Celestial time lapse

I have just started to get my hands dirty with night photography and my first attempt with light painting. Seen couple of cool shots in this forum and ess, i was lured to try it myself. I used a red gel with couple of burst flash under faint moonlight...this was taken approx 2 hrs after sunset, when spotted a spurt of clouds moving very fast. I could have done away with one exposure but did blend two exposures at different iso due to noise in the shadow area.

As always comments and critiques appreciated

Debjit,

I think this looks really cool. I like the stars and clouds movement combined. Is this that a Bristlecone Pine tree? Was this taken recently?

Derek

Wow, Debjit, I like the wildness here. The contrast is a bit much. The reds gives it a devilish feel and the streaks really go with that.

I like this, Debjit. The sky and the clouds are really cool looking. I do think the tree is a bit too red, and I'd like to see more detail in the foreground.

I can appreciate the challenge of shooting at night--keep at it!

-P

I am not much into light painting, but I really like the stars and clouds in this. Cool scene.

A really great take on this scene, Debjit. I would agree on toning the saturation/contrast down globally just a bit to see how things look. Otherwise, a very fine night photo IMO.

Way, way, way cool Debjit! The effects you achieved with this are outstanding

Thanks guys. I would agree on toning it down a bit on the tree...i was on a a laptop which is due calibration a long time.

Derek, yes those are in the Bristlecone, I shot this end last month, i just got to process this in long weekends.

I love the concept and you have executed it quite well. The only thing that stands out for me is the brightness of the stars where the clouds are. In the current form it looks as if the stars are closer than the (moving) clouds and I find that somewhat disturbing (and it also makes is obvious that this is a blend of two separate exposures). My suggestion would be to either clone out the stars which overlap with the clouds or at least reduce their brightness.

Regards.

Very cool mix of colors Debjit. The reds and blues go nicely together, and I like the cloud motion. I agree with Anil on the stars and cloud overlap, does look a little odd. Also I find the stars oversharpened, but I find that to be the case in almost every night image I see (I always exclude the stars from the web sharpening process, and apply a slight glow, otherwise they end up having weird (non-round) granular shapes with little depth.. my opinion )

Thanks Anil and Floris. I will re-work the image considering all the suggestions made so far. This forum has been a real help.

Floris, what do I need to add a glow ? any suggestions ?

Debjit,

I must be a contrarian The sky is amazing, the tree is alittle too red for my taste, I wish it were a little less red and didn't block so much of the view of that sky. But like I said i must be a contrarian.

Paul

here is the re-work incorporating most of the suggestions...

re-work

Great use of light/color and those streaking clouds. Love the impact captured here. Rework looks very good too. Well done!

Debjit,

Congrats on your first attempt at light painting - I think you created a winner. That night sky is awesome! I would agree with others about turning down the red in the tree and perhaps opening up the foreground a bit - (if that's possible,) Otherwise, great job with this.

Lon