Kuiper Planetscape

Some more random and secluded Wyoming badlands. This image is best viewed in darkness...as it was taken in darkness. Otherwise, I'm not sure it will work. The histogram shows almost no lost detail in the shadows, but it is a very dark image. ;]

Kind of a neat project for me as this is my first truly successful attempt. Hopefully I do not get too many 'this should be photo art' comments...it is more of a personal, technical achievement than an artistic one. Although it is definitely an artistic view of the sky (no one can see the galaxy like this with an unaided eye), yet the moonlight effect on the earth portion of this image is very real. Please take it as that. Your comments and critiques would be appreciated, though.

The tech:
Two exposures. Foreground was taken just before the moon set. ISO 800, 614 seconds at f/11. I felt the moonlight gave this type of photograph the added depth it needed. Sky was taken about 45 minutes after moon set. ISO 3200, 41 seconds at f/2.8. I had to wait for the milky way to get above the small hill in the background to achieve the composition I desired, yet before the clouds on the right overtook the frame. 1dsm3 with 16-35m2, noise removal first in camera (doubling the stated times), and then noise removal on both exposures separately, and removal again after the blend without completely softening everything. Sharpened the detail back in where I could. Other chopping involved correcting the white balance to match up both images, enhancing the Milky Way and stars, some color replacing (mostly some weird greens and reds converted to blacks..sort of a banding/pollution issue) on the sky to achieve the darker look I was going for (ISO 3200 shows all sorts of crazy colors, even Wyoming has air and light pollution). It's most likely a very printable image if I ever do anything like that...

Thanks much for looking, and sorry about the long post. I'm just really excited about sharing this image with one of the best groups of nature photographers on the net.