A couple from Palouse Falls

[Jameel Hyder]

Had a summer trip to eastern Washington and stopped for at Palouse Falls for a night shot. Reached there in time to catch a nice sunset before setting up the night shot. The milky way shot is a composite (probably obvious) merged manually. Does the square format work here? Still experimenting with both capturing as well as post processing the night sky.

Btw, the Rokinon 24/1.4 is pretty nice lens for this type of work. Even allows live view focusing the stars wide open which I struggle with other lenses (even the 14/2.8).

 

[Kyle Jones]

Both are really nice - I'm a fan of that lens too. You may want to look at darkening the landscape in the night image near where it meets the sky so the transition is a little less abrupt.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Thanks Kyle. Here is a reworked version where I have also darkened the image tad bit to bring out the stars in addition to darkening the transition

 

[Ben Egbert]

That first image is sweet all by itself with the great sky to go with the falls. You reworked second shot is much improved over the first.

 

[Timmeh]

Hi Jameel,

That spot is beautiful, and you reminded me of a good trip 2 years ago. I also have a strong preference for the 24 1.4 for the same reason (and I find the stars to be crisper). The coma correction is excellent on it normally as well, though it looks like you have some. Did you shoot the sky wide open? I find that the coma disappears completely at the half stop between f/2 and f/2.8.

For the redo on the night sky I think you still have a little bit of a blending issue with it appearing to be too bright at the horizon on the land. I think darkening the horizon on the land layer would make it seem more natural.

Tim

 

[Trevor G]

The first one is great!

 

[JimFox]

Hey Jameel,

What a very cool sunset shot! This is a location that I still need to get to!

With the Milky Way, I like your original (#2) the best. The only issue is the sharp contrast edge between the ground and the sky. In your edit where you basically darkened everything, that contrast edge still exists.

All you need to do, is go back to #2, and along the very top edge of the ground, along the background hills, is just slightly darken that, like it's in shadow a bit more. Nothing too much, just a gentle darkening. I would leave the rest of the ground layer as bright as it is, I think the ground layer brightness is fine, you just want to soften the transition edge so it doesn't feel like the stars got pasted in.

Jim

 

[Zeph]

I think the contrast issue talked about here, is the that the plateaus in the distance have grasses that are picking up the available light, put me down for the first version.
You really captured the essence of planet earth.

 

[Ryan10]

As others have said...create a darker falloff on the ground image. The horizon line should be nearly black. Don't make the entire ground the same exposure all the way through.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Thanks for all the comments. Really appreciate it. Rework #2.