Jumbled Rocks Milky Way Pano + New Edit

[JimFox]

This is from the back side of the Arch Rock in Joshua Tree National Park, a super cool area between Arch Rock and the campsites. I sometimes spend more time here then at Arch Rock because these Jumbled Rocks (Not to be confused with Jumbo Rocks Campground) are just so interesting and there is just no limit but your imagination as to options for compositions.

This is a 5 shot horizontal pano. It's early enough that the Milky Way is still low enough to not have to switch to vertical images to create the pano.

Sony A6400
Samyang 12mm f2.0
ISO 3200
25 secs
f2.0

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. I made a few edits to incorporate Kyle and Tim's suggestions.

#1 - Original

#2 Edit

 

[Kyle Jones]

The composition worked out great. If I was critiquing, I'd probably look to darken the ground a little and back off on the saturation in the sky.

 

[AlanLichty]

Great result nice job of handling the overall light.

 

[Timmeh]

Very nice results, but I agree with Kyle. It looks a little brownish at the horizon, and I'm not sure if that's a bleeding mask from where you made local temperature adjustments.

 

[JimFox]

The composition worked out great. If I was critiquing, I'd probably look to darken the ground a little and back off on the saturation in the sky.

Thanks Kyle. Great suggestions. The ground had been a bit darker, but I had brightened it up a bit to get some detail out of the shadow areas. I will look back into that.

 

[JimFox]

Great result nice job of handling the overall light.

Thank you Alan!

 

[JimFox]

Very nice results, but I agree with Kyle. It looks a little brownish at the horizon, and I'm not sure if that's a bleeding mask from where you made local temperature adjustments.

Thanks Tim, I appreciate that. Some of what you are talking about came from desaturating some brighter light pollution. It was worse… I had seen it, so improving it from how much it was I thought it was pretty good. When I do the other changes, I will look at that too.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I like it as is. The problem with MW is the ground is too dark when it looks natural.

 

[JimFox]

I like it as is. The problem with MW is the ground is too dark when it looks natural.

Thanks so much Ben. And this one has a lot of natural pockets that so easily turn totally black, I don’t like that as I do want some shadow detail. So thank you!

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nice composition Jim, I like the way the MW arches above the pile of rocks.

 

[JimFox]

I made some changes to incorporate Kyle and Tim's suggestions.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Better especially for web viewing but I still like the original

 

[AlanLichty]

I like the edit.

 

[Bob]

Jim,
The edit looks great but I like them both. That is a really nice place to shoot the milky way.
Bob

 

[JimFox]

Better especially for web viewing but I still like the original

Thanks Ben, I think I lean towards the first one too I think.

 

[JimFox]

I like the edit.

Thanks Alan!

 

[JimFox]

Jim,
The edit looks great but I like them both. That is a really nice place to shoot the milky way.
Bob

I appreciate that Bob! It is a really fun place to shoot the Milky Way.

 

[Kyle Jones]

I like the sky better in the first one and the ground better in the second. Feels like the sky is a little too contrasty in the edit. But that's just me.

 

[JimFox]

I like the sky better in the first one and the ground better in the second. Feels like the sky is a little too contrasty in the edit. But that's just me.

Thanks Kyle. I was actually starting to think I liked the ground better in the first and sky better in the second.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Night images are such a matter of taste - which can vary day to day