Need help with a Pano of the Milky Way: I took this pano of the Milky Way I had 12 exposures I dropped this down to 7 trying to get rid of those dark streaks. It didn't help. I suspect...

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

I took this pano of the Milky Way I had 12 exposures I dropped this down to 7 trying to get rid of those dark streaks. It didn't help. I suspect it is the vignetting of the lens a Rokinon 2.8/14mm lens, but how do I get rid of it? I did this one in Light Room. I have tried it in Photoshop but it won't do it.

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rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Having done something similar with a Rokinon 8 mm, I think the overlap between the shots was too wide. If you have Lighroom, the clone tool would allow you to replace the streaks with adjacent parts of the image. IMHO, LR's clone brush is better at photographic cloning than PS's. In Photoshop, did you try Content Aware Cloning?

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Country's Mama wrote:

I took this pano of the Milky Way I had 12 exposures I dropped this down to 7 trying to get rid of those dark streaks. It didn't help. I suspect it is the vignetting of the lens a Rokinon 2.8/14mm lens, but how do I get rid of it? I did this one in Light Room. I have tried it in Photoshop but it won't do it.

This is a rough go at it....BTW, well done with the pano! LRCC's pano tool can't be improved in PS....but PS has tools to remove those artifacts. It takes time to do it so it is totally unnoticed.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

rgrenaderphoto wrote:

Having done something similar with a Rokinon 8 mm, I think the overlap between the shots was too wide. If you have Lighroom, the clone tool would allow you to replace the streaks with adjacent parts of the image. IMHO, LR's clone brush is better at photographic cloning than PS's. In Photoshop, did you try Content Aware Cloning?

Thank you for looking at it and your advice.
I tried cloning a little in PS but was unhappy with the results. I will have a go at in in LR. I am pretty new to LR and didn't even know there was a clone brush. I will learn something new tomorrow. :)

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

nikonshooter wrote:

This is a rough go at it....BTW, well done with the pano! LRCC's pano tool can't be improved in PS....but PS has tools to remove those artifacts. It takes time to do it so it is totally unnoticed.

I will give it another try tomorrow and see what I can do with it. It is my daughter's barn and I would like to make it printable. I was disappointed that the moon was out, even though just a sliver, until I noticed how it lit up the barn, now I just need to get those streaks out.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Country's Mama wrote:

Thank you for looking at it and your advice.
I tried cloning a little in PS but was unhappy with the results. I will have a go at in in LR. I am pretty new to LR and didn't even know there was a clone brush. I will learn something new tomorrow. :)

This is real rough....but the photo is very fixable. Photography is so subjective.....what someone likes, perhaps loves another hates. I would crop out the trees on the left.....and make up my mind what I wanted the viewer to see - the Milky Way or the home. I would also level the horizon - panos will add the fisheye curvature. Personally, I think the farmhouse is the real jewel. Also, I would prefer to eliminate the rest of the horizon light to give the effect that the home is all by it's self. ...and would brighten the lights in the farmhouse windows.

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Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

nikonshooter wrote:

This is real rough....but the photo is very fixable.

Did you do this using the clone tool in PS or LR?
This gives me hope.
I see you have even straightend my horizon and gotten rid of that pesky tower. :) Had hadn't even started on that yet. I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it if I couldn't get the streaks out.

Thank you.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Country's Mama wrote:

Did you do this using the clone tool in PS or LR?
This gives me hope.
I see you have even straightened my horizon and gotten rid of that pesky tower. :) Had hadn't even started on that yet. I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it if I couldn't get the streaks out.

Thank you.

I used a number of tools but the patch tool quickly removed the areas of pano stitching but needs fine tuning. Personally, to me the farm house is what this picture is all about. I would brighten the lights in the windows......and give it the appearance of being all alone by dumbing down the ambient horizon lights do to pollution. The viewer's eye should be focused on one or the other, the farmhouse or milky way. To me, I go for the farmhouse...but as I mentioned above, photography is so subjective - each to their own.

Again, you have the right idea - I love the foreground but I did crop and flatten the lanscape.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Sorry, I forgot to answer your question about your lens. If you reshoot....then shoot your pano verticle - take a lot more images and overlap a BUNCH. Before you take into pano, crop the edges. Then create your pano and the streaks will be gone. Always shoot panos in portrait or vertical mode. If you do reshoot...with the camera on a tripod, shoot the house by lightpainting it. Get a couple flashes and put in the house by the windows so they light up the inside of the house....cover the flashes with warm gel...as in incandescent light. Take one picture to fire the flashes. Then turn flashes off and put your camera on bulb and take a 30, 40, or 60 second exposure - while the cameras shutter is open, use a large flashlight and paint just the house. You will have to do this a couple of times to get it lit right. Then mask the two together in PS. Once you have your foregound like you like it...then shoot for the sky paying no attention to the foregound as you already have that. Then blend together in PS and walla.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

This is a firetruck, obviously, that I lightpainted for a fee. The NSFD got a new truck and wanted a pic of it. I chose to shoot it at night and I first wanted a starfield....but chose to dumb the stars down to keep the focus on the truck. I took 82 pictures - the camera was composed and I use a flashlight to paint a portion at a time. I did take one pic firing flashes inside the truck with a blue gel. I also added flashes under the truck.. I then loaded all 82 pictures into ps and starting with the first layer began (with mask) begin brushing in each image.

BTW, there were no lights on the truck - totally dark. The camera remained on a tripod, unmoved throughout the 3 hours it took to each of the pics to my taste.

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Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

nikonshooter wrote:

This is real rough....but the photo is very fixabl... (show quote)

I agree, and this could be a great photo!

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

nikonshooter wrote:

Sorry, I forgot to answer your question about your... (show quote)

I may get a chance to reshoot someday. They live 4 hours away.
I did one thing right I shot in vertical :) I only took 12 photos. I thought I was overlapping a lot but I guess not enough. I maybe took enough overlap though to crop the edges. I was concerned about taking too long to take the photos because the sky was constantly changing and my moon was setting. (The moon was nicely lighting up the barn.) I shot 20.0 sec; f/2.8; ISO 2500. I was concerned about getting star trails and I start to see them in the 25 to 30 second range.

Your firetruck is wonderful. I love how it came out and I bet the fire department does also. It is going to take a lot more practice for me to be as good at the post processing as you are.

Thank you for your detailed explanation.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Country's Mama wrote:

I may get a chance to reshoot someday. They live 4... (show quote)

It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

With PI this would be a snap for the DBE (dynamic background extraction) tool. You could google how the remove gradients within PS, otherwise you are relegated to cloning/patching it out. It is a lot of trial and error when dealing with astro images. Even if you cannot fix it to your satisfaction, presently, save the raws for when you can. You could even try taking a few flat frames to help reduce the vignetting.

On a side note Ed, I love the engine. I have never tried a nice shiny new piece of machinery. I tend to focus on abandoned churches, houses, barns and farm equipment from times past.

Well done on your milky way image.
Matthew

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

Oknoder wrote:

With PI this would be a snap for the DBE (dynamic ... (show quote)

Thank you for your suggestions. I needed to do a few google searches to figure out what you were talking about but Pixinsight sounds interesting. I also googled gradient removal in photoshop and found a tutorial.
If I can find a few spare minutes tomorrow I will work on this some more.