Half Dome and Stars

Dewey316

I took this shot this summer in Yosemite. Any suggestions for cropping ideas, or level changes to make it more complete?

Doug Solis

Dewey, hard to beat the beauty and grandeur of Half Dome, you found a not so photographed perspective for this shot, well done.
I would crop down at least 1/4. had the stars been more prominent then maybe you stay as is. I have to think this was shot close to sunrise or in a full moon?? the trouble is the stars are really a non-event. I would love to see this exact same composition with the Milky Way or a beautiful sky full of stars shot at under 30 seconds or shot much longer if you are trying for star trails. your stars appear to be somewhere in the middle and consequently are stretched. Having said that perhaps that is exactly what you were going for in which case forget about the last sentence. I don't see a levels adjustment helping to bring out the stars here. Keep at it.

Dewey316

It was close after sunset, it was the last shot I took after taking sunset pictures. I didn't even realize there were start trails until I pulled it off the camera and looked at it on the computer. The stars were not visible to the naked eye when I took the shot. It was a 3 min exposure @ f6.3. I think if I had it to do again, I would bump it up to f11 and lower the iso enough to get real star trails from a longer exposure.

I'll try cropping off some of the sky and see how it looks, maybe a square size will work with that shot if I crop out the sky.

Here is a shot from the same perspective, but earlier in the night so no stars to be seen.

Doug Solis

much much better, very dramatic

kdog

I agree on the second version. Great light there.