Eruption of the night

Nice job man!

Peter, I like this composition. I don't see the shooting star, but it is still a beautiful night sky. Personally I would like to see a bit more illumination of the cacti in the foreground. Also, there seems to be a green tint in the FG and mountains. Overall still a nice shot.

Regarding the the noise issue, it is impossible to comment on the noise for this specific image at this small size. I just started playing around with Lightroom 3, which has very good noise removal in the RAW conversion. I then use Topaz Denoise 5 for further noise reduction towards the end of processing. Also, you can be more aggressive with the noise reduction in the sky but back off some in the FG to retain more detail (use masks/layers to selectively apply noise reduction in PS).

I took advantage of price wars in December and bought the 5DmkII (a huge upgrade from the 400D) and am really impressed with the low noise. I took a single 90 min star trails exposure with it last month (with in-camera noise reduction turned off!) and was amazed by the low noise. If you are going to be taking a lot of shots like the above, then I would recommend a full frame camera. Wait for the 5DmkIII if you want, but if you can get a good deal on the 5DkII, you won't regret it.

I really like the composition of this image. t?he colors in the sky and the mountain are very nice. I wonder if you could have painted the closer cactus. Don't know if it would have worked or not, but I think a little more detail in the foreground would have been nice.

Thank you Jon, the shooting star is just above the left most mountain peak about 1/4 the way up. It is pretty faint, but I assure you it's there. It was much more noticeable in the original frame before the stitch. As for the green tint, I'm not sure if I see it, but it might be because of the vegetation as it is predominately green. Can't say the same for the mountain. I think I need to get lightroom to process my RAW images. Everything I do is out of photoshop cs3. I've seen some good prices on the 5d2 recently and I certainly would like to work on more images like this on a constant basis, but I'm in no rush for a new camera body. Money is being saved for a website revamp and getting prints done.

Thanks Richard- By painted do you mean light painted? I thought of it, but didn't want the foreground to look extremely bright. I can try to bring out more of the color and luminance of the foreground and try to get more detail. I will get a repost up as soon as possible.

"I think I need to get lightroom to process my RAW images. Everything I do is out of photoshop cs3".

Both process RAW files exactly the same way. Better to upgrade PS versions if you get a chance.
I like the light and symmetry of the mountains here, and the starry sky looks great. What I don't care for is the strong light pollution on the left and the dark foreground. Keep practicing with this type of imagery, though!

Peter,

A terrific night sky and those are wonderful peaks that you've been including in your images; you've got a great location and hope you continue to work it. For me, I prefer the previous "Silent Night" version where the landscape was more visible. Here, clearly you're showing off the night sky, but still the landscape almost occupies half the image and so the darkness for me becomes a deterrent. Jon mentioned he see's green in the shadows, I also see a magenta cast which also goes along with the strong magenta in the sky, left. I love the starry night sky, but overall this one isn't the best from this location.

Lon

Thanks John- I've heard mixed feelings between the programs, although I know they do the same thing. I agree, I don't really care for the light pollution, but that really is something I have no control over. As for the dark foreground, I didn't really play with it in post processing so I'm sure I can bring out some light there. I will be trying for a similar shot in the near future.

Thank you Lon- I liked the other one better myself because it was more unique and you could see a lot of the details throughout the image. I can see how the darkness of the landscape can be a deterrent. However, like you mentioned, I was more interested in showing the sky. With that said, the next time I shoot this spot it won't be of this close proximity to the mountains themselves. Perhaps make the mountains smaller with much less foreground and truly put the emphasis on the sky.

Peter, I think the green tint was from my laptop monitor! The green went away when I looked at this shot on my desktop. Also, I was able to see the shooting star on the other monitor as well.