Milky Way and Wizened tree

photogav

photogav

Messages
194
Name
Gavin
Edit My Images
Yes
Seeing as clear moonless nights with the Milky Way are as rare as Rocking Horse poo, I thought I'd make my mrs suspicious and head out at 1.30am the other night and I managed my first shot of the Milky Way and my favourite tree. Shot near Eggardon Hill, Dorset. The light pollution (which I like) comes from Yeovil (15 miles away) and Dorchester (12 miles away).

View attachment 14257
 
There's a lot I like about this one, its always nice to see the Milky Way, and I find the distortion and central composition appealing, but then I'm a sucker for fisheye distortion, and the way that the landscape curves frames the tree nicely...

There is a couple of things that I'd like to see different, I'm not keen on the blue tone of the light used to light the tree, I'd like to see the colour temp of the light warmed to to leave it basically cast neutral, that said a rich red could actually work, as I'm thinking of all the radio masts I've seen painted red and white and it could make for an interesting addition as I think red would be a bold enough colour to look deliberate and make the image pop, as it is with the colour currently it looks like it was just a cool white LED torch that was used rather than a deliberate colour choice..

I'd also crop out the little bit of tree or bush that you've caught in the upper left corner, I think you could crop that out while maintaining the composion without any noticeable loss from the Milky Way

Matt
 
Thanks for your critique Matt. As I said this was my first attempt and I hope it's not my last. Mind you if I keep disappearing in the middle of the night my Mrs really will think I'm having an affair lol.

You are right about the light of the tree. It was just an experiment rather than a deliberate choice. I tried it as a silhouette as well, and preferred this one. But will do some more planning for the next time.
 
photogav said:
Thanks for your critique Matt. As I said this was my first attempt and I hope it's not my last. Mind you if I keep disappearing in the middle of the night my Mrs really will think I'm having an affair lol.

You are right about the light of the tree. It was just an experiment rather than a deliberate choice. I tried it as a silhouette as well, and preferred this one. But will do some more planning for the next time.
Click to expand...

Yep it's got to be illuminated, silhouetted just wouldn't really work IMO it can but not in this case, as to the better half take her with you :D
 
What settings did you shoot this if you don't mind me asking and how much work went in to it in post.

Great image by the way, I really like it.
 
The settings are that important as each shot will be slightly different. I used a fisheye lens and set a pretty high ISO (which is achievable in the D800 I used). I did a bit of work in Post on the RAW file, although the jpegs in camera looked ok, it still needed a bit of tweaking, not overly though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top