My first attempt at astronomy

Figured Perseid was a great oppotunity to get out. LIving in the heart of San Diego, there's really no good spots to take a good photo of the sky. Me and my roommate packed up the car with a cooler full of beer and snacks, some good tunes and drove out to Cuyamaca. He was looking for a place to park his butt and pop open a cold one. I, on the other hand was scanning frantically along the side of the road to find a good foreground. I noticed this tree from a far and it just happened to have a great place for us to plop down the lawn chairs.

I had busted my shutter release by accident and haven't gotten around to replacing it. However thanks to it being 2012 and people much smarter than I am, the Tethering studio for Lightroom plug in, an extended USB cable and cheap old mouse allowed me to remotely control my shutter through my Macbook. Thanks Steve Jobs, R.I.P

Canon 50D
Sigma 10mm 2.8 Fisheye
ISO 1600
F2.8
Exp 30sec
NR OFF

I have some with much better star trails, but I loved the way this was framed.
I welcome any and all suggestions and critismn. I won't get butt hurt I promise.

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Overall i think you did very good and framing is very good ! I like the way you chose the tree and horizon FG . Only thing i would do is maybe lighten the image overall just a notch or two and lighten the blue one notch . Congrats on the catch , looks good !

Celestron wrote in post #14847733
Overall i think you did very good and framing is very good ! I like the way you chose the tree and horizon FG . Only thing i would do is maybe lighten the image overall just a notch or two and lighten the blue one notch . Congrats on the catch , looks good !

Edited. Bumped up the exposure but also the blacks to make sure it didn't look washed out. I also played a little with the hue/sat/color sliders to give it a more vibrant glow.

Thank you for the suggestion, I like it a lot better this way.

Just curious, can anyone identify the cluster on the right just above the trail?

Drakeskakes wrote in post #14847809
Just curious, can anyone identify the cluster on the right just above the trail?

M45 Pleiades

I think you mean M45, the Pleiades.

SteveInNZ wrote in post #14848830
I think you mean M45, the Pleiades.

Yes , corrected

Drakeskakes wrote in post #14851143

Drakeskakes can you post the original ? I really like this image but it's way over processed . Blue too deep and you clipped the BP badly . I'm real curious what the original looks like . I think you can make this look way better to be a wallhanger !

If you need the RAWS let me know and I can email you, also theres about 7-8 from this angle if you're interested in stacking.
Thanks for the help