Aiming for the Milky Way

[JimFox]

With Turret Arch on one side at Arches National Park, I was aiming to get the early spring Milky Way which rises very late in the morning. It first starts peeping up about 3am when I shot this 2 weeks ago.

This is a single image using the old technique of Double Processing the Raw Image. Once for the ground and once for the sky. That way I can brighten the ground while darkening the sky.

Sony A6400
Samyang 12mm f2.0
25 sec
f2.0
ISO 3200

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. A Timelapse is on the way with this composition. This image is just one shot in a sequence of 1600 images captured that night.

 

[AlanLichty]

Pretty nice result. Looks like you had quite a bit of headroom in the capture.

I have used this same technique for exposure blending quite a few times over the years.

 

[Ben Egbert]

You have a nice blend of exposures here between foreground and sky. I like the alignment of the MW with the rocks.

 

[JimFox]

Pretty nice result. Looks like you had quite a bit of headroom in the capture.

I have used this same technique for exposure blending quite a few times over the years.

Thanks Alan. I would think that most of us old school digital photographers have? Hopefully anyway. But I know a lot of newer photographers haven’t heard of it.

 

[JimFox]

You have a nice blend of exposures here between foreground and sky. I like the alignment of the MW with the rocks.

Thanks Ben. It did line up with the rocks rather well I think. I had my D810 aimed with the Windows on the left and Turret on the right. This one I aimed a but more to the right to get a different view but also to hedge my bets. I have 2 iPhones and they both point to slightly different directions, (and my old compass got too old and broke) so lately I have never been 100% sure where the Milky Way will rise. That’s my sad, but true story…