A different Milky Way image

[gregbradley]

Here is another daunting processing task. The sky was taken with 3 panels of 6 x 30 seconds x ISO3200 F2.8 Loxia 21mm lens tracked and the landscape an Irix 15mm F2.4 lens untracked and long exposure single images.

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get a result with this one. Processing was tough. Photoshop surprisingly came to the rescue.

One lesson from these 2 panos - always take the landscape component in sequence with the sky shots. Don't take a separate series or if you do try to replicate the same angle the landscape was taken at. I took these landscapes at the same time as the sky and there was no real trouble lining them up. The other pano they weren't and there was real trouble lining them up (accidentally used a different lens for the landscape on the other pano a well).

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/166315999/large

Greg.219001

[Atmos]

That’s quite nice Greg, that Irix lens is brilliant.

I haven’t done any wide field panoramas so it’s a good suggestion.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Colin. Replacing the landscape component of the stacked sky images with the untracked landscape component is the hard part.

Greg.

[CapturingTheNight]

Love this one Greg. I have never had the patience to blend tracked and un-tracked images together to form a nightscape, but I can certainly appreciate that it would be difficult to get exactly right in most circumstances. Especially throwing in the added difficulties of the panorama. I like how it still has a nice balance in terms of brightness between the foreground and sky. I have seen a few blends that look a bit too HDR like for my tastes. Definitely going to check out that Irix lens after your glowing review. I'm in the market to replace my aging 14mm Sammy, so it could be the one.

[gregbradley]

It was VERY difficult to blend and I had almost given up. Then I gave Photoshop's blend tool a go and it worked.

I am trying out Topaz remask as I have read its great for making accurate masks for the sky/landscape section.

This one was needlessly harder as well because the landscape was with the Irix 15 and the sky was with the Zeiss Loxia 21mm.

For $587 the Irix Firefly 15mm F2.4 is hard to beat. The click stop at Infinity focus is worth it by itself.

Greg.

[matt34]

Nice work Greg on both of these, I wouldnt have the patience to merge stacked and unstacked images. Well done.

I found Microsoft ICE surprisingly good and pano stitching but have never thrown it a task like this

[gregbradley]

Thanks Matt.

I have only briefly tested Microsoft ICE and it does seem very good.

Greg.