Rd to Mt Cook

[matt34 (Matt)]

With the skys being clouder over outside (and been that way for the last couple of weeks when I've had free nights) I thought I was long overdue in going through my shots from my NZ trip earlier in the year.

This shot is a 9 shot vertical panorama. Originally I'd planned it to be a horizon to horizon pano and even had the car placed to ground the shot. But with some help from the people on here I ended up cropping out the car and the horizon to the south and think the composition is stronger without it.

I've done similiar post prod to my last shot of the church, let me know what you think. I"m still getting my head around photoshop. Have i pushed things too much, is there a green cast near the milky way or is that just me and have I been looking at the shot too much.

All 9 shots were taken on the Canon 6D, with the 24mm f1.4L II lens @ f2.5 for 15 seconds with ISO @ 3200.

Processing included lens profile correction, DLO & WB etc in DPP, then into lightroom for so basic tonal curves adjustments, NR. Stitched in Microsoft ICE, then adjustment layers applied in PS.

Larger version on flickr here

I value the opinions on here so if you think you could help me improve my image I'm happy to take all feedback on board.


Cheers

Matt

[Irish stargazer (John)]

Very nice !

[gregbradley]

Overall its well done and a pleasing image. I am giving a talk about this type of imaging at AAIC on the Gold Coast so don't want to reveal everything but my main comment apart from the long thin aspect ratio (MW does look good straight though) is its underexposed. It happens a lot. Overall the bulk of the image basics look great but its too dim and loses impact because of that. Colour is good, framing is good, technique is good, exposure strategy was the weak area. 15 secs at F2.5 and ISO3200 is just not enough. How do you handle that? Well there are a few solutions.

Greg.

[matt34 (Matt)]

Thanks John

Thanks Greg. It's a shame I can't make AAIC I'm very interested to hear what you say about under exposing. Would you be able to put a summary up after the event?

I think next time I attempt something like this I'd like to take 3 rows of shots (the central one and one to the left and to the right) to help with the coma of this lens esp in the corners (the main reason I stopped it down to f2.5). It would also allow more play with the cropping and cover any stitching errors. I've also thought about using a pano head or something like the nodal ninja, I'd assume that they could be used for a vertical shot to help with the stitching of the final image.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Greg. It's a shame I can't make AAIC I'm very interested to hear what you say about under exposing. Would you be able to put a summary up after the event?

Certainly.

You are lucky to have such awesome landscapes to compose your shots with and you are using one of the cutting edge cameras to do it with. The Canon 5D2 opened the door to these sorts of images and the 6D seems to be very very clean.

Greg.

[ourkind (Carlos)]

Excellent work Matt, well done! I think you've done a great job, your final crop looks very good.

Light-wise I don't think you were far off, perhaps another 5 seconds would have given you more light to play with without star trail, but overall I like to feel of it and the terrain and sky is well lit.

[matt34 (Matt)]

Thanks for the kind comments Carlos.

I cant wait to go back to NZ to experiment more with my nightscapes. The center of the Sth island is beautiful and not a lot of light pollution around. Its funny as you leave drive away from the area how many things you see that would make good foreground for a night shot that you miss in the cold dark of night.