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Photo: A different look at my Big Dipper image thanks to a cropping suggestion from Andy Beal.

What can I say, there may not be such a think as a “finished” image. After a great tip from Andy in yesterday’s Before and After post, I went back into the darkroom and spun this image out of Photoshop.  Many thanks to Andy for not only identifying the potential for a new look for the original image, but also for taking the time to leave a comment.

Moving Heaven and Earth

Okay, maybe just heaven.

My first attempt at this cropped version was a little off.  If you check the original image, you’ll notice that the right-most star in the Big Dipper constellation was actually captured to the right of the two chairs in the foreground. Now look at this image again.

Bet you wouldn’t have noticed it if I didn’t point it out, eh?

It was pretty easy to do, actually, by just duplicating the layer, moving it to the left and adding a gradient mask to blend it in.

Why Stop There?

I’m leaving this image as-is for now, since I like the simplicity of the scene and they well recognized Big Dipper – which was the reason I shot the scene in the first place.

At some point, I could take it a step further, and instead of the Big Dipper, I could swap it out for this image of the Milky Way I shot on Maui last September. The possibilities – like the universe in this case – truly are endless.

– Kris

The previous two editions in my Before and After series have featured the use of the Topaz Adjust plug-in for Photoshop.  Sometimes that extra creative step isn’t needed, and the following images demonstrate.  Many times it’s just a few minor tweaks in Adobe Camera Raw that will do the trick.

The Before Image

Most people will recognize that as the Big Dipper constellation, which I captured here over the waters of Sturgeon Bay in Sept. ‘08. It’s a neat little shot, but I wasn’t happy with the orange tint. Also, I had took a few liberties when I cropped this image initially, so I thought there might be something worth bringing back into it on the redux.

The After Image

I took a few different approaches to redoing this image. What I ultimately ended up with was processing the RAW image twice – known as mutli-RAW processing – to preserve some of the darkness in the sky while adjusting some of the foreground elements.

By processing the elements of the scene independently on separately layers and applying the changes using a gradient mask, I essentially keep the best of both worlds and have an image more to my liking with relatively little extra effort.

Thoughts?

For one, I definitely like the detail on the right with it’s color more in check and not gushing orange hues.  However, each time I look at that after image, I still think to myself, “is the foreground too bright?”. Since I save checkpoints at each step in my workflow, it wouldn’t be that difficult to go back and just darken the chairs on the pier just a tad.

Well, what do you think?

Photo: A starry sky on a perfectly clear night above Black Rock in West Maui.

Another reminiscing photo from my first ever attempt of shooting the skies back in ‘07. Call it beginner’s luck, or having the perfect canvas to work with.

We’ll be heading back up north to Wisconsin later this week, and I’m starting to think of some of the shots I want to work on this trip.  We have seen some great night skies that far north in previous visits, and especially in the winter if the skies are completely clear.  Sure, there’s about a 60-70 °F difference between this image and anything I see this weekend, but layers just aren’t for Photoshop, you know.

Into the Night

Maybe not as favorable for stargazing, we’ll be staying right near downtown of the biggest city in Door County, WI (that’s Sturgeon Bay for anyone playing along at home).  Still, I’ve been getting more socially active on Flickr lately and some of the night shots I’m seeing in the Night Images group pool have me itching to stay up late and shoot.

I mentioned that a little bit back in September when I said the night was my new golden hour, so it won’t be too far out of my norm.  Plus, we’ll be staying right on the bay, walking distance from where I attempted this shot in Sept. ‘08.

As I like to think that both my field skills and my talents in the digital darkroom are now much improved since this shot, I get excited about the new possibilities this trip.

And, seeing as it’s the middle of January, I don’t think I’ll be worried about getting washed out this time, either.

Back to the Stars

Getting back to the original photo, if you’d like to see more of my night shots of the heavens, click through to my Astrophotography Portfolio. The one of me and the Milky Way is starting a little bit of chatter on Flickr, at least compared to my other images in the past.

Photo: The Milky Way in the western sky above Black Rock outside the Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali.

This is the very photo that enticed me into astrophotography in the first place, and was an instant favorite. Possibly a once-in-a-lifetime shot given what little I knew about shooting the night sky 2 1/2 years, but after about a dozen shoots under the starry heavens, this image is still one of my best works.

Not my best shot of the night sky by any means, but it was pretty fun capturing one of the most recognizable set of stars in the sky with a decent foreground composition.

This was from Door County last year, and while not as impressive as seeing the stars out in the Pacific Ocean over Maui, it was still a lot better than what we normally see living 10 minutes from Chicago. It was from September of last year, the only real chance I’ve gotten to shoot the night sky in Door County so far.

Of our other trips to date, it was ridiculously cold last December to be out, and for our April trip, there just wasn’t really a good spot where we were at. Plus, it was the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Hawks were beating up on Calgary, so I couldn’t miss that.

Not sure about going out to shoot this next trip, but we’ll see.

If you want to see more of these, check out the two photosets on Flickr below, and a little bit more of how this all got started.

• Stars Over Door County photoset on Flickr
• Stars Over Maui photoset on Flickr