Constellation

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 9, 2009362 views7 comments

Here is the ESS star image for the day.

I've been working on this one for a little while but after seeing Michael Anderson's great posts from the S. Pacific and Kent Mearig's beautiful ice image I held off on posting it.

This is a two-image manual blend from a night back in April. The mountains pictured are part of the Mummy Range in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo. The Big Dipper was well-positioned above. This is the second image I've posted on ESS from this shoot, I showed a single-exposure shot that was quite a bit darker and more contrasty several months ago. More technical info is below:

Nikon D300, Sigma 17-35mm lens at 17mm.
Star Image: ~60s, f/2.8, ISO 800, taken ~1.5 hours before sunrise.
Cloud and Mountain Image: 1/2.5s, f/11, ISO 100, taken ~ 10 min before sunrise.
Photoshop layer blend, Noise Ninja filter applied to sky.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Kurt Budliger on December 9, 2009 at 4:44 PM

Neat shot, I love the dipper. I would almost prefer without the pink clouds obscuring the bottom of the "cup"

Registered on June 11, 2006, 113 Posts, 2116 Comments

Comment posted by John Zinn on December 9, 2009 at 5:24 PM

Well done! If it were mine, I might burn in the stars that are behind the pink clouds to help the Dipper stand out better.

John

Registered on November 1, 2003, 41 Posts, 1743 Comments

Comment posted by Barb Pflaum on December 9, 2009 at 8:27 PM

Very nice image. I love seeing the stars above the mountain tops and the sunrise colors make it even more beautiful.

Registered on January 14, 2009, 316 Posts, 2724 Comments

Comment posted by Tom Nevesely on December 9, 2009 at 9:12 PM

I'm really liking this Joshua! I love the stars.

Registered on June 14, 2005, 147 Posts, 1550 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on December 9, 2009 at 10:59 PM

Really nice pp on the stars. I love the Big Dipper in this shot! Great color in the sky as well. Very well done!

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on December 10, 2009 at 2:48 AM

Nice job, Josh! Blend looks natural. Tree on the left is slightly distracting but not a deal-breaker.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on December 10, 2009 at 8:39 PM

This is almost more about the Dipper than the mountains or the clouds to me. I could actually see cropping some of the bottom to emphasize the clouds more.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments