Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was my first attempt at night sky photography where I expected successful images. In previous attempts I knew I’d been out with too much moonlight or I wasn’t sure about where to find objects in the sky. So this time around I’d done some researched and learned a bit using PhotoPills prior to the attempt. I really like that most of my foreground is silhouetted. I was disappointed to see that there was some light pollution across the lake, but it’s the shot I got. What I’m really unsure of is the editing because I haven’t done much of this. So for critique I’m just looking for general feedback on a type of photography I am very new to.
Technical Details
This was taken at 20mm, ISO 3200, f/1.8, and 25 second shutter speed.
Hi Dan,
that’s a beautiful nightscape image. And that’s a pretty good result for your first attempt. I really like silhouettes in that type of shot. And you did a really good job of composing the beautiful trees and the person (I guess that’s you?) which are framing the Milky Way Core nicely.
Not everyone has the opportunity to always shoot in completely dark places. I, for example, cannot find a place in my country without light pollution. But light pollution is not always a bad thing for your image. Sometimes it adds some nice warm tones that contrast nicely with the cool colors of the sky. And in my opinion, this is exactly the case in your picture. In addition, the warm light makes the silhouette stand out from the background.
In post-processing, you added a nice contrast to the core so it glows nicely in the center of the image.
In my opinion, your image could benefit from brightening the top part of the sky. Shortly above the core the sky abruptly becomes very dark. I would lighten the area so that the transition is not so harsh and perhaps the top of the right tree becomes visible.
I hope you don’t mind that I downloaded your image and played around with it:
- I brightened up the top part of the sky
- I darkened and desaturated the light pollution on the left edge because it drew attention.
I’m sure that you get much better results if you try something like this with your original resolution file.
I noticed some dark halos around the left trees. I think they come from you trying to lighten the sky. Maybe you can tell us something about how you did that. We may be able to help you avoid the halos.
Again, a beautiful nightscape shot. It makes you want to stand next to the person and enjoy the night sky.
I’ve been traveling all week and finally have a chance to look at this. The composition is very nice, with the most interesting part of the MW (the galactic center) located between the trees, with the figure gazing at it. The light pollution adds interest and defines the horizon.
The star quality looks good but they are larger and more prominent than the way we see them. It appears that is because they are slightly out of focus, which is a difficult compromise with the FG trees needing to be sharp. There are programs to reduce star size with Photoshop – I don’t know about the alternative programs. It would be good to know more about your processing.
@Jens_Ober has made some very good suggestions. Getting more tonal separation between the sky and the trees at the top has made a big improvement and you can do even more with the raw file.
I agree with Jens suggestion to lighten the sky. The trees get lost a bit against the darker sky. It’s likely that your exposure time is actually too long. Your stars have tiny trails. On a full frame large sensor, you’re limited to 10-13 seconds. On a crop sensor @20mm, you’ve got even less than that. The only way to collect more light is to increase the ISO. I do love the composition! Getting the focus right can affect the brightness of an image too. Do you know the trick to using live view to get sharp focus?
