Life and Death Under the Stars

Image Critiques Nightscape & Astro Critiques
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Fallen Tree-2.jpg
Fallen Tree-2.jpg2048Ă—683 1.24 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

The struggle is real when it comes to life and death in Yellowstone. The beauty of places like our National Parks is that even in death, there is ethereal serenity about it. There is artistry in the harshness of life in the natural world and in the inevitable death that follows. The circle of life moves at varying speeds here. Sometimes an animal meets it’s demise in moments at the teeth of a predator. The sustenance provided as one creature gives its life to feed another is prompt. Other times, a Lodgepole Pine blows over and takes decades to return to the soil. The nutrients that the tree took so many years to absorb from the earth, take decades to return to the soil to give life to a myriad of other living things. The thing I really love about the wilderness that encompasses so much of my part of the world and the universe of stars above it, is that time seems to slow down when I’m out here. In fact, if it weren’t for the ever so slight movement of the stars as they slide across the heavens, and the faint flickering of the Northern Lights to the left, I might not be aware of time at all.

I am a supporter of the International Dark Sky Association. This week is International Dark Sky Week. The theme this year is “Discover the Night”. It is good for us to disconnect from whatever is dragging behind you and spend as much time as you can in the wildest place you can find in your area. Please do what you can to turn off your lights. Encourage your community to do the same , from our front porches to our city planners there are important ways to help keep our skies dark. Migrating birds and astrophotographers like me thank you!

Specific Feedback

Anyone who’s been star watching knows that this is not what the night looks like to our eyes. It is amazing though that in skies this dark, you really can begin to see with starlight alone. I’ve lightened the shadows so that you don’t have to strain to see the landscape. What do you think of that? I’ve also added contrast to the sky. It’s an artistic look for sure, but I like the way it brings out the magic of the core. How do you perceive that portion of the image?

Technical Details

April 2021
Nikon D850, Sigma Art 20mm 1.4
ISO 6400, f/2.8, 10 seconds
7 image panorama with each image comprised of 10 light and 30 dark RAW images stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker

I’ve used the Ministars Action in Photoshop to slightly reduce the appearance of the stars

I used several masks in Lightroom. One to work on the sky where I added contrast and clarity, One on the foreground to lighten shadows and add texture.

The foreground was still a bit soft and noisy so I ran it through Topaz Sharpen once.

1 Like
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Awesome! And a wonderful narrative! I think the balance between FG and sky is fine – both are restrained and look natural. And a wonderful touch to have the red glow from the aurora.

I wonder if it’s possible to at least partially correct the perspective falloff on the ends? It’s especially noticeable on the right, but I assume you’ve done what you could. I wonder about a gradient burn from the bottom up to about the base of the tree roots?

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Thanks Diane. The perspective is tricky because there is actually a slight berm just to the right of the root ball. If you look closely you can see that the main road is actually in the image. I tried to clone out the orange snow poles that were still in place, but they showed though somehow. I ended up just using a brush and removing the color from them! Here’s a link to view the image full size. It shows up a lot lighter when not resized so much. I did use a linear gradient to lighten the foreground a bit, per you suggestion. I like it!

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This is a beautiful scene. I don’t think I ever saw Yellowstone this desolate! I especially like the magenta and green colors in this one image. Nice capture!

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Thanks Mark. 2 a.m. is the best time to be in the Park! I drove around for 4 hours that night and didnt see a living soul until just before sunrise.

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Even more awesome at the full size! And thanks for the reminder about the MiniStars action. Somewhere, probably back in the last century, I had some star actions for PS. Not sure why they got put aside – maybe dropped out in some computer upgrade? I’ve purchased MiniStars and will give it a go – that sort of thing is commonly used in PixInsight for heavy-duty astrophotography.

I need to do more wide-angle star work. Looking forward to a trip down the eastern Sierra at the new moon in June, and to our annual run to a very dark dry lake bed in August. I can take the tracker to that one, but will also shoot with a regular camera for the Milky Way, but it will be high overhead by then so no pano. Wish we could go earlier in the year but we have to wait till we’re sure it is dry and hard, as it serves as a runway! Not a good place to have a problem as it’s 7 miles to the nearest gravel road. No living souls there, either, but now there is cell service there!!

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I, too, think you have done well with the luminosity treatment of the foreground. The contrast in the sky is tasteful to my eye. Very nicely done all around.