Your Milky Way should clearly be defined and catch the viewer's eye. It should not look like a fine mist in the sky. Rather, it should stand out and have dramatic color from one end to the near galactic center of the Milky Way.
More often than ever before more people are taking photos of the Milky Way in the night sky but it simply doesn't stand out, regardless of the foreground which may or may not contain a light painted object.
The only thing you need is Photoshop, although I do include a section for Lightroom users that will also be helpful. And I admit, this is a little beyond a beginner's level but if you take your time and go over it, you will achieve that “WOW” look to your Milky Way.
This ebook covers masking the foreground from the night sky and processing each separately but it gets more involved when you come to the point where you use camera raw for initial adjustments to Photoshop for things like exposure, white balance and targeted curve and color adjustments to name a few.
I have also included included a section for Lightroom (LR) users where you make adjustments using LR's Detail and HSL/Color/B&W section and finally I cover noise reduction.
At a later date, I plan to publish a second ebook with more advanced techniques in Photoshop.
Yes, it will be a learning process but it will be fun and later you will be applying your own techniques you have learned to further enhance your Milky Way photos. You will soon be impressed with your Milky Way photos and so will others.
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I'm a semi-pro photographer in the strict sense. That is to say, I do not make a living solely by photography…I do, like many who call themselves a “pro' , have a full time job outside of photography.
I'm the author of three ebooks 1) “Grand Teton National Park – A Photographer's Site Shooting Guide 1” 2) “Arches National Park – A Photographer's Site Shooting Guide I” and 3) “A Photographer's Milky Way Processing Guide – A Photoshop Howto,” And given my June 12-23, 2014 trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I will complete my fourth ebook soon — “Grand Teton National Park – A Photographer's Site Shooting Guide 2” which will have 70+ additional sites over and above my first ebook based on photography in Jackson Hole.
In these photography shooting guides, I make extensive use of Google satellite map marker where for each site in the ebook I have an associated photo. The reader simply clicks on any photo and the web browser immediately opens the webpage for the Google satellite map marker whereby the reader may easily see the exact site I stood for the photo but more importantly see the road system to the exact site.
I am a photo tour guide and yearly lead two three day sunrise to sunset photo adventure tours in Jackson Hole, WY, home of the majestic Teton Mountains where I also lead Milky Way night sky workshops with light painting objects like the historic Moulton barns and Mormon Row house. No other photo tour host / guide I know of offers this value.
Outside of my Milky Way night sky workshops, I'm also involved in daytime and Milky Way night sky time lapse work.
In July 2013 I participated in the millennial celebration of the historic Moulton Barns in Jackson Hole, WY (USA) by donating two 24×36 inch canvas prints for auction for the preservation of these two barns.
Locally, in my current home town, I provide presentations of my Jackson Hole photos from time to time to the photography club and also instructions on the use of GND filters and Photoshop post processing.
My photos are currently represented by Getty Images and may be seen on several websites. My images found on Getty were first discovered on my Flickr page.
Landscape Photography Magazine selected one of my photos of a sunrise on the Grand Teton among many photos submitted by numerous fine art photographers as the photo of the week … http://landscapephotographymagazine.com/2014/hedricks-pond-overlook-jackson-hole-wyoming-usa/
This past mid-May through mid-June 2014, I lead two three day sunrise to sunset photo shoot adventure tours in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (USA).
Also, within that time frame, I lead five Milky Way night sky workshops where I took my participants through setting up their camera settings for optimal Milky Way night sky capture. After everyone's camera settings were established, I took everyone through several Milky Way exposures tests with different light balance, ISO settings with varying exposure durations.
Given this workshop scenario, once the participant begins to process their Milky Way photos, each one will be able to determine what is the best settings for their own camera the next time they are out shooting the Milky Way and night sky from three categories: 1) early blue hour, 2) mid-to-late blue hour and 3) dark sky conditions. People are finding out camera settings used to shoot the Milky Way night sky are not the same from one camera manufacturer to another.
During the third weekend in March 2015, I will be leading a 4 night Milky Way night sky workshop in Moab, Utah (USA). The dates are March 20-24.
Additionally, in 2015, I will be conducting numerous Milky Way night sky workshops in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the beautiful Teton mountains in late June and early July. All workshops will include light painting various objects from numerous arches and Balanced Rock in Moab, Utah to the historic Moulton barns and Mormon Row home in Jackson Hole. When you have a moment, check out a few of my Milky Way night sky photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wrtrekker
In 2015, I have added two additional 4 day photo adventure tours: 1) Glacier National Park (Sept. 4-7) and 2) Colorado fall colors (Oct. 9-12).
If you are interested in attending one or more of these workshop, please send me an email at … wrtrekker@yahoo.com and specify which one you are most interested in.
Also, my 2015 Jackson Hole, Wyoming Milky Way night sky workshops will be from June 26-28 Please check my Flickr profile page from time to time next year for any additional dates I may add to the July dates at https://www.flickr.com/people/wrtrekker/
Best of luck and thanks for your interest in my ebooks.
First 14% Sample: epub mobi (Kindle) lrf
Madame Speed 