When I was getting ready to take some time lapse photos of Mt Hood at night, I took this test shot and captured a meteor.
Considering that there was no moon, what could I have done to improve this photo.
Keep in mind that I was on a ridge and there wasn’t room to maneuver to get a better shot. I wanted to include my tent, the mountain and stars in a single exposure.
Welcome to NPN, Kevin! I think you will find that NPN is a great place to get feedback from your images.
I like how you used the tent to provide interest in the foreground. I think it would help to have more separation between the tent and Mt. Hood. I think if you had moved a bit to the right it would have added some separation. I think the composition would have been stronger with the tent on the left hand side of the frame and Mt. Hood more toward the right hand side because this would have helped spread out the two prominent features across the whole frame if that makes sense.
It also looks like the highlights in the tent are a bit blown. If you have the ability to recover those highlights that would be helpful.
Your processing of the night sky looks good to my eye and I like the addition of the meteor. Overall this is very nicely done!
Thank you.
The site was very tight to move around to get a better composure, but I agree with you that separation would have looked better.
As for the blown highlights on the tent, I took them as low as I could go without making it look fake. It’s hard to light a tent without the rainfly on and only netting to diffuse the light. I use niteize carabiner led single lights with a hello mini softbox, which helps a lot, but I should have used only 1 light instead of 2.
Welcome to NPN Kevin, I’m glad that you have decided to post images here, and I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Nice stroke of luck in getting that meteor in the shot. I also like that your tent is blue, to match the night sky, I think if you had a warm colored tent like yellow, it would have dominated the shot too much. I think those highlights in the tent can be recovered further, especially if you use luminosity masks. Your processing of the sky looks great, and you got enough detail on the summit of Mount Hood to create some visual interest. The landscape is pretty dark, unless you went with blending multiple exposures, one for the sky and tent, and a longer exposure at lower ISO for the landscape, this is about as good as one can do in a single exposure.
My suggestion for enhancement centers around composition. Without the Milky Way, this feels like a lot of sky to include. And to me the most interesting elements in this scene are in the left and center of the image, ie the tent, the meteor, and Mt. Hood. The dark landscape in the lower right corner (LRC), is not adding a lot of interest to me. If you don’t mind, I downloaded your image to suggest an alternate crop that addresses my concerns,
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Great shot Kevin, I like Ed’s crop, it puts more focus on the meteor which is really cool. Putting your phone flashlight on a low setting and putting it in a clear nalgene bottle can be a great way to get some more defused light for the tent.
Welcome. Very nice image. If you want the suggestion of a tent in the image, it would look better with the rain fly, unless you want it’s architecture to be displayed. You may have better exposures of the tent that could be stacked with this one. It is, as is, for me a distraction from the sky. The best judge is you.
TY for Post
Welcome, Kevin. I was thinking along the lines of @Ed_McGuirk. His rework makes a fine shot even better.
Thank you everyone for your input. It was very helpful.
Hi @Kevin_Cowley and welcome.
Amazing shot, and i have to agree with @Ed_McGuirk on the cropped version it throws the focus to the main subjects. The only thing i dislike is that little gas stove (i guess) ahah just joking.
Plus this image as inspired me to go shoot night skyes.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
João Ferrão