Originally posted by ProfessorBuzz Great, creative shot. Would love the story of how you did it. eg composite of 2 images, light painting of the cliff, etc.
Thank you! The foreground was a few images stacked for noise reduction and 1 Light-painted image to fill out the shadows on the bluff. The sky is a single image, Astrotracer, 90s, f/1.8 ISO400. The tracked sky image was then layered into the foreground using Photoshop. I use Pixinsight for star reduction and any gradient, LP removal, but I don't like to remove LP completely.
Edit: Oh! and the foreground was 30s exposures. The reddish tint is partly due to the sandstone, but also there was a sodium vapor security light up the stairwell behind me shining right on that bluff. It didn't expose all the shadows in the rock though so that's why I blended in a light-painted shot.
---------- Post added 12-29-21 at 09:28 PM ----------
Originally posted by othar Interesting decision to reduce the milky-way to being the backdrop, but it works
Thank you! We have very few foreground options around here in this land of many hills and trees; sightlines to the sky are few and far between, and those with interesting subject matter are even more rare. Mostly it's just churches and cemeteries and old barns, but even most of those have trees all over the place. The two locations where you can actually get above the canopy and get an epic view and have some foreground interest, well everyone shoots those. We are lucky to have relatively dark skies for any area east of the Mississippi, but we are often forced to be creative and maybe a little weird if we want to do something different. Thanks again!
---------- Post added 12-29-21 at 10:09 PM ----------
Originally posted by Kevin B123 I appreciate the rock colors match or mirror the Milky Way colors, a very fine shot.
Thank you for that! I tend toward natural color in my sky photos, so I like to look for opportunities to shoot foregrounds with red and orange/brown elements to accentuate the emission nebulae and dust clouds, respectively. That also leaves some margin for error with LP which tends to be orange also.
---------- Post added 12-29-21 at 10:10 PM ----------
Originally posted by RocksandRocks Wow, what a great shot. Can you give a little detail into what went into getting a shot like this?
Thank you! I explained some of it in a reply above. Let me know if you need to know anything more specific!