jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

With my heart set on shooting some time-lapse of the Milky Way during last Thursday's new moon, I trundled out to what looked to me like a different planet, actually Trona, California - which is about 15 miles east of Ridgecrest. Unfortunately for me they were experiencing a 'wind event' with constant 25 mph winds punctuated with 50 mph gusts. Needless to say, putting an expensive camera on a tripod was out of the question, so I waited for the infrequent lull, and then grabbed a few hand-held shots, of which this photo is one example. Time is approximately 11:00pm, very little ambient light so what you see here is Photoshop shenanigans aided and abetted by the generous use of artistic license. The lens is a 14/24 f2.8 Nikon zoom, on a Nikon D800e, ISO was set at 3400 and exposure was 20 seconds.

If you look closely you can see some faint Milky Way 'smudges' just right of center..

I hope you also think this feels 'other-worldly' and offer some suggestions for improvement because I'm out of ideas.

Thanks for looking.

(Download)

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

I like your capturer here. Your camera settings worked out fine while your high end equipment enabled you to draw the most out of the image during PP. The large rock looks like it is loaded with iron, so much it might be from another world. If you have a bit more room above the rock I might include it to give it a more other world look and if you could you might also then crop a bit off the bottom.
One think I notice when blowing up the image is a small looking telephone pole just left of the big rock at the horizon. Trying to make this look as you say, "Other-worldly" you might decide to remove it. This is nit picky just tried to look hard at the whole picture as if it was a large print.

This is one that got my attention. I think you have a picture worth hanging. Good job!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

This one should be projected on a huge wall in a pitch black room... on a cold night and after having a couple of drinks and with music by Tangerine Dream or by Phillip Glass one would be transported and feeling serenely-frightened....

Improvements... yes, as Jim Pops says .... I tried on extended canvas... hard to get smooth gradient sky... so perhaps clone reshaping the rock is best... then resize to image to get a good standard print... no one will know the aspect ratio has changed !! But if you did this with compositing layers then changing the rock size will take care of including the tip of the rock.

I really like this photo; and to think it is SOOC !

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

Hi Jim-Pops, thank you for looking and for your suggestions for improvement, I have fixed the telephone pole looking thingy which was just a photographic aberration and not something human-made, and even though I had spent a good amount of time looking at this photo, it had gone un-noticed by me. In regards to the crop, and cutting off the top of the rock, unfortunately, because of the wind blasts and this being a hand held shot, and it being really, really dark, I didn't notice the crummy crop until later, and the other shots were blurry, so this was the best of the bunch. I didn't like the missing rock tip either, and since you also commented on it, I'll try to fix it.

Again, thank you for taking the time to look and for offering useful suggestions for improvement. It is very much appreciated. Also, thank you for the kind words and compliment.

jonsommer Loc: Usually, somewhere on the U.S. west coast.

Hi dpullum, well, just to be clear, this is not a sooc image, I think I said it was the result of Photoshop shenanigans and maybe even some Photoshop hijinx thrown in for good measure. I liked your suggestions, I have now cloned the rock tip so it's not cut off and I did resize the image, and if you hadn't seen the original you wouldn't know. Both of your suggestions contributed to making this a better image. So, thanks for looking and for your suggestions, they are much appreciated.