Milkyway 4 pane landscape panorama

[Icesheet]

Looking for some good constructive criticism on this one. 

I have recently been taking more and more interest in nightscape stuff and this is the first time I’ve attempted a panorama. I really had to push the Milkyway to get detail here and I think I may have overstepped 

 

4 pane panorama 

Canon 550D and Samyang 24mm

2x120” f4 @ISO800 for each of the two landscape panes

20x20” f2 @ISO1600 for each of the two Sky panes. 
 

Editing in a combination of PS, LR and PI. 
 

If you’re using a phone probably best to tip on its side. 
 

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Icesheet

[Mick J]

Super nice, thanks

[Icesheet]

Thanks Mick 👍🏻

[Icesheet]

Ok, I wasn’t sure about posting this since I think it may look a bit fake, even although it wasn’t! If you look at the water in the image above you’ll notice a green tinge. That’s because as I was taking the long exposure in the foreground unbeknown to me there were Aurora going on. When I realised and tried to take a proper exposure they were gone. I tried to see if there was a way to get them in and this is the best I could come up with trying to blend it in to the existing sky.
 

Thoughts? Too fake looking?

[Knight of Clear Skies]

10 hours ago, Icesheet said:

I really had to push the Milkyway to get detail here and I think I may have overstepped 

It's a nice image but I think a more subtle version would work better.

[Icesheet]

18 minutes ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

It's a nice image but I think a more subtle version would work better.

Thanks for the feedback 👍🏻 I think I will go back to the Milkyway and tone it down a bit

[Icesheet]

Ok, I’m supposed to be working from home so better leave it now 😂Here’s a more subtle version of Milkyway. Jeez and I thought the deep space stuff was bad for fiddling. 
 

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Icesheet

[davew]

Hi Icesheet,

I'm hardly the one to advise anybody about their images but I'm not sure the Knight meant tone down the first Milky Way but I'm not certain of course. I think it's about as good as it gets and looks very nice to me. It may be noisy on your screen but looks fine on mine. The second one is errr ... bright isn't it ? But if that's the way you like it then it's your image and therefor it should be how you like it and not me !

On the other hand I feel that the first image has had the lights in the town suppressed too much, maybe in Lightroom with lowering the highlights ? They have a dull lifeless look that I've managed to achieve on a few occasions !

I think you've done an exceptional job gathering so much data and blending it all together. I would never have guessed it was a Panorama done with a 24 mm lens on APSC.

How did you manage to include PI in your workflow ?

Dave.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Just to expand my thoughts on the first posted image, I think the composition and the stars look good. The sky image is very bright and I think it would benefit from being toned down. The Milky Way also looks unnaturally smoothed, possibly the result of over-heavy noise reduction. I think a little noise grain would look better and more natural.

With a little tweaking I think it could be a very good image indeed.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Knight of Clear Skies

[Icesheet]

Thanks for the comments and feedback  @davew and @Knight of Clear Skies. Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Landscape stuff is quite new to me so always good to get opinions. 
 

You are both right. There is heavy noise reduction, more than I would usually apply. Also, I lowered the highlights not specifically for the town lights but it did bring them down. 
 

Composition wise I’m starting to think I should crop from the right up to the bush. There’s not much happening to the right. I’ll take your comments on board and have a play around again tonight 😆

[Icesheet]

5 hours ago, davew said:

I think you've done an exceptional job gathering so much data and blending it all together. I would never have guessed it was a Panorama done with a 24 mm lens on APSC.

How did you manage to include PI in your workflow ?

Dave.

Thanks Dave!

 

I used PI for DBE and to remove the stars to work on the structure of the Milkyway. I was able to bring a lot more out that way. 
 

Chris

Edited April 23, 2021 by Icesheet

[Icesheet]

Ok, last edit for now I think!

 

 

[FenlandPaul]

Well I think that last edit it my favourite of the bunch - well done! The MW is nicely detailed for an untracked image and you’ve not gone nuts with over-brightening.  My own taste is to have it a little more saturated as I like how it makes horizon glow from lights look, but that’s just taste and yours is definitely a more natural feel.

