Hello everyone, i would receive any feedback regarding this shot. It was taken in Gran Sasso National Park (Abruzzo, Italy), it’s an iconic location in the centre of Italy.
It’s a composite, i shot the foreground during the blue hour, the sky is a startrail of about 150 shots (75 minutes of exposure). I created the startrail with a specific free software (Startax), after i blended it with the foreground in Photoshop.
I increased the exposure of the sky to reduce contrast between stars and dark sky and i pulled out some details in the foreground.
I usually don’t do this kind of shots, i would receice any comment regarding composition, post processing or whatever you want. If you have some suggests to blend better the sky, i really appreciate.
Thank you guys.
You used a nice fg below the startrails, and I like that they take up only about 1/3 of the image! The little path takes your eyes to the castle and the sky. The blend looks natural to me, tonalities and colors seem to nicely continue into the sky. A few small nits: the brightest highlights in the castle could be lowered a touch maybe? The shadows in lrc maybe openened up a touch? And there is one very bright startrail on the right edge of the frame that is a bit distracting to me, compared to the rest of the sky. If hard to do anything about it, maybe just burn it down a tad? Only small things, it’s very enjoyable as presented!
It kind of looks like rain or some sort of precipitation coming down from the sky. This doesn’t work for me but perhaps I’m just not open minded enough.
While I think the concept is a good one, I’m not convinced on the final presentation. This feels like a daylight image with star trails. I’d make the image much darker and especially the sky. I worked it a bit. Not a perfect job as I was doing it on my laptop with a touchpad… yuck… Maybe the overall sense of what I’m describing will come through. I would make the building even darker than what I’ve done but didn’t have a chance to work that part. See if you think this is any better or if it doesn’t match your vision for the image.
I like the general idea/concept of the image, and I think you have a really strong composition with a very interesting/strong foreground. The line leading up to the castle works really well.
I think the changes made by @Keith_Bauer make the image much stronger, the darker luminosity of the land and the higher level of contrast on the castle create a much stronger night-time feel. The original does have too much of a daytime look IMO. I think Keith’s rework is taking this in the right direction.
In the original presentation I also felt like the castle and the star trails competed with each other for attention, partly because they were both relatively bright. The stronger contrast in Keith’s rework makes the castle more prominent, and I think it stands out better this way against the now darker sky.
