too. However, my very average post-processing skills will make that a challenge.
Again, thank you for your suggestions and comments - it is good to have expert, skilled eyes and a creative mind evaluate an image. I’ll work on another of the compositions I’m tentatively calling “Devil Tree” - it will be a challenge to work on.
Doug
