Superstition Mountains at Night

akiratheoni · Feb 19, 2015

First real outing with my Nikon D750 and I have to say I'm pleased with the results:

Info: Nikon D750, Nikon 24-70 f2.8, shot at 24mm, f2.8, 25 seconds, 12800 ISO.

JimMcClain · Feb 19, 2015

Very nice.

mmaria · Feb 19, 2015

I'd like the foreground to be darker

well... it's just me

waday · Feb 19, 2015

Very nice! I like it as is! :smile:

Rick50 · Feb 19, 2015

Came out good.

MikeFlorendo · Feb 19, 2015

I have the same camera but perhaps the iso could have been lowered slightly. I know you are at the lowest f-stop and after 25 seconds you would get noticeable star trails at that focal length but perhaps a slightly lower iso may have made less noise. I like the shot and comp.

Authentic Southerner · Feb 19, 2015

very nice...I wish I lived close to such a beautiful place... great shot

thereyougo! · Feb 19, 2015

mmaria said:
I'd like the foreground to be darker

well... it's just me

No not just you. Night shots like this should be (in my opinion) a little mystical. This to me looks a little like an underexposed day shot with a night sky added. The sky and the mountain/grass don't quite sit well together for me. Not just due to exposure but because the colour temperature of the land is warmer than the sky, so it just doesn't look right.

It's well composed and I'm sure that if the OP scaled back exposure a stop or three on the mountain and foreground and changed the colour balance, it would be a little more believable as an image. I'd like to see less blue and green in the sky and see it warm up a bit. The milky way should really be seen as green which is how it looks on my calibrated screen.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, I think the image has a lot of potential but is let down by its processing. The noise may be because the exposure has been pushed up too far.

akiratheoni · Feb 19, 2015

Hey thanks for the feedback. I'll see what I can do about dialing back the exposure. There was a great deal of light pollution in the area so the area with the mountains was actually pretty well lit up even after a 20 second exposure.

I tried playing with the white balance to warm up the image a bit, but making it warmer washed out the sky, I'll need to mess around with it a little more. But at the very least I'll take your advice for the next time I go, so I can make some actual corrections in taking the photo.