Revised Version
Revision 2 (latest)
What changed: I was not happy with the first revision, the foreground did not look right. I went back to the original post and did some revisions there. Cloned out the left tree. Cloned out the tops of the two smaller lit trees. Added some noise back into the land so that it did not look so plastic. Adjusted the sky so the corners were more even with the rest of the sky. Dodged Nevada Falls, Half Dome, and North Dome and Basket Dome. Cleaned up some blending artifacts in the trees on the right.
Revision 1
What changed: I started over. To brighten the land and retain detail I had to adjust the amount of Denoise in ACR. To eliminate the bright tree on the left I cropped the image differently, so I lost some of the boulders on the bottom edge. I also burned down the other smaller lit trees and slightly burned down the center tree. I also dodged Nevada Falls and Half Dome to give them a little more prominence. I also made some adjustments to the sky around the core of the Milky way to bring out the dust lanes.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
Original Version
The photographer is looking for deeper feedback connected to their intent, creative direction, and specific questions.
About This Image
I have been trying to find a way to couple the grandeur of the night sky with that of the land, and I can think of no more a grand land than Yosemite. A few years ago I attempted to couple Half Dome with the core of the Milky Way photographed from North Dome, but I felt that was a marginal success. So I was reflecting on one of the first Astro photos I made when I first started using the D850 and it was the arc of the Milky Way from the Big Sur area. I realized that in late May and Early June the arc is close enough to the horizon that it might be cool to have it arc over Half Dome as seen from the Glacier Point area.
This general composition what I envisioned but found it quite difficult to pull it off due to the large tree in the center. I could not find a location where I could eliminate that tree without getting several more protruding into the sky above the horizon line. Further, By the time the Milky Way was high enough to clear the tree, the gift shop at Glacier Point had automatically turned on security lights and it lit up the center tree and several of the other smaller trees.
Why This Image?
This is a test, for real, I thought that Glacier Point was the optimal place to get the full arc across the sky. I also considered making the photo from Sentinel Dome but I am not sure if the orientation would work from there. I would not have to deal with the artificial lights, but getting all my gear up there is not as simple as it sounds.
What I’m Trying to Express or Explore
So this photo is of course a composite of five individual vertical frames using the 14mm f/2.8 Rokinon lens. I used photo merge in PS to build it. I used ACR to do the initial processing . I was hoping to completely render the image under natural light, and as it turns out the areas that were not in the direct path of the security lights did come through ok. It was those darn security lights that really left me feeling defeated that night. I almost stayed a second night thinking about hiking out the Sentinel Dome with all the gear, but decided not to. Should I attempt the photo from Sentinel Dome?
Where Feedback Would Help Most
So here is where I ask you all for some critical feedback.
- Does the artificial light hitting the trees ruin the overall photo?
- If the light is a deal breaker, can you think of any way to mitigate it, is there a way to get rid of it? Do you think cloning out the central tree would work?
- Aside from the green sky glow, do the rest of the colors look okay?
- Does the composition do both the sky and land justice?
- Finally, I did use the Denoise feature in ACR (since at ISO 3200 the noise was prevalent), did it render the land OK or was it too strong?
Thank you in advance for any feedback.
Technical Details
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 14.0 mm f/2.8
Focal length: 14mm
Shutter speed: 25s
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 3200
Camera was on a tripod, with the base of the ball head leveled. ISO 3200 was used for the sky and I was not tracking so I had to limit the exposure time to 25 seconds. I was not sure how to do this while the camera was on my tracker, as to recompose each of the five frames to cover the whole arc, while the tracker was polar aligned, required both a change in the Right Ascension and the declination which I found perplexingly confusing as I fiddled before it was dark. Anyone with any experience in trying to photograph the sky as a mosaic while tracking and how to properly reposition the camera for each necessary frame would be appreciated.
