Dark Arbor +Update

Well done, Alex. A superb, dynamic image. The moon looks like a giant star

My only nit is that the bright area on the right is a bit too bright for my taste.

I agree, Yiming - but when I toned down the brightness there, it just looked too "recovered" - pulled back unnaturally. Even though the original shot wasn't blown out there, I just couldn't pull any kind of good tone out of that area (as it was naturally very bright and somewhat devoid of color), so I went with the glowing look instead. I may need to go back and experiment some more with it to see if I can get it looking naturally less bright.

A,
I like this transition of the sky better. It blends better than the other image you posted in my opinion. I also think the glow is a bit bright. Overall, this is an excellent image and I like your artistic liberty. You might have to give up your day job soon.
G

Thanks for the input, G. I just updated the Purchase Print link with a version with a darker LR sky. That's really as dark as it can go without looking unnaturally pulled back. If print and licensing sales continue, hopefully I will be 100% on photography for work..

I like the previous post a bit better. The moon star isn't working for me, but maybe will for others. Still a very interesting take on the tree and lighting.

It seems no matter what I do with moons, someone takes issue.. don't take this the wrong way, Harry, as I mean this in the nicest way possible: I honestly wonder what you (or anyone else that wants to chime in) would have done with the moon? That moon is straight out of the camera. This image was taken shortly after the first shot of mine from this evening, so that sort of moon handling would be the other option (shooting it wide open, at a longer focal length and lower exposure, to avoid the star - and cloning out the "original" moon to place that one in).

I would probably have presented the moon as you did on your previous shot, since that is more as it would have looked to some one viewing the scene. Just personal taste. When the sun shines through branches or peaks from the edge of a rock, a star is seen, so I would expect to see a sun star. Just haven't seen a moon star

Artistically I like this alot, but part of me has trouble with the apparently full moon so close to the apparently setting sun!

This is very nice Alex. Some may like the moon and some may not, but here I enjoy the sunstar shape you got of the moon. I like the comp as well. The only thing I would suggest is to darken the bright area on the right just a bit. Hard for me to tell if the repost addressed the issue, but on the other hand it casts a very nice glow onto the tree.

Beautiful Alex. I believe I like the other version (other composition) a bit better, but this still sings. Love the crisp moonstar.

I gotcha, Harry. It's funny, I had someone giving me a hard time about what they called the "montage moon" in the last shot. I wonder what they would have said about a moon star.. I did consider doing it that way again, but I liked the star, perhaps because I haven't gotten such a prominent one before from the moon. I didn't get a star in the other shot's original exposure, since it was a bit earlier in the evening and wasn't as long of an exposure with as dark of a sky. Indeed, the moonstar isn't realistic - but neither are sunstars from shooting at f/22 (if they're not right at a horizon line, tree branch, or cloud break)

Daniel, it was a fat crescent, but the 30-second exposure brought it out as a perfect circle/star. Nothing fishy going on here, I can assure you.

Peter, I think the repost (Purchase Print link for anyone else reading this) is as dark as I can go without getting down and dirty with some manual painting in that area.. the original RAW has very little tone/color there no matter what I do with exposure and white balance, and it just looks weird when it's darker with the glow on the tree. I'm not 100% happy with it either.

Bill, the other comp is the tried-and-true "classic" from that spot, or at least a variation of it. Trying to do something different here, plus the post-sunset color was incredible in this direction.. luckily, I have both shots.

Nice range of detail. The yellow does start to look dingy in the redo. I appreciate whats done but its just hard to believe the scene. Maybe the light painting is too natural so it looks like some composite instead of a painted tree at twilight. I'm sure the public will love it though. I'd be interested to see the original processed out so the blues aren't as deep in the sky perhaps.

Paul, I agree the re-do does look slightly dingy in the yellow, which is why I went with the brightness in the original. I'm still torn on which way would be better to go with it - all-out on the glow/brightness, or trying to pull it down without looking -too- dingy. I could also do some manual painting or cloning to bring it more in-line with the LL sky, but that's tougher than you'd think with the gradients and complicated edges surrounding the area.

I can't blame you for not believing the scene, but there is nothing fishy going on here with compositing or color. This is VERY close to the SOOC RAW in terms of color. I made ZERO specific color adjustments in PS - all that was done with overall WB during RAW processing. Twilight is a transitional period, and if you're lucky with conditions (as I have been on a handful of occasions), it looks neither like sunset, nor like night. I cloned out probably 50 stars in the sky to make way for the ones I pulled from a brighter exposure. It is possible to get stars in an exposure with these colors. That's the entire reason I shoot so much twilight stuff - it's a unique feel and I think it mostly gets overlooked. It's surreal, yeah - I would think that all the comments on my recent twilight images about how (un)believeable they are mean that I've succeeded at what I'm trying to do (specifically, NOT to capture an image that is firmly night or sunset).

Regarding the blues, do you want to see them less saturated, less vibrant, or do you want to see the overall white balance warmer? The transition from yellow to magenta/red to blue is precisely what I hope for when shooting these images - but I imagine you would like to see the blues toned down to make the LR yellow look more natural? Perhaps I'll try that..

(snarky comment not directed at you, Paul): I bet if I went warmer and toned down the blues, I'd have people (photojournalists, apparently) telling me it's unrealistic to have stars on a warm sky. (end snarkiness)

As far as the light painting, I'm not sure what effect my headlamp actually had at this stage, and how much of the light is twilight vs. the headlamp. I suspect it's much less the painting and much more the natural twilight, as in later exposures from the evening, the color of the headlamp was a ghastly green (it's a white LED one). At any rate, I would *never* make my light painting look less natural in order to make it obvious that it was painted, or to avoid the composite misconception (let me reiterate that this is a single frame, save for one to punch up the stars). With light painting, I try for softness, directionality, and subtlety, specifically so it *doesn't* look painted (which is what I think 98% of people miss when they blow out their subjects by drowning them in light head-on.)

The color is fine, I think it is mainly the amount of brightness in the sky and the deep blues simultaneous. I didn't read the processing as well and thought the blend was sky and stars. For my eye I was imagining less stars and a lighter blue to harmonize everything more. Living near Miami, I don't have the best point of reference for twilight.

Ah yes, twilight colors like this only happen far away from light pollution, and at high elevation, in my experience. Otherwise, you a) have everything turning tungsten orange as soon as the sun's down, b) don't have stars showing up if you're near the light pollution, and c) you need the elevation to be able to catch the light passing through lots of atmosphere, to have the clouds looking red/magenta this long after sunset.

Very nice comp. There seems to be some sort of dance happening here. Agree the bright area feels a bit too "daytime."

I enjoy it Alex. The processing well - as mentioned in my other comment - is perhaps not something I would go for, but the final result works great and I like your full disclosure. Generally, I notice your friendly approach to a "controversial" discussion this time again.
Keep it that way, I think it is a classy way of approaching the topic.

A super image all around. Another great one!