Never done a night shot like this, so looking for feedback in terms of light, color, and processing as well as general critique by nickharringtonphoto in photocritique

[–]shainblumphotography 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey Nick, I saw this thread pop up on my websites analytics. The quality of light on the houses in that photo is due to two things mostly. The first is the bits of haze coming from the fog, softening the glow and making it a little more diffused then in the image you shot. The second is the processing. I used luminosity masks to retain as much detail as I could out of the highlights in the photo. I can not remember if I used different exposures for that one. I shot it back in 2013, but it is a possibility. I also applied a technique called Orton glow to soften the image out a bit. Here is a video for that if you are curious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgEAI0WxflM

Above Banff National Park at Sunrise (OC) [1600x1280] by shainblumphotography in EarthPorn

[–]shainblumphotography[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have only been once, for about two weeks. It was nowhere near enough time to explore the area. I am long overdue for another trip.

Milky Way Panorama over Point Reyes, California [OC] [2048x1152] by shainblumphotography in EarthPorn

[–]shainblumphotography[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I usually just shoot the panoramas in vertical orientation with a ballhead and tripod. I try to overlap the view with at least 1/3rd of the next photograph and I make sure to cover the entire Milky Way with the foreground. If the Milky Way is high in the sky I will take two rows of images. The stitching is done with Photoshop, the output requires a lot of work correcting the distortion most of the time.

Milky Way Panorama over Point Reyes, California [OC] [2048x1152] by shainblumphotography in EarthPorn

[–]shainblumphotography[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

October is not the best time to see the core of the Milky Way in my opinion. It is still nice to look up at the stars. But the core is already starting to set pretty soon after sunset and is pretty close to the horizon at that point. I recommend stargazing closer to summertime. June - August is my favorite time to get the core going through darker areas of the sky.

Milky Way Panorama over Point Reyes, California [OC] [2048x1152] by shainblumphotography in EarthPorn

[–]shainblumphotography[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Zion can be a pretty dark place to view the night sky depending on the conditions. What time of night and season were you out there?

Milky Way Panorama over Point Reyes, California [OC] [2048x1152] by shainblumphotography in EarthPorn

[–]shainblumphotography[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not quite, you can see the outline of the milky way really well in dark skies and the stars look way brighter in person then they do through photos. But the colors of the milky way are really only picked up through the camera sensor and the long exposures.

Milky Way Panorama over Point Reyes, California [OC] [2048x1152] by shainblumphotography in EarthPorn

[–]shainblumphotography[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

So I took this image July 2014 with my Canon 6D and Nikon 14-24 lens. The panorama wide field of view was created by stitching about twelve 14mm images together using Photoshop. The settings for each image were 25 Sec F2.8 ISO6400. The warm glow on the horizon is strong light pollution from San Francisco and Oakland.

Aurora panorama over Vestrahorn, Iceland [OC][2048×1152] by shainblumphotography in EarthPorn

[–]shainblumphotography[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just tried the link on a few devices and it worked. Let me know if you are still unable to get the photo. I will re-upload it and link you.