Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda

FM Forum Rules
Landscape Posting Guidelines

FM Forums | Landscape Photographer | Join Upload & Sell

Archive 2013 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

Timmeh
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

I recently received our backordered Astrotrac, so I was eager to shoot some Milky Way over Yosemite. Half Dome proved to be a good subject due to its convenient position to the south at Olmsted Point, and to the east from Cook's Meadow for the Sagittarius/Scorpio Milky Way. Blending the foreground and sky exposures proved to be a bit challenging, but I think it turned out ok. Please feel free to point out any glaring artifacts, and general C&C is also appreciated.

Tim

Olmsted Point: Half Dome Steam

Cook's Meadow

Edited on Jun 09, 2013 at 04:41 PM · View previous versions

Jun 09, 2013 at 03:45 PM

JimFox
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

Hey Tim,

Pretty nice work here with your new Astro-trac. I like them both, the stars and Milky Way sure look cool. No preference, though I might favor #1 except for that bit of moving in the tree branches.

The other day I was thinking about the Astro-trac type devices, and I was thinking that even though they can nail the stars at a lower ISO, the aspect they would compliment is the foreground and how to blend that in. The star portion of your shot must have some of the foreground in it but it must be blurry as the tracking device moves with the stars then... My thought was you might have to shoot a bit higher in the sky with just a little foreground and then just layer a stationary shot of the foreground on top of that. I wouldn't be totally accurate as to actual star positions at the actual time you took it then, but it would solve the moving foreground issue. Or am I barking up the wrong tree here with my thoughts?

Jim

Jun 09, 2013 at 03:53 PM

Timmeh
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

Hey Jim,

That is exactly what I did. I had to do some slight rotational adjustments to get as much of the still foreground shot overlapping with the tracked stars shot as possible. If anyone has a better solution, I'd love to hear it

(I'm not sure if Steve Perry did the exact same method with his Bryce shot).

Tim

Jun 09, 2013 at 04:47 PM

dgdg
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

you can move your layer containing the sharp foreground (land) upwards into the sky portion, or enlarge it in order to cover up the blurred potion of the sky layer. if you have a lone large tree with a lot of holes, then it might be tough.

Jun 09, 2013 at 05:35 PM

harshaj1
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

Great looking shots. I like the idea of a separate milky way shot and blending that with the foreground shot. Otherwise things can get too complicated for blending.
Harsha

Jun 09, 2013 at 08:09 PM

nburwell
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

Both images are excellent, although I prefer #1. Nice blending as well.

-Nick

Jun 10, 2013 at 11:20 AM

Travis Rhoads
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

I prefer #1 for the vibrant blue sky and more interesting foreground.

Jun 10, 2013 at 11:32 AM

dgdg
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

fantastic photo. looking at it again...
wonder if you could clone some pine tree leaves to remove the motion/blur in the large pine on the left side.

Jun 10, 2013 at 11:47 AM

roguecoolman
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

Tim,

I like #1. I think the blending was excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Jason

Jun 10, 2013 at 01:44 PM

Justin Grimm
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

Even though I've never seen the Milky Way myself, #1 looks very convincing and realistic to how the stars should look. No crazy tie-die blotches of colour everywhere, just nice clean whites!

I think these would work better with harder edged horizon lines though, and I find the inclusion of the stairs in #1 odd. Trees like these are nightmares in normal shots, so bet they are a real pain for long exposures with a camera rotating around

Jun 10, 2013 at 01:54 PM

Cookies
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Half Dome and the Milky Way

I like both! Gotta love the dark skies of Yosemite.

Chris

Jun 10, 2013 at 08:06 PM


FM Forums \| Landscape Photographer \| Join Upload & Sell

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.