Machete Ridge and Milky Way

Image Critiques Nightscape & Astro Critiques
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Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

The Milky Way rises over Machete Ridge and the High Peaks in Pinnacles National Park.

The artistic and physical challeges of night photgraphy in Pinnacles NP keep drawing me back. My goal was to capture the Milky Way over the unique geography of the park with its jumble of rock formations and craggy peaks. Not to mention getting to spend time under starry night skies with the mountain lions, coyotes and rattlesnakes.

Specific Feedback

As with most of my astrophotography efforts I am interested in feedback regarding color balance (sky and ground), saturation and contrast. Does the image appear natural or over processed? Any general critique is also welcome.

Technical Details

Canon R6 with Laowa 15mm f2
ISO 8000
8 sec.
F2.8
20 sky images stacked and blended with blue hour foreground

Critique Template

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1 Like
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Good to see you here again, Paul!! This is pitch-perfect for my taste! The WB feels very natural, for both the FG and sky, and the contrast is quite believable. It looks as though there is a bit of haze in the air but that adds a pleasing touch, and is almost unavoidable in today’s light-polluted world.

Stacking is the way to go – excellent noise reduction! With the otherwise excellent NR tools we have today, there is still not one that can deal with a dense star field. If it were mine I would try to lighten the vignette in the sky, just a touch, but that isn’t easy.

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This is lovely. I think the color balance between the two is great. I think you might get even less noise in the sky if you went with a longer exposure. With that body and lens you should be able to go to 15 or 16 seconds before you see star trailing. I’m always a fan of gathering as much light as possible. It’ll make the sky lighter, but you can darken that to your preference. I really like the light on the larger rock in the background. I wonder how it would look to lighten and maybe warm up the rock on the lower left and then swinging around to the right?

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Hey Paul!

Good to see you posting here again. I think the color balance for both the sky and the ground are spot on and what I would expect. Excellent detail throughout. I like the color gradient on the land, with the lower parts in blue and the top of Machette Ridge having more red twilight on it, and then the mimic color in the sky mirroring the lower parts of the frame.

5

There are so few entries here that I usually let several stack up before making an EP, but this image is so outstanding both technically and artistically that I’m making an exception and awarding it an EP even though it is the only entry this week.

1 Like
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Hi Paul,
And to think I had to turn down an invitation to this stunning opportunity. But grandchildren do take priority over hobbies.

I like the photo very much. But to your question of “over processed”.
No, not in terms of artifacts. But I do find the luminance of the Machete a bit bright, especially for Blue Hour.
Kent

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@Diane_Miller @Paul_Holdorf @Youssef_Ismail @Kent_Bossange
Thank you all for your feedback. Thank you Diane for the EP. I did the final edits on my tablet while in a hospital waiting room while my wife was undergoing total knee replacement surgery. Needless to say, I have been quite busy taking care of her.
In addition I have had to deal with the fallout of my PO Box and contents being destroyed in a fire along with a computer hardware upgrade gone awry. Hopefully I will have a chance in the next week to do a repost.
Kent, next summer I plan to do more night photography in Pinnacles. I will keep you posted. If anyone else wants to join us, let me know.

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Wow – why do bad things all have to happen at once? Best wishes for your wife’s recovery!

Put me on your list for Pinnacles – I had to cancel four MW opportunities this year with scheduled lower back surgery, then a second opinion said no – the pain mgmt group didn’t try enough things. So I may be on a treadmill.