My First Post Star Tutorial Attempt

bgarland

This is my first attempt at a star mountain night landscape following Ron Coscorrosa's excellent tutorial. Please feel free to help me learn more with your CC.

Obviously I did not trek into the wilderness for this first attempt. I captured this off my back porch last night of the Catalina Mountains North of Tucson. The lazy man's classroom.

Did I get the concept close?

schmoo

This looks fine to me! Did you catch a shooting star there?

Sexy6Chick

I'd be very happy to capture a shot like that on my first try.

bgarland

Sexy6Chick wrote: »

I'd be very happy to capture a shot like that on my first try.

Thanks Natalie. More refinement over time but at least I have the concept.

bgarland

schmoo wrote: »

This looks fine to me! Did you catch a shooting star there?

We need a sheepish grin smiley. I did catch the shooting star in one of my first tries but not in the the final shots I combined. I copied and pasted the shooting star from the earlier shot into the final version.

Tango

For your first go at it you're already leagues ahead of many.
Are you using the quick select tool or brushes to merge? if your using the quick select tool then play around with the refine edge setting to help smooth it out.
Some friendly nits: Maybe the Mountain is far over exposed IMO, I believe you need enough exposure to see detail but still be obvious that it's a night image. And the two exposures will blend together more natural looking...

The stars look really good and a shooting star always adds to the comp
also, I like the clouds in there....

bgarland

AaronNelson wrote: »

For your first go at it you're already leagues ahead of many.
Are you using the quick select tool or brushes to merge? if your using the quick select tool then play around with the refine edge setting to help smooth it out.
Some friendly nits: Maybe the Mountain is far over exposed IMO, I believe you need enough exposure to see detail but still be obvious that it's a night image. And the two exposures will blend together more natural looking...

The stars look really good and a shooting star always adds to the comp
also, I like the clouds in there....

Great feedback Aaron. Your right, from this vantage point the mountains have quite a bit of reflected light from the city. If I toned down the exposure or Fstop to reduce the light it would have resulted in more natural night view.

I think I was in awe of how the camera can capture the low light details and got a little carried away.

I did use the quick select and I agree I could do better blending the edges. Hey it's all a learning process. One step at a time.


So you wouldn't go for the idea that I just used a really huge flash to light the mountains up??


Thanks for the very useful critic.

Tango

Thats one big flash light

Cant wait to see the next round of images from ya.

bgarland

AaronNelson wrote: »

Thats one big flash light

Cant wait to see the next round of images from ya.

When I get some time I'll go back to the original RAW files and should be able to reduce the mountain exposure significantly before blending the images again to better reflect a true night view of the mountains. I'll repost the result once I get it done.

coscorrosa

AaronNelson wrote: »

For your first go at it you're already leagues ahead of many.
Are you using the quick select tool or brushes to merge? if your using the quick select tool then play around with the refine edge setting to help smooth it out.
Some friendly nits: Maybe the Mountain is far over exposed IMO, I believe you need enough exposure to see detail but still be obvious that it's a night image. And the two exposures will blend together more natural looking...

The stars look really good and a shooting star always adds to the comp
also, I like the clouds in there....

I hate to do it, but I agree with Aaron on all his points. A good first attempt nonetheless!

kdog

Stars look awesome! I agree that the mountains are a bit hot, which is an easy fix. Great job otherwise.

bgarland

coscorrosa wrote: »

I hate to do it, but I agree with Aaron on all his points. A good first attempt nonetheless!

Ron,

No problem agreeing with the critic. That's why I posted the image. Your input is always welcome, especially coming from the star shot guru that you are.

I'm still learning in so many areas from image capture to all the PP options and techniques. All the input from both the techie process gurus as well as the folks with amazing artistic talent in this community is very much appreciated.

bgarland

kdog wrote: »

Stars look awesome! I agree that the mountains are a bit hot, which is an easy fix. Great job otherwise.

Thanks for the input Joel. Helps to keep me motivated to stay on the path to improving my skills. Have patience with me since this journey will probably take a long, long time.

It's a good thing I just am enjoying this as a hobby and not trying to make a living at it. I'll keep my day job and play with this on the side.

bgarland

Second attempt
OK, I re-shot the images a couple nights ago with clear skies. This time I toned down the mountains and hopefully did a better job with the masking edges. What say you?

This one has the shooting star added.



This one was not modified except for the blending of the two images.


The city lights add a lot of yellow and orange which I desaturated out of the other posts. This is more what it really looks like.

CWSkopec

bgarland wrote: »

I have to say, I think I like this one the best, despite the altered color by the city lights. The colors just appear more pleasing. (I am looking on my uncalibrated laptop monitor though, so I may be wrong)

Very nice work on the original shot and excellent progress on the reshoot (masking looks better as well! )

bgarland

Thanks Chris.

I ended up liking that one the best too. It's funny how when you work on something your brain can get stuck on one path that you think is right. After stepping away and coming back to it later you see it differently.

Tango

That new shot looks really good, I like the expo on the mountain, your merge looks great, and your stars are not overly big & bright (which is good).
I believe your off and running!

bgarland

Thanks Aaron.

Now I just need to get back out in the sticks where the night skies are amazing and apply the same process.

Thanks again to Ron for writing the excellent tutorial on star shots.