The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
After witnessing the total solar eclipse in Texas this past April, I headed over to the area around Big Bend National Park to do some more exploring. I was fortunate to be staying in a cabin with the wide open desert landscape right outside my door. I awoke at four in the morning to set up my camera and tripod to capture this image of the night sky and Milky Way core. I left everything in place and went out again during the early blue hour to photograph the landscape, and then combined the two images in Photoshop to create this final image.
Specific Feedback
While I thoroughly enjoy astrophotography, I have to admit that I don’t get out and do it that often. I do struggle with post processing these images, so any critique of this image regarding that would be appreciated. I have heard many different opinions of what white balance is the correct one to use and what color the night sky should actually be. Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks.
Technical Details
The night sky was shot at f/4, 20 seconds, ISO 6400.
I used Adobe Denoise in Lightroom along with other adjustments, then took the night sky and blue hour image into Photoshop as layers and created the final image using masks.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Wonderful photo. It looks very natural to me. I love the light fall off in the foreground as it recedes to the horizon and the sky luminosity is perfect for the the luminosity of the ground.
Thanks for sharing, Ted. It is fun to be able to stay at a place where we can comfortably go out and shoot outside the door! Nice opportunity in a dark sky area. Composition is very nice. I like how those two bushes reach up to the Milky Way, exhibiting some of the same color tones. The white rocks around the bushes create a nice connection between the two, and also create an angle like the MW.
I also enjoy the dark skies, and in reality the white balance is a very subjective thing. What is important is that it appeals to your eye. Shooting in raw provides an opportunity to adjust in post. When you see what colors you like, then set your camera to that color temperature in the future and it will be close to what works for you. I really like your shot, and I am happy to provide some insight into some things I was seeing for post processing.
I see the MW as quite natural and I appreciate that. The colors are subtle, and as I mentioned the tones mirror the bushes. Initially, I struggled a bit with the dark horizontal band across the lower 3rd. It seemed to block the bush/MW connection…so if you don’t mind, I pulled the jpeg image into PS for some Brush/Gradient work with Dodging & Burning. I was working on a smaller jpeg, but D&B is easy to do, and you could get much better results on original file.
Brought into ACR and put a gradient on the sky, then pushed up the highlights and whites, with a little bit of contrast and texture.
Dodging with brush using both highlights and midtones around 4% on the white rocks between the bushes; some of the bushes beyond; the light rocks adjacent to the swale going all the way to the hills beyond and the MW base; then I dodged the shadows across the lower dark band.
I burned down a little across the front gravel and corners and used a large highlight brush to take down the glow on the left center sky. I may even be helpful to burn the lower gravel down even more.
Last but not least if I don’t get in trouble, I removed the plane trails going across the MW. Hope that is alright. I left the one on the lower left, as it was the same angles.
There are some very sophisticated luminosity processes out there, yet good old D&B can do wonders. You can get much greater results working on your own file, and keep the sky color where it works best for your eye.
A nice capture! The FG is interesting and the light on it is nice. The MW shows very nice and realistic detail and the stars are not too distorted. The feel of the MW fits well with the FG – a slightly spooky vibe from both.
It would be interesting to play with the degree of overlap of the two layers to slightly lighten the horizon to make it more obvious, but that can be frustratingly difficult.
My preference is to get the MW more in the frame – possible if you had been able to aim more to the right (and position the camera more to the left to keep the two Ocotillo in the frame). An hour earlier would also have gotten the MW a little more to the left – but these things always balance with getting some sleep.
WB is certainly an artistic choice. For accurate star color, daylight WB is the choice. In post I will sometimes add a slight blue to the darks, which leaves the stars reasonably unaffected. (I do a Curves adj layer and move the LL corner of the red and green channels straight to the right a little bit.)
The night sky is often slightly on the warm side even in dark areas due to the prevalence of ambient light pollution and particulate matter that reflects it. An assortment of atmospheric effects like airglow can create areas and even bands of color. And the night sky is never truly black, so that’s another choice for adjustments.
Noise is always an issue with these high-ISO exposures, although I don’t see an issue here. The normal NR methods just don’t do well with MW shots – Adobe Denoise, Topaz and DXO Pure Raw just don’t work well when you view at 100%. But what does work very well is to shoot a burst of 10-15 shots and use Starry Landscape Stacker (for Mac) and I think the equivalent is Sequator (??) for Windows. The movement of the stars between shots is very well aligned (use only raw frames) and the noise averaged out. SLS does a remarkable job when there are things like trees reaching into the sky.
Thanks so much for your feedback Harvey. I appreciate the time you spent in editing the photo, and I will take another look at the raw image and consider your advice.
Thank you so much Diane. Your editing hints are very useful and I will keep them in mind with future edits. I have not used stacking software in the past, but I think I will consider doing so going forward.
