Which do you prefer (added new image)

[Ben Egbert]

Here are two milky way images. The first was shown here about a month ago, It was purposely made bright by my choice of the amount of moonlight on the temple to the processing. I see that Jim and Alisia who were there have made darker images. So I found one that was a bit darker and processed it to emphasize the sky instead of the terrain. As it turns out not even the bright one works as a print, so maybe I forget about printing MW shots and concentrate on the best web presentation.

1. Lighter version

2. Darker version

 

[AlanLichty]

To be perfectly honest I prefer the first one. The processing in the skies seems more natural for my eyes.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ben, both look cool, I like the 2nd best I think. I like the Extra work you have done on the Milky Way, but I would like the Milky Way to then be brighter against the dark sky.

 

[Jim Dockery]

Both are great, but a nod to #2, the clouds are more dramatic and the tighter crop is also. The color and brightness in the sky below the clouds on the far left doesn't seem to jive with the area just above the dark clouds though.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Hey Ben, both look cool, I like the 2nd best I think. I like the Extra work you have done on the Milky Way, but I would like the Milky Way to then be brighter against the dark sky.

Hey Jim thanks for this comment. I tried your tip for making the stars brighter but cannot get it to work. I can use it too darken the sky but when I try to lighten the stars, it makes the entire image brighter. Is that what you would do here? Part of doing this version was to hone my MW processing a bit.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Both are great, but a nod to #2, the clouds are more dramatic and the tighter crop is also. The color and brightness in the sky below the clouds on the far left doesn't seem to jive with the area just above the dark clouds though.

Thanks Jim. The moon was very bright in that segment of the image. Should I darken it?

 

[Jeffrey]

I prefer #1.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

I prefer the first as well.

 

[Dale Berlin]

#1 for me. I wonder if dimming just the tower would help or hurt, but I think it is an awesome image as is.

 

[rfkiii]

#1. But then, I add a brightener to every image at or near the final stage of processing.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

I like them both, Ben. I don't know enough about Milky Way photography to know what looks more natural but #1 is my guess.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks all for your response. It appears that one is the winner which sort of surprised me. I think milky way shots are cool but to really get good at this I would need to get used to being awake when I prefer to sleep, and have a cleaner camera noise wise. I printed the first one at 16x24 and had it hanging on my wall for a while but it did not inspire me so I took it down. Too dark for my taste, but if I made it brighter, it would start looking pretty fake I suspect.

Anyway I did a milky way so I can scratch that off my bucket list.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks all for your response. It appears that one is the winner which sort of surprised me. I think milky way shots are cool but to really get good at this I would need to get used to being awake when I prefer to sleep, and have a cleaner camera noise wise. I printed the first one at 16x24 and had it hanging on my wall for a while but it did not inspire me so I took it down. Too dark for my taste, but if I made it brighter, it would start looking pretty fake I suspect.

Anyway I did a milky way so I can scratch that off my bucket list.

Ben, don't scratch the Milky Way off your list, I was hoping you were just starting to scratch your Milky Way itch!

 

[Ben Egbert]

Can you arrange them for 10 pm or earlier?

 

[Ben Egbert]

Actually I will probably stil do them when we have meet ups

 

[JimFox]

Ben, can you blend a bit of the Milky Way detail in from #2 into #1? I like the detail you got.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Jim thanks for this comment. I tried your tip for making the stars brighter but cannot get it to work. I can use it too darken the sky but when I try to lighten the stars, it makes the entire image brighter. Is that what you would do here? Part of doing this version was to hone my MW processing a bit.

Ben, the layer mask is not set up right. Is that where I typed the tutorial wrong?

 

[Ben Egbert]

I can’t get the tutorial to work. I get a layer mask where I can darken the sky but if I try to brighten the stars
the whole image gets brighter. I am not sure the stars can get brighter because they are already Around 250

the first image is the easier and brighter image to work with and I could probably make the sky look like the 2nd one if I start from scratch. The mw had moved a bunch between shots so blending would probably harder

 

[Kyle Jones]

I like both the sky and ground better in the first. You got nice moonlight on the temple, may as well take advantage! I think the stars are too red in the second.

The trick with Jim's tutorial is to brighten the layer underneath the one with the sky layer mask.

 

[Ben Egbert]

How do you brighten it? I have been using levels which adds an adjustment layer