Time Travel

Gallery: LandscapePosted July 5, 2012512 views6 comments

I'm interested to get your thoughts on this one from Bryce Canyon. The result was partially an accident (or more accurately, a consequence of my limited post-processing skills), but I think I like it.

The initial intention was to create a "typical" star trail image. The night sky is a stacked set of about 25 exposures, each 30 seconds. Because this was shot at 70mm, the short period between exposures resulted in noticeable gaps in the star trails at 100%. So I tried using the method suggested by Andy Morris (http://blog.starcircleacademy.com/2011/11/out-darn-gaps/) where the PS radial blur filter is used to close those gaps. But for the life of me I couldn't find the exact point to mark the center of rotation (it's way outside the frame). So this was the result for the sky. During the last exposure I ran up the trail to the right and painted the rock formation with a flashlight.

The final product leans more toward art than a pure landscape image, but we don't see star trails without a camera and some post-capture processing either. Overall, though, I like it.

What are your thoughts? Other suggestions for improving the image? Any comments and critiques are much appreciated.

Jared

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Navin Sarma on July 5, 2012 at 7:29 PM

I think this is a pretty unique image, a bit of a sensory adventure if you ask me. I think the rocks and the stars compete with each other though. I might tone down the foreground brightness a tad while keeping its contrast, since I think the star trails are the real show here.

Registered on July 17, 2011, 233 Posts, 1373 Comments

Comment posted by Tom Haxby on July 5, 2012 at 7:58 PM

I must say that this is a very original image. Not sure if it is a photo or photo art. It does reach out and grab you though. Would like to see more of these types of trials floated out there. I like it.

Registered on July 6, 2006, 126 Posts, 647 Comments

Comment posted by John Fan on July 5, 2012 at 8:54 PM

Nice color and composition, very artistic. I agree that you might want to make the foreground a little darker to achieve a more "nature" look. There are signs of not so clean selection around the edge of the rocks. The entire picture is somehow skewed on the black background.

Registered on August 24, 2010, 135 Posts, 489 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on July 5, 2012 at 9:44 PM

The foreground rocks need to be real here, and they are. At least they seem to be. When it comes to stars anything is acceptable and I like the artistic take this imparts.

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

Comment posted by Yiming Hu on July 5, 2012 at 9:59 PM

The radial blur filter surely created somewhat very different star trails --- they are close to photo art --- but I like the effect, anyway.

I would reduce the contrast and the brightness of the foreground.

Registered on April 28, 2011, 38 Posts, 733 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on July 6, 2012 at 10:27 PM

Very creative! Sure like the look of this. Good advice already given. I'll just add in here to keep it up and to keep practicing your post-processing skills. Personally I can't quite decide if the trails are too bright or the rocks or the whole image. But again, I like the concept you're working on.

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments