Night Sky Color

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 27, 20153,530 views7 comments

Here is a color copy of the image I posted a couple of days ago. I struggle. I know that to have color and detail make a more dynamic image, but it is not what is seen on a dark night with no moon. The sky here is close to what it looked like, but I could not see this much detail and color in the landscape when I was shooting this I look at some night sky images and I know they are not what was really seen. I like the artistic work on that kind of image, but it is still not what you see on a dark night away from city lights. This took some work in lightroom to bring out the colors in both the sky and the landscape. I really appreciate your input and critique. I really helps me in improving my photography.

Canon 7D
Sigma 17-70
Manual
Shutter 20
Aperture f2.8
ISO 2800
17mm
Tripod and remote shutter release

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on January 27, 2015 at 9:29 PM

This looks quite realistic to me, Richard...maybe a touch too much brightness in the sky but a nice sense of barely making out the land. Our eyes pick up quite a bit of color in the stars when were away from city lights and give them time to fully adapt.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Cross on January 28, 2015 at 12:37 AM

This gets my vote. Hands down. Not a lot of color in the sky but it's there and really important to me. I think you've captured that here and it was worth the effort. Not many take the time to image the north end of the MW as it's much more dramatic the other way but this is still pretty nice. Lots of stars, nice subtle colors: looks real to me. Okay by me if you want to darken the hills some. Just knowing they are there is all I need. Good job.

Registered on April 3, 2010, 271 Posts, 1342 Comments

Comment posted by Roel Wijtmans on January 28, 2015 at 11:57 AM

This is a big improvement for me, compared to the B+W. Maybe the sky could be a bit warmer, but colors and exposure look fine to me. I still would like to see a bit more of the land though, haha.

Registered on September 30, 2012, 116 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by R.Bill Moser on January 29, 2015 at 1:17 PM

This looks very realitic to me compared to other night shots. I like it. I would like to see a bit more of the land

Registered on January 29, 2010, 285 Posts, 4281 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Zelinka on January 29, 2015 at 2:33 PM

This looks pretty good, just a little unbalanced with so little land at the bottom, and the land looks unnaturally bright to my mind for a night shot.

Registered on August 20, 2007, 206 Posts, 998 Comments

Comment posted by gary phillips on January 29, 2015 at 9:05 PM

My understanding is that the sensor in the camera is capable of "seeing" much more than the human eye at night. As a result, I like the fact that is some color in this version and perhaps if you are able to bring it out a good bit of detail. The brighter rocks on the left side could be toned down a little so they don' t attract as much attention. I definitely like the version better.

Registered on October 24, 2013, 185 Posts, 4136 Comments

Comment posted by John Freeman on January 31, 2015 at 2:47 PM

Richard - I get what you are saying about color of the sky vs foreground landscape. While our modern cameras are capable of capturing vibrant colors, our eyes see very little color in low light. As photographers we tend to want to have our images as closely represent what our eyes see. With night shots it is difficult to get that match.

Don't know if you have seen a website www.clarkvision.com This site is written by Roger N. Clark whom is one of the most knowledgeable people I have read on photographing the night sky. He has worked with NASA on numerous deep space digital photography projects. This is his bio. http://www.clarkvision.com/rnc/index.html

He has an article about colors of the night sky I found to be a very interesting read. Thought you might find it interesting. http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/color.of.the.night.sky/index.html

Registered on September 27, 2013, 16 Posts, 33 Comments