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Celestial Clock
Celestial Clock
ososnilknarf


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Night Sky (Advanced Editing VII*)
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II
Location: Morro Bay, CA
Date: Jun 2, 2008
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 200
Shutter: 801.5 seconds
Galleries: Landscape, Astrophotography
Date Uploaded: Jun 3, 2008

 Well, I'm sure this won't do too well because I've seen some of the astrophotography shots on this site. But still, at least this challenge got me to go out and do one of these star trails shots which I've been wanting to do for a long time.
I'm pleased with the result for a first effort. I read about the method of stacking shorter exposures to keep the sky darker today... too late unfortunately.

In capture NX, I adjusted the exposure to make 3 different tifs, which I blended in gimp using the exposure blend plugin. This allowed me to have the sky as dark as possible and still bring out the details of the hill and bushes in the foreground.
Then made some curves, color saturation, a bit of dodging and burning of the foreground, then resize and unsharp mask.

Statistics
Place: 18 out of 46
Avg (all users): 6.1902
Avg (commenters): 6.9630
Avg (participants): 6.0769
Avg (non-participants): 6.1983
Views since voting: 1501
Views during voting: 654
Votes: 389
Comments: 27
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
06/10/2008 03:50:27 PM
Top 10? Great job composing this image with the spiral focused on the upper left rule of third and the mountain along the bottom rule of third. I think this would ribbon if you could see the silhouette of someone standing on top of the left "peak" with their arms outstretched (which would suck to hold for the 1 minute plus time that took you to shoot this =).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/09/2008 10:25:37 PM
trippy smurphtown
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/08/2008 02:28:41 PM
That is awesome! Great job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/08/2008 02:57:04 AM
How did you do that?
 06/07/2008 12:29:25 AM
Nice exposure of stars and landscape.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/06/2008 02:43:20 AM
Hey, I think you caught a meteor, its on the top of the hill between the two humps!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/06/2008 02:36:36 AM
excellent image and the horizon anchors the image well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/05/2008 09:31:46 PM
should have exposed for longer...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/05/2008 07:05:08 PM
very good! (nice title too)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/05/2008 01:16:24 PM
Thank you for showing the landscape as well, there is textural dimension added with the rocks and the grasses.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/05/2008 09:32:06 AM
Nice image, good title!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/05/2008 03:57:07 AM
Very good shot, well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 09:53:00 PM
I feel this could have benefited from some levels - or curves. It looks somewhat dusty and washed out, which takes from the awesome star movement you captured.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 07:03:01 PM
Excellent! You must have taken this near area with some slight light-pollution. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 05:04:54 PM
Lovely colors, and a clever way to detect the northern star.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 01:31:57 PM
A Clasic
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 01:28:07 PM
Nice. That smudge to the right, something that happened in PP? I assume it is the noice reduction, that screwed up the star trails further from the north star? Perhaps you could have darkened it all, to bring out the stars better, and tone down the ground. Lifting the angle to clear the trees would have been beneficial and given you more stars (but you probably didn't even see them in the dark).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 08:28:32 AM
Nicley done.
Good luck

Kev
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 07:06:53 AM
great shot, good framing and focus. perhaps taking the photo a bit later would have improved the contrast (a darker sky)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 05:33:11 AM
Nice colour and composition. I would have liked the star trails to be a little stronger in contrast, but its a great shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 03:33:45 AM
Cool effects with the stars!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 02:35:37 AM
good time exposure
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 02:25:33 AM
The north star carches my eyes
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 01:14:24 AM
Nicely done. The trails look great. The exposure is perfect.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 12:33:54 AM
oh i was hoping someone would do this! i love these photos-8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2008 12:21:45 AM
ohh..please..not again!!
 06/04/2008 12:10:07 AM
really nice...perhaps needed something more interesting on the ground, but it is a good image...8
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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