Yumbarra Desert Reserve

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

Camping on the Googs Track that runs north-south through the desert country of South Australia we get to see many starlit nights.

Specific Feedback

I was looking to see if I had any images that would fit the “weekly challenge”. I did. But, now I find I know nothing about capturing a nightscape.

The foreground image was taken an hour and fifteen minutes before the sky and composited.

The noise in the foreground of the foreground was terrible. Denoise had little effect. So it’s been painted over with a very underexposed gradient…which, of course, has made the foreground solid black. There were no other detail in there.

How do you know what colour the night sky really is?

I have lots of desert images, but I am finding it difficult to blend them convincingly with any images of the Milky Way I had.

Technical Details

ISO 3200 24-70@29mm f2.7 15 sec

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2

Glenys, When I saw the title, I knew it had to be somewhere downunder. I do like the photo, although the red sky seems a bit bright, on the edge of reality to me, not ridiculous. Regarding your noise problems and using Milky Way. Firstly, I have never used Milky Way so will not comment there.

The noise issues. You have posted three images of the land which are near identical and I assume same exposure, iso etc. Blend them using layers (photoshop or elements or similar). I find 5 images around optimum, but the improvement with three will be marked. This works on the principle that noise is random, so bright noise in one image is reduced by dark noise from another leaving the real colour behind and so on. Normal blending. The base layer is 100% opaque, the next layer 50%, the next 33%, (if you have them, 25% and 20%). As the earth does not move wrt the camera, simply copy and paste of each photo onto the base. DXO 8 has good noise reducing filters and can get near to the above. (I use DXO and Elements - no financial gain from either). DXO 8 has a free trial period.

The sky is a bit more of a B…. because the stars move wrt the camera.

Find two stars, preferably as far apart as possible and these become reference. Level them in each of the photos. Copy and Paste as per the land. The sky layers will not align. Using a difference blending between the base layer and the next, move the upper layer around till it matches. You may have to distort the upper images to get the corners accurate because of lens distortion. Sometimes the arrow keys are better than the mouse. Thereafter go back to normal blending as per the land.

You now have two photos. Land blended and sky blended, but they do not align.

I tend to work with the right hand edge of the land photo as it is unchanged from the original photo. Find the same layer of the sky blended layers and make that right hand edge vertical. Now vertical wrt the camera is the same for both sky and land. Merge the sky blended with the land blended, masking out the land’s sky and the sky’s land. Have fun cleaning the edges. This will take a fair bit of time and the sky bit likely drive you half crazy. My Straddie Milky Way photos are blended using this method.

My night sky photo colours are similar to yours and also wonder about the correct colour.

I do not mind if the moderator moves my reply to techniques as it may belong there.

Have fun, and if you have a question re the above, I am happy to reply via this channel.

R

3

Hello Glenys,
What a great place to be …Just a little envious!
Sharing my thoughts for your consideration. I imagine where you were shooting is likely a Bortle 1 or 2 sky. In similar skies in Northern Ontario , Canada , I have most success with shooting a longer exposure FG ( dropping ISO , possibly stopping down aperture for sharpness and extending shutter speed as needed) . Then I can get detail in the FG . I then shoot several sky images with shutter speed to avoid star trailing and then stack , or shoot a tracked sky. I put the images together in Photoshop.

With the data you have here, you could try stacking the images with Starry Landscape stacker for Mac or Sequator for Windows. Then you can edit the sky for detail. As there is such limited detail available in FG with the exposure you have, consider leaving the FG as a silhouette . The above stacking programs will limit bit not eliminate the noise there.

The colour of the night sky in astro is debated by talented and experienced photographers. It can be a matter of artistic interpretation and taste, with many appreciating a bluer tone to the sky, that can be really beautiful.
Free of light pollution , moon light , and in full dark, the bluer tones diminish. One can see airglow ( red and green tones - not aurora) or a dark neutral gray. sky The Milky Way band, ( as you have captured in your images) , contains yellow and orange hues around the stars. With an astro modified camera, ( H-alpha), you can see the magenta pink nebulae within the MW band and in the surrounding sky.

I hope that something here is helpful to you.

4

Just a quick note for now, as I’m chasing my tail again today. First impression – Wow! Excellent! I love the drama of the top image! That is the perfect tree and the MW is excellent for someone who hasn’t been trying it that long.

Blending a FG taken earlier with more light is quite OK. Use a longer exposure and lower ISO and blot out the star trails later. And advice and experience from others is not only OK but encouraged – that’s what we’re all about here – learning and teaching. And going into detail is the way it should be with nightscape stuff – it’s as frustrating as it is wonderful.

Noise reduction – the only good method for the sky is stacking and the method @Theresa_Clarke outlines is the best and easiest. Stacking can work for the FG too, as @Rob_Sykes outlines, but the newest NR algorithms should work much better for the FG than they do for the sky. (Maybe someday…) Take 5-15 shots for the sky – short enough time that you get minimal star movement. Try to keep the ISO reasonable but your specs above are good. The sky will be underexposed but after the noise is reduced you can bring exposure up a bit. If you don’t move the camera in between, the FG will be faintly recorded in the sky shots and it the star movement will be cancelled and then you can line up the FG shot quite well.

To blend a sky with a FG shot at a different location, I would still do the 5-15 sky shots for noise reduction, and just blend artistically. A few good MW images, taken as it moves through the sky over the season, will cover you.

Color – daylight WB renders star color correctly, but in most cases with our lenses and sensors, there will be very little star color because stars will be overexposed. It’s worth shooting more at a lower ISO and exposure to get a little more star color, but without a tracker that can get impractical. If there is some moonlight, you will get some blue in the sky.

Hoping to get more from all of you!! The light pollution where I am is getting worse with more particulates in the air every year, from fires. Very frustrating!

5

Wow! Thankyou Rob, Theresa and Diane! So much info for my squirrel brain to take in.

I’m heading bush in a couple of weeks, but I don’t think the moon will do me any favours. I’m keen to get out and try.

I have several more night sky images to check out. I don’t think I’ve ever taken 5-15 shots of the sky. I’ve been trying to do it with one.

Some really great tips here. Thanks again.

6

Glenys, I fell over this. The Aus Geographic prize winners for 2025. The nightscape winners have the Milky Way in their photos. Perhaps this will give you ideas of how (the better than us) people handle it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urQEABJpYnc

7

Thanks Rob! Some nice images there.