Hi Karl,
again an excellent nightscape shot. The composition is great. I like that the foreground rocks seem to lead the eye into the frame. And you aligned the milky way arch nicely over the scene.
And there is a slight warm glow in the inside of the rock formation that adds a nice color contrast to the cooler tones.
The question about the colors and whether it looks realistic is more a matter of taste.
The sky is a bit too greenish for my liking. And the foreground looks quite blue.
I would prefer an edit that looks like your last post: Lady Boot at Night
I just pulled two sliders in ACR quite a bit:
As I already mentioned above, it is a matter of taste. But when I edit night sky images, I try to dial in a white balance that provides the best color separation in the milky way core. I often drag the Vibrance and the Saturation slider all the way to the right. So I can see which colors occur in which areas of the sky. The picture will look terrible, of course, but I make the white balance adjustment in this state. When I drag the Temperatur or Tind slider, I pay close attention to the distribution of the colors. After I set the white balance, I reset the Vibrance and Saturation settings, of course.
Comparing your last post with this one, it seems that the foreground has been flipped horizontally. This was a good decision, as it improves the balance with the awesome rock formation on the left and the Milky Way Core on the other side.
May I ask how much overlap there is between your shots or what focal length you used?
I ask because I usually take 6-8 vertical shots for a Milky Way Panorama when I use my wide-angle lens.
How did the timelapse turn out?
Lone Pine looks like a fantastic location. I have to put it on the list for a potential USA trip. 