Can anyone offer some help with the PP on this shot. Mainly getting rid of the garish color.
I have some other shots that were at a lower ISO but I like the meteor streaks I picked up in this shot. I'll offer the the full RAW here if anyone wants to give it a go. https://public.me.com/jasonjhatfield
Thanks!
Try changing the white balance in your RAW converter to 'Tungsten' and then adjust to taste.
Unfortunately, according to this detailed review of your camera, high ISO speeds like the ISO 6400 you used for this image produce pretty unacceptable results, esp. in low light/underexposed situations. Dialing the MP count of the sensor from 25MP down to 12MP (cRAW) and using ISO 1600 may have produced much cleaner results.
Actually, I'm not aware of any camera that could produce acceptable results at ISO6400 under these type of low light conditions.
First of all, you got THREE meteors coming in, wow!
This one took a little work. ISO6400 is too high unless you only show it on the web, but in a large print it'll be a bit grainy. Nonetheless, you got as fantastic capture of the MW here, I like it much better than anything I've gotten.
For post I hit it with a LOT of little tweaks, no one thing will do it. In ACR (CS5 version) the sharpening and noise tools are really good so that's the first thing I did. WB Temp was 4000, Tint +1. Fill Light 8, Blacks 14, Clarity +32. On the Curves tab I clicked the Point tab and chose Strong Contrast. Once in PS, I duped the layer and used the Multiply Blending Mode, then faded the top layer back to 18% then combined them. The point is to keep nudging the shadows a bit darker and boosting the highlights to get the stars to pop. Then some Levels where the black point was nudged right a little, white point nudge left. If it's a bit too harsh, fade the adjustment layer a tad. I just kept hammering away like that. I did use Viveza and selected the blacks and darkened the shadows a little, then increased Structure, but again, no major hits. I did pull the Dodge tool out of the hat and brightened the FG, maybe too much, lol. I hit the main stem of the MW with that too. Again a large print make not be perfect (although a 20x30 from 10 feet away would be!), but just keep widening the gap between the darks and lights with these MW shots. If you want the PS file, shoot me your email and I'll send it your way via YouSendIt. It's flattened I'm afraid because the adjustments need to be combined so you can continue to wail away, lol!
Posted by Rod Chandler on June 29, 2011 at 3:56 PM
Paul, if I had that shot I would be really proud of it. I have never tried this kind of night photography but I would like to. I don't discount what the others, particularly John M., are saying. However, I have seen a number of night shots posted and this is among the best of them.
@John I have some shots at 1600 ISO that are definitely cleaner, I just wanted to see if this image could be salvaged since it has the meteor streaks. cRAW actually produces 24MP images on the a900, just compressed. But I've heard that down sampling the 24MP image to 12MP with photoshop will give similar noise results as the Nikon D3.
@Paul Thanks for the help! the sky definitely looks better! I'm thinking of maybe just using my ISO 1600 shot and bringing over the meteor streaks from this shot.
Discussion
8 repliesI have some other shots that were at a lower ISO but I like the meteor streaks I picked up in this shot. I'll offer the the full RAW here if anyone wants to give it a go. https://public.me.com/jasonjhatfield
Thanks!
Unfortunately, according to this detailed review of your camera, high ISO speeds like the ISO 6400 you used for this image produce pretty unacceptable results, esp. in low light/underexposed situations. Dialing the MP count of the sensor from 25MP down to 12MP (cRAW) and using ISO 1600 may have produced much cleaner results.
Actually, I'm not aware of any camera that could produce acceptable results at ISO6400 under these type of low light conditions.
This one took a little work. ISO6400 is too high unless you only show it on the web, but in a large print it'll be a bit grainy. Nonetheless, you got as fantastic capture of the MW here, I like it much better than anything I've gotten.
For post I hit it with a LOT of little tweaks, no one thing will do it. In ACR (CS5 version) the sharpening and noise tools are really good so that's the first thing I did. WB Temp was 4000, Tint +1. Fill Light 8, Blacks 14, Clarity +32. On the Curves tab I clicked the Point tab and chose Strong Contrast. Once in PS, I duped the layer and used the Multiply Blending Mode, then faded the top layer back to 18% then combined them. The point is to keep nudging the shadows a bit darker and boosting the highlights to get the stars to pop. Then some Levels where the black point was nudged right a little, white point nudge left. If it's a bit too harsh, fade the adjustment layer a tad. I just kept hammering away like that. I did use Viveza and selected the blacks and darkened the shadows a little, then increased Structure, but again, no major hits. I did pull the Dodge tool out of the hat and brightened the FG, maybe too much, lol. I hit the main stem of the MW with that too. Again a large print make not be perfect (although a 20x30 from 10 feet away would be!), but just keep widening the gap between the darks and lights with these MW shots. If you want the PS file, shoot me your email and I'll send it your way via YouSendIt. It's flattened I'm afraid because the adjustments need to be combined so you can continue to wail away, lol!
@Paul Thanks for the help! the sky definitely looks better! I'm thinking of maybe just using my ISO 1600 shot and bringing over the meteor streaks from this shot.
@Rod Thanks!