I finally have decent milky way image to share!

Went on a week long camping trip with a good friend. Our focus was on the milky way. Photographing the milky way is new to me/us so I wasn't sure how my photos would come out. The first night was not bad. I got some better results on our second night at Mono Lake. By the third night I felt like I was pro LOL Okay, not a pro LOL This image was taken that night on Mono Lake. Had some fun with light painting with my headlamp I find editing the milky way much harder than photographing it Lots of trial and error in LR5. This is by far my favorite image from the trip. Hope you guys like it as much as I do! Thanks for looking!

PS next I want to try stitching a milky way pano

Canon 5D MK III
Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L II @ 16mm
f/2.8
25 sec
ISO 3200

For your first time you did really good . MW looks really good . Only thing is your framing . That red mound draws my eyes more than the MW . It's too bright and it covers the best part of the MW which is the Pipe Nebulae . Did you frame it this way of did you composite it this way ? Anyway you did good for your first time . Nextime make sure you don't cover the MW and keep bright objects out of the way . That red is really glary .

Thanks Celestron! I thought the red was cool LOL I understand what you're saying! I should have taken more without the red headlamp. Live and learn right Here's 2 more from the same night.

Celestron wrote in post #17199087
For your first time you did really good . MW looks really good . Only thing is your framing . That red mound draws my eyes more than the MW . It's too bright and it covers the best part of the MW which is the Pipe Nebulae . Did you frame it this way of did you composite it this way ? Anyway you did good for your first time . Nextime make sure you don't cover the MW and keep bright objects out of the way . That red is really glary .

and this was from the parking lot...

cmoy wrote in post #17199112
Thanks Celestron! I thought the red was cool LOL I understand what you're saying! I should have taken more without the red headlamp. Live and learn right Here's 2 more from the same night.


I'm not sure what happened to the lower right of the milky way. It disappeared!

cmoy wrote in post #17199117
and this was from the parking lot...

These two are very good ! Of course remember this is MPO and others may disagree but when doing astronomy images there is nothing wrong with having a great FG in the image . Just choose colors and brightness to taste . Remember if your wanting the attention to a particular scene don't have something that will distract you from it when viewing an image like your first image did me .

Thanks again Celestron! I am so hooked now on photographing the milky way. It's too bad I live in NYC

Celestron wrote in post #17199130
These two are very good ! Of course remember this is MPO and others may disagree but when doing astronomy images there is nothing wrong with having a great FG in the image . Just choose colors and brightness to taste . Remember if your wanting the attention to a particular scene don't have something that will distract you from it when viewing an image like your first image did me .

cmoy wrote in post #17199248
Thanks again Celestron! I am so hooked now on photographing the milky way. It's too bad I live in NYC

Yes , not the best of places , too much LP . But hey when you get those chances cherish them cause even in areas that are dark are loosing to LP anyway . World population is growing so fast that there is not many dark places in this country any more . Even where i live i use to have good skies about ten yrs ago and slowly it's growing smaller and smaller .

Please don't tell me that! This means my friend and I should plan for our next trip next year. We were thinking of taking an RV from Salt Lake City to Grand Tetons and end the trip at Yellowstone. Of course we will stop every few minutes going and coming back to take photos LOL

Another friend and I are planning to head up to Bear Mountain and try to photograph it there. I have a feeling it's not far enough away from the city.

Celestron wrote in post #17199348
Yes , not the best of places , too much LP . But hey when you get those chances cherish them cause even in areas that are dark are loosing to LP anyway . World population is growing so fast that there is not many dark places in this country any more . Even where i live i use to have good skies about ten yrs ago and slowly it's growing smaller and smaller .

cmoy wrote in post #17199423
Please don't tell me that! This means my friend and I should plan for our next trip next year. We were thinking of taking an RV from Salt Lake City to Grand Tetons and end the trip at Yellowstone. Of course we will stop every few minutes going and coming back to take photos LOL

Another friend and I are planning to head up to Bear Mountain and try to photograph it there. I have a feeling it's not far enough away from the city.

If you make it to Yellowstone i would try to spend most my vacation time there . I never been but i've seen thousands of pictures from there and i knows it's beautiful and great MW picts can be had there !

Awesome! Thanks again Celestron!!!!

One of these days I will convince my friend or wife to head down to South America so I can try to photograph the magellanic clouds and the milky way.

Celestron wrote in post #17199566
If you make it to Yellowstone i would try to spend most my vacation time there . I never been but i've seen thousands of pictures from there and i knows it's beautiful and great MW picts can be had there !

Awesome shot
Worthy of hanging on a wall

Great shots!

Thanks Peter!

Desertraptor wrote in post #17199772
Awesome shot
Worthy of hanging on a wall

Thanks dhog6s!

dhog6s wrote in post #17200812
Great shots!