[FreeSpirit9]

Any suggestions appreciated

Cheers

[Adam]

Very nice capture!

As for suggestions for improvement, these kinds of shots are all about detail and vibrance, so I would start by cropping away some of the negative space in order to make the galaxy fill more of the frame and thus appear larger. The upper-left is quite soft, so I'd definitely exclude that.

Also, perhaps a bit of NR followed by some sharpening might increase the apparent level of detail, though it's hard to say at this resolution.

[FreeSpirit9]

Very nice capture!

As for suggestions for improvement, these kinds of shots are all about detail and vibrance, so I would start by cropping away some of the negative space in order to make the galaxy fill more of the frame and thus appear larger. The upper-left is quite soft, so I'd definitely exclude that.

Also, perhaps a bit of NR followed by some sharpening might increase the apparent level of detail, though it's hard to say at this resolution.

Thanks Adam. I appreciate your comments.

Cheers
Frank.

[Tas]

G'day Frank,

This is a good effort mate and I think you have an image that has more potential than you're showing here.

I'm not sure how you feel but the Milky Way to me looks more impressive when there's something in the foreground like mountains, trees etc. Each to their own of course and the time of night and time of year will determine what options you have to set the Milky Way against, but for future images I'd recommend trying to include something to contrast against the Milky Way. For this image I agree with Adam to crop to make the Milky Way a more prominent part of the image.

I'd also suggest looking at your post processing of Milky Way images. Some of what works with these images is counterintuitive to what you would normally do, for example more contrast or pushing up the whites and pushing down the blacks more than normal. As the stars are a single point of light it doesn't really matter if the PP software indicates the stars are over exposed. At the same time you can try pushing the colour channels or the saturation/vibrance. If your software allows it there's more control doing the individual colour channels as you can raise the luminance of individual colours without adjusting others. In this image I'd start with yellows, greens and magentas before trying any others. However if your software can't do this even the global saturation/vibrance should draw the cloud structures out of the background.

I'd also ensure you target noise reduction as one of the first steps with these images so there's no sharpening of noise artefacts when you push contrast/tones. The image posted is too small to see how noise is but at ISO3200 there's going to be something there and masking as you reduce the chroma noise should get a good balance between noise control and detail.

Hope this feedback is of use, my apologies if the above is stuff you already do.

Tas

[FreeSpirit9]

G'day Frank,

This is a good effort mate and I think you have an image that has more potential than you're showing here.

I'm not sure how you feel but the Milky Way to me looks more impressive when there's something in the foreground like mountains, trees etc. Each to their own of course and the time of night and time of year will determine what options you have to set the Milky Way against, but for future images I'd recommend trying to include something to contrast against the Milky Way. For this image I agree with Adam to crop to make the Milky Way a more prominent part of the image.

I'd also suggest looking at your post processing of Milky Way images. Some of what works with these images is counterintuitive to what you would normally do, for example more contrast or pushing up the whites and pushing down the blacks more than normal. As the stars are a single point of light it doesn't really matter if the PP software indicates the stars are over exposed. At the same time you can try pushing the colour channels or the saturation/vibrance. If your software allows it there's more control doing the individual colour channels as you can raise the luminance of individual colours without adjusting others. In this image I'd start with yellows, greens and magentas before trying any others. However if your software can't do this even the global saturation/vibrance should draw the cloud structures out of the background.

I'd also ensure you target noise reduction as one of the first steps with these images so there's no sharpening of noise artefacts when you push contrast/tones. The image posted is too small to see how noise is but at ISO3200 there's going to be something there and masking as you reduce the chroma noise should get a good balance between noise control and detail.

Hope this feedback is of use, my apologies if the above is stuff you already do.

Tas

G'day Tas,

Thanks for your comments and advice. I've just been tinkering with PP but your guidance is very much appreciated.

Cheers
Frank

[ranmar850]

I've been tinkering with this myself in the past few months, and there is a lot to it. As a previous poster suggested, try to get some landscape in there. An 8-16mm lens should let you do that , i'm only using an 18-125mm zoom, but will shortly invest in a 14mm. Pick the time when the MW is more vertical in the sky to let you do that.You probably know the basics, as you don't have any star streaking, which is usually the first thing people get wrong. ISO 3200, f4 to f5 and 15 sec exposure seem to work OK to start with. Are you using Lightroom for PP? If so, take a good look at your tone curves after you have used exposure, contrast and clarity. Noise reduction will also be needed, maybe try some sharpening first. The tone curves seem to really bring out the colours and patterns in the MW--with a good camera and lens, you will pick up an enormous amount of detail with the right PP. And, right down the bottom, try a bit of De-haze, can be very powerful when used sparingly. Don't be afraid to push those sliders, all your editing in RAW is non-destructive anyway.
As i said, i haven't been doing this night photography for long, but my results are improving. Have a look at this gallery--the one at the very top is the first I ever took with the K-x Night - ranmar Some of them are obvious crap, but they were put in here to be posted asking where I went wrong, or enquiring about a particular aspect of operation.

[FreeSpirit9]

Hey Ranmar. Thanks for the suggestions. Your Kalbarri Photos are exceptional. great work. We've really been impressed.

Cheers


---------- Post added 09-07-17 at 08:23 PM ----------

I've been tinkering with this myself in the past few months, and there is a lot to it. As a previous poster suggested, try to get some landscape in there. An 8-16mm lens should let you do that , i'm only using an 18-125mm zoom, but will shortly invest in a 14mm. Pick the time when the MW is more vertical in the sky to let you do that.You probably know the basics, as you don't have any star streaking, which is usually the first thing people get wrong. ISO 3200, f4 to f5 and 15 sec exposure seem to work OK to start with. Are you using Lightroom for PP? If so, take a good look at your tone curves after you have used exposure, contrast and clarity. Noise reduction will also be needed, maybe try some sharpening first. The tone curves seem to really bring out the colours and patterns in the MW--with a good camera and lens, you will pick up an enormous amount of detail with the right PP. And, right down the bottom, try a bit of De-haze, can be very powerful when used sparingly. Don't be afraid to push those sliders, all your editing in RAW is non-destructive anyway.
As i said, i haven't been doing this night photography for long, but my results are improving. Have a look at this gallery--the one at the very top is the first I ever took with the K-x Night - ranmar Some of them are obvious crap, but they were put in here to be posted asking where I went wrong, or enquiring about a particular aspect of operation.

Hey Ranmar. Thanks for the suggestions. Your Kalbarri Photos are exceptional. great work. We've really been impressed.

Cheers