the visual journey - gallery ii Great Beyond

Want to know more? Please read the details of this shot in the critique

section below the image. Thanks for looking.

This is an image I taken during a recent 7-day backpacking trek through the Teton backcountry. It breaks new ground for me as a photographer, something very important to me these days. My idea was to find a way to connect strong foregroud features that compliment the mountains with the night sky featuring the Milky Way (the planet Jupiter is also visible at left). Doing so would require blending exposures for both depth of field and print quality.

 

I started at 9:30pm by hiking down from camp next to Snowdrift Lake and making a dark, twilight exposure for the mountains and foreground at f/18, ISO 50, 20 seconds. I knew where I wanted to set up because I had scouted the area the night before and knew what the night sky would look like and when. I secured the camera for the long wait and hoped nothing moved between then and 3am, when I came back for the second exposure - the one for the sky. I had to wait for the moon to set to render all the stars and otherworldly elements you see above in this image. My sky exposure was at ISO 3200, f/2.8, 40 seconds with noise reduction applied in processing (if the correct noise reduction techniques are used, it works very well for just the sky without comprimising details).

 

By using f/2.8 and ISO 3200 for such a long exposure, I was able to pick up much more light than could ever be visible to the eye. In doing so, you see otherworldly features here like the gasses of the Milky Way that you never could otherwise. I believe the faint glow from behind the peaks came from the moon that set almost an hour earlier. Since the camera had not moved between exposures, the blend was seamless and the sky is as it naturally occured over these peaks.

 

I would like to get your opinions on this one, and please, I HIGHLY recommend you view this in a darker area. This is certainly an image that requires certain lighting conditions to be viewed correctly.

 

WOW!! I have never seen such an amazing photo like this before, a true work of art and completely original. I think you have raised the bar in digital landscape and nature photography once again. The sky is really beautiful and the detail and exposure for the foreground is perfect for the situation. I dont think there is a single thing to critique on; its sharp, well blended, perfectly exposed and a strong composition. I am interested in your methods for reducing noise for the high ISO of 3200?

 

Well done Marc! You are an inspiration!

Marc, you're right to be pleased - superb shot.

Excellent shot...

Best wishes, Kallol

Hello Mark, this is just perfection. I've never seen the milkay way this way from earth's photos.

Perfect exposition on each of your 2 photos and blend.

Cheers!

Wow, I'm really impressed with the beauty of this sky plenty of stars, ... certainly the gases from the Milky Way enhances the magic atmosphere created in this incredible night shot.Thanks for sharing with us all the process behind this image.

Very well done.

 

Marc man, this is incredible. Everything about it is perfect and I don't feel bad saying so. Thanks for all the details about the post processing, really enlightening.

Hy Marc, what a great spectacle to view this in place!

good composition and processing, well with you optic and camera seems the noise is not a real problem.

 

regards!

It truly takes you beyond yourself again. You have not only already crossed most boundaries of the landscape photography but have also created new boundaries that were probably not even imagined.

 

Sugary it is to read, however I am very inspired by this photo. Just an admiration.

 

conratulations,

+Lalit

Breathtaking! ! We can only admire it until somebody does it better in the future ,and then maybe, we can critique it.

 

Wow, this is magical. The sky is spectacular and I love the flow from the Milkyway down through the stream. One of the most powerful landscape photo's I've ever seen.

Magnificent work......The colors and glow in the sky are beautiful and your composition makes it seem like the Milky Way flows out of the sky and down the mountain side into the foreground. Very nice indeed......

AMAZING!!

Outstanding image as usual Marc. Indicative of why I look up to you as a role model for this type of photography, and try that much harder every time I get behind the camera. Everything about this photo is spectacular. Ideally, I think if the stars were sharper, even if the sky was a little darker, then the sky would be even more incredible.

 

Your composition is really well thought out. The way the stream/cascades lead up to the trail of the Milky Way is simply brilliant. The choice of dark and sorrowful colors is amazing, but at the same time, the warmth of the background promises something more hopeful beyond the horizon, perhaps after a steep and arduous ascent. This is really a powerful, emotionally charged image. Thank you so much for sharing it.

 

Alan

Fantastic result!

Hi like your experimentation. Very creative and dreamlike .

 

maybe the thing that disturbs me is the 20 seconds exposure on the sky making the stars slightly moving .

 

You go beyond photography , that's art . I like this idea . great work .

Hey Marc, I must admit that the faint warm glow from the moon below the horizon is nice, I think it makes the composition. You've nearly created your own planetarium where the moonlight appears to light up the ceiling and everything in it. This makes the celestial infinity much more accessible to the viewer. I agree with your admonition to view the image from a dark place because you have quite a low-light exposure. I'd like to offer a comment about the exposure technique. I've found that ISO 3200 does the job, but at 40 seconds, the cost continues to be trailing of the stars at anything other than wide angle. Your sharpening and noise-reduction work is good but I'll also add that you are an excellent artist, so don't stress about the scientific precision of your sky.

so incredibly impressive. i've tried a few night shots unsuccessfully so far and realize how difficult it is to capture the image under such low lighting conditions.

a question about the sky: why use such a high iso and a sub 1 minute exposure? wouldn't an exposure blend of, say iso 800, at 15 mins per exposure, yield much less noise (which i can't really make out in this image...so awesome job eliminating the noise).

~James

James,

 

The sky was properly exposed (then darkened) with my 1Ds III, so that combined with a little noise reduction yielded a pretty noise-free sky. I couldn't shoot longer than 40-50 seconds or so due to star movement. I didn't want star streaks here.

Lots of compliments for this Image!!! yoyu used very well the double exposure here to obtain a perfect esposure for all the photo!! (sorry for my terrible english!)

Hi, Enrico

Magnificent.

Holy..sh..sky! this is pure awesome! I swear, my ultimate favorite photo ever!!!!! Thank you soo much for sharing. How can I get a poster of this on my wall?? I'll buy one from you!

This has got to be one of the best landscape images I have ever seen. I truly wish to emulate you, Marc. Keep up the amazing work.