Pinnacles Night sky..

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>This is my first attempt at processing a night sky image. I found it tricky because the camera can capture way more information than you can actually see... so how do you present something that you can barely see..? So, I am not sure its right but that's why I'm posting here...:bg3: tell me what you think.. I can say nothing has been added. It was taken last weekend away with the Camera club I belong to, at the same location as my previous post.

<o:p></o:p>I used a 1D4 and a Zeiss distagon 18mm F3.5 lens wide open. I had to bump the ISO up to 8000 at 20 sec exposure to get the following image. When I had the shutter open a car started up and turned its headlights on and I said rude words, but once the exposure was complete I found that the pinnacles were nicely lite up.. so, apologies Mr. car driver... The image is full frame. Processing was with ACR in CS6, setting WB as daylight and then adjusting the dark & light levels to just below clipping. I then imported into CS6, masked out the FG and darkened that slightly (those headlights..), and then adjusted the sky with a curves layer to what I thought looked ok. A little NR using the NIK package and all done..

DON

[Jerry van Dijk]

Wow, the astro take on this really puts the image over the top! I think the stars as well as the car lights add to the magical atmosphere of this place, and was well captured here. My only remark would be to cut of the pinnacle sticking in from the right.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Don - I think this looks great. I still struggle with getting the sharpness I want with night skies. The headlights did add to the image. The only thing I don't like is the half pinnacle on the rhs. Overall, well done.

TFS,
Rachel

[Don Railton]

Hi Rachel and Jerry,

Thanks for the comments, can't believe I did not see the half pinnacle myself.. I did struggle with the processing initially, sought (and received..) great help from Diane Miller and Roger Clark so many thanks to them for their help as well.

DON

[Diane Miller]

Great first try, Don. It's a challenging subject. (And your Milky Way does look different than "ours" up here in the N hemisphere.) I like the FG -- I haven't had much success with light painting a FG -- need to work on that.

Your processing sounds good -- basically just do whatever it takes to get the image you want. Experiment with different capture settings to see what works for you. Easy to bracket with single exposures.

Interestingly, the serious astrophotographers -- the guys you see with big telescopes and equatorial tracking mounts that let the camera follow the stars for long exposures, go to a lot of trouble to get the data (Google Deep Sky Stacker and Nebulosity to get some idea of the kinds of frames they collect) but often have consumer-level cameras and are often weak on processing in PS once they have the noise-reduced image to fine-tune. There is a lot of information on the web, and a lot of it is outdated. Today our good cameras can capture relatively noise-free and we have pretty good tools for NR and enhancement. Guys with $15,000 worth of equipment and an inexpensive Canon Rebel say they are envious of my 5D3. I tell them to get a used 5D2 (or equivalent Nikon) for the same IQ I have.

[Diane Miller]

Looking at it again, you might think about easing off the darks -- they seem a bit abrupt in the upper corners and on the horizon.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Don, congrats on a lovely first attempt at the night sky. I have yet to give it a whirl. As Rachel mentioned the half pinnacle is a little bothersome, but an easy fix if you are up to cloning it out. Looking forward to more of your night sky attempts!

[Don Railton]

Thanks Diane and Andrew...

Andrew, I was going to post another last night but life got in the way so maybe tonight...
Diane, I will look at making smoother the colour gradients in my next effort. If life will let me...

regards to you both

Don

[Diane Miller]

I'm back on my real computer now and I take it back about the darks -- they look fine here. My laptop isn't the best for tonal accuracy.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

This is stunning too. Lots of atmosphere. (no pun intended) I agree with Rachel about the cut-off pinnacle on the RHS.

[Don Railton]

Thanks again Diane, and also thank you Jackie.. Pretty unanimous, that cut off Pinnacle is about to be history, in his image anyway.

DON

[Morkel Erasmus]

Good attempt here Don. I like my lighting to be more subtle and subdued so the FG illumination is a bit harsh for my taste in nightscapes.
I think the image will look better if it's toned down ito luminosity just a tad.
I agree, just crop out the RHS pinnacle! :cheers: