Snowy Mountains Milkyway


Recently I got a chance to hike & camp in the Snowy Mountains here in Australia. I managed to hang around at night long enough to capture the Milkyway over a super still alpine creek allowing from some really nice reflections.

The compositional idea was to use the land as a leading line on the left/right & as a bridge through the middle with enough darks up to show some of the rocky features so that it’s not straight black. The Milkyway so happened to be horizontal with allowed me to use the full width of the water when it came to creating a reflection & when it came to editing I was aiming for a dreamy kinda feel.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

I’d love to know if there’s anything I’m able to do to help the composition, how the colour combo looks & whether or not there’s enough luminance from both the land & reflection or if it needs to bump up/down

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

I’d love anything

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
single 15sec shot, ISO 1600 at f4 with me running around like a headless chook lighting up the land with a headtorch. Brought into photoshop with camera raw, luminosity masking & dodging/burning.

Well done Dale…I think this is great. Good capture and light painting looks to be restrained and not overdone.

The “leading lines” aren’t really present to my eye, but rather the land serves as a good divider between the sky and the reflection. Without the reflection, the image would not be successful to me.

I think the luminosity of the snow on the distant land looks well managed.

From a purely personal aesthetic, the GC is quite bright to my eye…I’d be tempted to tone that down some, but again that’s personal preference.

There’s a pair of smudgies in the reflected body of water to the right near the ?pond.

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For those curious, this is what I ended up with! :slight_smile: