Milky Way Madness

Hey Everyone, I am in need of some assistance in post processing the milky way. I can only ever seem to get a faint glow, even far off of any town.It would be awesome to see everyone's best milky way stacked or single shots. I would love to see different editing styles and please share your process if you are willing.

7D, 10mm f/4 2500 ISO single shot 25 sec
Processed in CS5, sharpening, noise reduction, levels adjustment

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/esanders101/7​654897504/

that's nice, the number of stars is amazing

30 seconds at least is needed at a wide angle to counter start trailing.

Yes I know about the rule of 400 for my crop sensor, I was more interested in how to accentuate the milky way in post processing. any thoughts?

You really need more exposure. I usually use 30 sec at f/2.8 with my Tokina. You might also try stretching the lower end of the histogram a lot more. Also, your noise-reduction might be taking out some of the detail; what did it look light sooc?

Try warming your white balance.

Great shot, agree with the white balance comment

archer1960 wrote in post #14789360
You really need more exposure. I usually use 30 sec at f/2.8 with my Tokina. You might also try stretching the lower end of the histogram a lot more. Also, your noise-reduction might be taking out some of the detail; what did it look light sooc?

Unfortunately I have lost the original file so I can't post it, but I agree, I used a sigma 10-20, which only goes down to f/4, would love a 2.8 but just wondering if there was anything different I could do to help. great advice thanks.
any samples to post?

oldno7 wrote in post #14789527
Try warming your white balance.

Would that help because the milky way is more brownish yellow in nature rather than blue?

would love to see some of your work posted

Hi, the shot looks good, but as you state - it is difficult to get the Milky Way to show up the way you want it. Your colour balance for the sky looks a bit cold - too blue, but then again I noticed the following. If you shoot shortly after sunset - as soon as it looks dark to the eye, then the blue is prominent. The shot below was a tester while we waited for the weather to improve. It rained during the day and the clouds were moving off fast. Very little done to this shot - adjusted the curves and some white balance.

Later during the night, the colours tend to come out.

that's a great result considering your 40D's noise capabilities.

esanders101 wrote in post #14791746
Serenity at Night by esanders01, on Flickr

Here is another example with a different white balance. The milky way is just barely visible to the right of the mountain.
This is a blended image of 3 exposures where the stars shot was taken around 1:00 am
maybe needs more adjusting?
but still a decent shot I think

I am also coming to the conclusion that you end up blending shots to get the final result. A single exposure is good, but not good enough.

The shot below was taken the same night when all the clouds moved on. The stars looked so beautiful and due to the rain, the sky was "dust free".

This one is not a nightscape, and I left it slightly dark - but on my laptop, the light shines nicely through the image. I think I used two 20 second exposures loaded them as HDR images in a trial version of CS6 to see what Photoshop could do.

esanders101 wrote in post #14791746

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/esanders101/7​626358176/
Serenity at Night by esanders01, on Flickr

Here is another example with a different white balance. The milky way is just barely visible to the right of the mountain.
This is a blended image of 3 exposures where the stars shot was taken around 1:00 am
maybe needs more adjusting?
but still a decent shot I think

I think your black point is set too hard, and that's hiding some of your milky way fuzziness. Try adjusting your sliders to lighten up the black parts of the sky, and see if that doesn't bring out more of the Milky Way.

This is my best attempt. I was in Patagonia, basically the ass end of the world, so that helped.

Single shot. 30 seconds, ISO 1600, f/2.8

Did basic PP like contrast, little bit of levels, and noise reduction.