I also am new to nightscapes but find them quite addictive!!

[Icesheet]

1 hour ago, FenlandPaul said:

Well I think that last edit it my favourite of the bunch - well done! The MW is nicely detailed for an untracked image and you’ve not gone nuts with over-brightening.  My own taste is to have it a little more saturated as I like how it makes horizon glow from lights look, but that’s just taste and yours is definitely a more natural feel.

I also am new to nightscapes but find them quite addictive!!

Thanks for the comments. You’re right they are addictive! I thought it would be a breeze doing this with some deep sky experience but there’s so much more to it than you think. 
 

I’ve lost the darkness now until September so plenty of time to plan. Be good to see some of yours too 👍🏻

[FenlandPaul]

11 hours ago, Icesheet said:

Thanks for the comments. You’re right they are addictive! I thought it would be a breeze doing this with some deep sky experience but there’s so much more to it than you think. 
 

I’ve lost the darkness now until September so plenty of time to plan. Be good to see some of yours too 👍🏻

Well at least you’ve got some guaranteed sleep for a while! I usually put mine in the “Photography” section of SGL (not sure why!) and they usually have the subject “AstroLandscapes #”.  There are a few recent ones I’ve not yet uploaded, which I may do soon.

[Icesheet]

2 hours ago, FenlandPaul said:

Well at least you’ve got some guaranteed sleep for a while! I usually put mine in the “Photography” section of SGL (not sure why!) and they usually have the subject “AstroLandscapes #”.  There are a few recent ones I’ve not yet uploaded, which I may do soon.

I had a look through them, really fantastic stuff. I love the way you highlight your foreground subject. Are you doing all through some form of light painting? I wasn’t sure about light painting but if done right it can really make a photo. 

[FenlandPaul]

22 minutes ago, Icesheet said:

I had a look through them, really fantastic stuff. I love the way you highlight your foreground subject. Are you doing all through some form of light painting? I wasn’t sure about light painting but if done right it can really make a photo. 

Thanks - very kind. Lots to learn and I seem to see the faults in them more than the good stuff - I’m sure we’re all like that.

Some of them are light painted and some are simply a result of light skies and editing! I’ve found light painting can create a great effect but it’s not easy to get right. I’ve got a light-painted composition planned soon that I hope will work nicely, but will be the most complex one I’ve done so far.  It’s fun to experiment , and if you don’t like it you can always exclude those frames.

A very good tutor on the subject is Richard Tatti from Australia and his YouTube channel Nightscape Images. 

[Icesheet]

Thanks, I’ll check him out 👍🏻

[James]

Nice images Icesheet - from Bergen I'm guessing it's hard to get the brighter bits of the milky way (I'm spoiled on the south coast of England). Others have made more useful comments than I can, but I like the fact you've gone all-in to try and get as much out of the Milky Way as you can - I must admit, I hadn't thought of trying PixInsight to process my images, I've just stuck with Lightroom.. I'm no expert on composition but if you want to crop the right you'll lose the snow on the hills which I quite like

But, of course, from bergen you get more aurora than we do...

James

[Icesheet]

14 hours ago, James said:

Nice images Icesheet - from Bergen I'm guessing it's hard to get the brighter bits of the milky way (I'm spoiled on the south coast of England). Others have made more useful comments than I can, but I like the fact you've gone all-in to try and get as much out of the Milky Way as you can - I must admit, I hadn't thought of trying PixInsight to process my images, I've just stuck with Lightroom.. I'm no expert on composition but if you want to crop the right you'll lose the snow on the hills which I quite like

But, of course, from bergen you get more aurora than we do...

James

Thanks James! Yes, unfortunately the core of the Milkyway is only above the horizon during daylight hours. I suppose the occasional Aurora is not a bad substitute though 😉

I did like the snow too to be honest but the random bush just seemed out of place otherwise plus there was nothing much happening in the sky there either. 
 

Definitely worth giving PI a go for nightscape stuff. I was surprised what I managed to get out of it.