MilkyWay over Aasgard

After submitting this for critique awhile ago I made a print and was

not at all happy with it. I went back to the Raw files and completely

reworked them from the beginning. The result is a more subtle sky and

land with far less noise. I hope you might share your thoughts on this

new version.

I think the effort was worth to. This is a more appealing image with a better balance between ground and sky: I think you could darken the ground a little bit more to get a more natural look.

Alberto.

Great work.

I didn't see the original, so I can't comment on the changes.  However, I think this is wonderful.  These photos of the night sky are among my favorites, although I've never done one myself.  I'm in agreement with Alberto in that I thing the ground could be darkened slightly (just slightly) for a more realistic balance.  Of greater concern to me is the patch of snow on the far left -- I wish it wasn't so prominent and taking my eye away from the stars n the sky and that great pool of water in the foreground.

Interesting, Stephen, that your eye was drawn to that patch of snow (actually a glacial remnant. It was a real glacier when I first began hiking up here, but climate change has buggered up everything. pardon  the digression) I'm surprised you didn't mention the reflection off the pool in the FG. That almost works as a leading line I suppose. The land was considerably brighter in the first post; if I darken it any more I'm afraid it won't display properly in a print except with a dark matte and very particular lighting.

Marc, I did notice that small pool of water and I like it -- just didn't comment on it.  Yeah, it's a little bright, but I think it's in a spot where that doesn't matter, or may in fact be beneficial.  At some point you've just got to go with what nature gave to you to photograph.  Trying to "overcome" some aspects of what you saw will start to defeat the whole purpose, IMO (recognizing that one person's purpose will not necessarily be another person's purpose!).

Did you really see all of these stars in the sky? Where were you? I would love to travel to this part of the world and observe like you did.

Kombizz:

  I was encamped at about 8000' in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. No, the naked eye does not quite see all of these stars unaided. With the sensor on my 5DII cranked up to ISO 12800 and the sky exposed for about 30 seconds, stars that the eye can't quite detect are recorded. Also you get these strange mist-like things. The cold color temperature is what the sensor sees. If you use an exposure time longer than 30 seconds with a wide angle lens at least, you will see star movement. i. e. the stars will appear as ovals instead of points of light.

Fantastic image! Amazingly done!