Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is similar to an image I posted quite a while ago, but is from a different stack of photos. At just over 9,000 ft in elevation, Monument Ridge in the Gravely Range of Southwest Montana hosted a truly monumental sight this night. From this elevation, it’s hard to avoid catching some light pollution from more populated areas. On the right, looking south the light is from the Rexburg/Idaho Falls area. Then almost 180º to the north, you’re seeing Bozeman and then Helena to the far left. I could easily see to walk around by starlight only. Imagine my giddiness when a test shot revealed the bands of airglow!
Specific Feedback
I’m trying to find ways to process Milky Way photos in a more natural way. It’s a difficult task since the whole idea is to accentuate something that can not really be seen in this way with our eyes. I’ve reduced the luminance on the orange to minimize the light pollution. This in not a composite or blend (other than what Starry Landscape Stacker does) but rather the foreground is from the same image the stack was created from. I used Topaz Sharpen to sharpen and reduce noise in the foreground. Overall, this is much darker and less saturated than I have done in the past, but I am beginning to prefer that in the images I create. Is was difficult to brighten the foreground without creating ghosts of the Madison Range in the distant center background. There are some slight misses on the mask I used there, but it’s tough to see without really zooming in. I guess I really just wonder how y’all perceive this image compared to doing a blue hour foreground or blending in a much longer exposure foreground. I’m considering entering this in the Natural Landscape Photography Awards and wonder if its “natural” enough!
Technical Details
Nikon D850
Sigma Art 20 mm 1.4
ISO 6400, f/2.2, 10 seconds
This is a panorama of 11 images with a lot of overlap. Each image is a stack of 5 light and 12 dark images merged in PTGui. Then it was off to Lightroom for round one of processing, where I created a mask for the sky, one for the overall foreground, and another for that problematic mountain range in the back. Then sent it to Photoshop for one pass through the Ministars Action to reduce star brightness. Then ran it through Topaz Sharpen with the option their algorithm chose, “motion blur, very noisy”. I think I ran it back into Lightroom because I found a few airplane trials that SLS didn’t remove. The final JPEG version of this image is 19629 pixels on the long side and 220mb. The image shared here has been reduced to 4100 pixels on the long side. Not sure how it will appear here!
2 Likes
Hi Paul,
wow, that looks great. I remember the image you posted a while ago because of the structured airglow that really adds something to the image.
Your processing looks good to me. At least in the provided resolution the foreground seems to be clean, no need for a blue hour foreground blending.
I’m not sure about the light pollution. The orange looks quite saturated and that distracts a bit from the beautiful Milky Way and the airglow.
Maybe I would try to desaturate the light pollution and push the orange hue slightly to yellow.
I haven’t seen your raw files, but your processing looks quite natural. So this should not be a problem.
Paul, this looks great, with tons of details in the sky and a good foreground to set things off. Getting the “fan” effect from the airglow is a nice plus. As a minor nit, the sky just above the most distant mountains near the center and above the ones that the road leads towards has a bit of a halo. You could also crop the lights from Helena (if you want a more symmetric view of the main Milkyway bands). The colors look “right” to me…
@Mark_Seaver and
@Jens_Ober I was able to create a “color range” mask in Lightroom by by using the dropper in an orange area. This masked all the orange lights very well and I reduced the saturation and a few other sliders. I also ended up globally brightening it a little and refined the mask on the distant mountains to minimize the halo.
WOW! All the effort paid off so well! The airglow is beyond amazing! I love how the galactic center is reaching out to the mountain on the right. The clearer air and darker skies of high elevations are worth getting to. I don’t find the light pollution to be a serious issue – it’s just the way things are. I think this is a very natural looking image, even though it isn’t one we can actually see.
I’m also struggling with how to present MW images – as well as how best to shoot and process them. Your settings look very similar to where I am now, with the aperture a little stopped down to give better star quality in the corners, and 10 seconds has been the most star elongation I want. I have tried shooting at my highest native ISO of 3200 and bringing up the underexposure in post, which supposedly gives the same noise. There are so many tiny stars that it is frustrating to try to separate them from noise.
If you wish, you can edit the initial post and add the revised image at the top, for easier comparison. That’s a feature I love in NPN, that editing and revising is looked upon so favorably.
Thank Diane! I’ve added the edit to the post. Here’s hoping for clear skies in the coming weeks. It’s looking fairly promising here in Bozeman for the next 10 days. Might have the Northern Lights later this week too! When I had just the 20mm for astro, I was unable to go much past mid-July for a single row pano. It’s tough to do multi-row stacked panos! I’m anxious to try out my 14-24, 2.8 with this new moon.
Best of luck!! I may have a chance to shoot from our favorite dry lake bed. Looks like a chance of clear skies. Not much FG but darker than the inside of a cow, and 7 miles to the nearest road, which is gravel. (I could tell you where it is but then I’d have to shoot you…) I’ll be evaluating the Canon RF 15-35 f/2.8, with not huge hopes. Let us all know how you like the new lens!
And – I can bring the tracker!! It’s too much to want carry on a car trip and have to haul in and out of motel rooms. It may not be as much of an advantage as I hope, but it will be nice to try to find out. And I hardly sleep anyway, when we’re camped. I like my soft, warm bed.
Yes, the new ministars version appears in the OP thread. I think it’s an improvement – our lenses and sensors can capture too many tiny stars these days. Nice to be able to minimize them! And again, an incredible capture with the greater than 180 degree pano and the incredible skyglow!
