Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction
Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
Foreground too dark/prominent?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
The Milky Way appears to be erupting from the top of this rock formation in White Pocket, Paria Plateau, Arizona.
Technical Details
Canon EOS 5D II; Canon EF 16-35mm @ 16mm; f/2.8 @ 30 sec, ISO 3200; Gitzo tripod, RRS BH 55; Canon RS-80N3 remote switch
Specific Feedback
Whatever you see.
Bob,
Cool idea for the composition. You asked about the foreground, it does take up a good portion of the frame so I might be inclined to crop some off the bottom. The other thing I noticed is the non-uniform tones in the sky. It looks almost blotchy. Not sure what is going on there. Those are my initial thoughts.
Thank you @Youssef_Ismail for bringing that to my attention. I went back and looked at the original RAW file. It does look better cropped to 4x5 ratio. There seems to be some ambient light beyond the rock. At this time I cannot deal with that and the other aberrations in the sky which do not appear on the RAW file. I did not notice those when I posted the file. I will need to restart from scratch.
This had good potential, but @Youssef_Ismail has pointed out the issue with composition and artifacts in the sky, which may be due to limitations of the sensor. This old lens and body are very challenged with this kind of subject. The lens renders stars with aberrations toward the corners and in this case appears not to be well focused even in the center. There is some detail in the FG but I have the feeling of wanting a bit more. Pulling it out may have limitations as the sensor is lacking in dynamic range compared to what we have come to expect today. The FG also looks poorly focused.
Love the idea for the composition! As others have stated, the focus is just a bit off and it may have been a bit more compelling to decenter the Core of the Milky Way to the left just a little bit. I bet you could gather more light and actually reduce noise by bumping the ISO up a click or two. I would love to see a little more detail in the foreground. What program do you use for processing? Lightroom has a great masking tool that lets you edit the sky separate from the foreground. Some of the issues could be related to the size of the image. I like to use 2048 on the long side for uploading to sites like this and for social media. It’s about as large as you can go without getting compression problems. Cool shot!
