Green Lantern

[JimFox]

This is from the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains in California. As I was converting this I spent a lot of time trying to decide the WB. One of the keys I look at when I convert the Raw is if the stars are white when I change the WB. While I could cool this down to a nice blue, the Milky Way especially went way to blue. So in trying not to force it, the WB was still cooler then it was recorded (It was a very warm WB) it wasn't near as cool as normal. Usually I end up around 3400 K but this was 3900 K.

Anyway, like the Green Lantern, I just decided to let the Green go where it wanted. I could have gone the Blue route and corrected for the blue stars, but I thought this was different then my normally looking skies and thought it was a fun choice.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. This is the tail of the Milky Way. The core of the Milky Way was showing, but it was obviously to the south, and the Perseids meteor shower is in the NE, so I went with that as I wanted to get meteors.

 

[egrimm]

Good choice on the Green. It gives it a unique look. I Like it.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I like the way the MW aligns to the tree.

 

[AlanLichty]

I like this - the green adds an interesting mood to the scene. Looks like you had some nice conditions to work with up there.

 

[Zeph]

Jim you nailed the comp, but I can't get on board with the green lantern thing It would help the viewer, by drawing the focus to the old tree and darken everything else, especially the rocks in the FG , the trees in the BG are already very dark. After darkening the image, dodge the hell out of the old guy!

 

[Leslie Hunter]

I like this.

 

[Dave Dillemuth]

Awesome, Jim. WB looks good to me.

 

[JimFox]

I like this - the green adds an interesting mood to the scene. Looks like you had some nice conditions to work with up there.

Thanks Alan. Yeah, the conditions were pretty good, it ended up being too cloudy for catching a lot of Meteors, but I did get some very nice ones and the clouds did open up and give a clear view of the Milky Way like this before closing back in.

 

[Jim Dockery]

I find the WB interesting, but not my cup of tea. I'm normally with you, going for a bluer sky and adding some color back to the stars with a color balance adjustment layer. That might not be the actual color that was there, but it's how my brain remembers it anyway, so it looks right.

I also agree with Zeph, though perhaps not as vehemently, that darkening the foreground a bit might help make it look more realistic, and put even more emphasis on the wonderful tree.

I love the composition though! The tree looks like it is reaching up to the stars, and the clouds also lead into the tree nicely. You've got a wonderful image worthy of lots of time playing with variations.

 

[JimFox]

Jim you nailed the comp, but I can't get on board with the green lantern thing It would help the viewer, by drawing the focus to the old tree and darken everything else, especially the rocks in the FG , the trees in the BG are already very dark. After darkening the image, dodge the hell out of the old guy!

Ha ha, thanks Zeph. I knew the green sky wasn't going to be for everyone.

Thanks for your suggestions, much like my horizontal version I found that to go darker though things started to turn muddy. This is a single shot with the exposure being the same throughout except the bottom rocks have been darkened by about 20% the same as my Horizontal. And dodging won't work with a Milky Way, it would give an unnatural look to the Milky Way.

 

[JimFox]

I find the WB interesting, but not my cup of tea. I'm normally with you, going for a bluer sky and adding some color back to the stars with a color balance adjustment layer. That might not be the actual color that was there, but it's how my brain remembers it anyway, so it looks right.

I also agree with Zeph, though perhaps not as vehemently, that darkening the foreground a bit might help make it look more realistic, and put even more emphasis on the wonderful tree.

I love the composition though! The tree looks like it is reaching up to the stars, and the clouds also lead into the tree nicely. You've got a wonderful image worthy of lots of time playing with variations.

Thanks Jim, there are times as I am sure you have seen where the sky as it gets darker does seem to have a green base to it instead of black. So that was part of my reasoning for going with this and not forcing the blue color. Plus I thought it would be cool to have Milky Way shot that looked different in the sky then my normal deep blue sky MW shots. I literally sat with this version and a Blue sky version on my desktop for a whole day letting them soak in while I decided which way I wanted to take the sky.

With the ground, it's been darkened and I like a darker ground layer anyway for my star shots, but this was as dark as I felt comfortable with before the ground turned to be a distraction in my eye. It's amazing the amount of light those rocks and hills are reflecting. There was no moon at all, but the core of the Milky Way was behind me so it must be with the longer exposure it was lighting up the ground somewhat.

 

[lionking]

I like it, the greens officially transform this forum into SCI-FI section...
lol.

 

[JimFox]

I like it, the greens officially transform this forum into SCI-FI section...
lol.

Ha ha, it sure does!

 

[Bob Denton]

This is very nice.