My first attempt at Milky Way: I find myself in Eastern Maine, with light pollution index at the edge of totally awesome and dark. Nikon D810, 24-85 f2.8-4, manual focus just a hair...

george19

I find myself in Eastern Maine, with light pollution index at the edge of totally awesome and dark.

Nikon D810, 24-85 f2.8-4, manual focus just a hair off infinity; 24mm f2.8, 20 seconds, ISO 3200.

I set the tripod up on the dock, controlled with a CaseAir tether.

The bright object 20% in, 65% up, to the left of the Milky Way is Saturn. The object almost smack in the middle is Jupiter.

(Download)

scooter1 Loc: Yacolt, Wa.

george19 wrote:

I find myself in Eastern Maine, with light pollution index at the edge of totally awesome and dark.

Nikon D810, 24-85 f2.8-4, manual focus just a hair off infinity; 24mm f2.8, 20 seconds, ISO 3200.

I set the tripod up on the dock, controlled with a CaseAir tether.

The bright object 20% in, 65% up, to the left of the Milky Way is Saturn. The object almost smack in the middle is Jupiter.

Great for first try. I'm in the same boat. Trying to learn. UHH is a great place to learn and get hints.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

george19 wrote:

I find myself in Eastern Maine, with light pollution index at the edge of totally awesome and dark.

Nikon D810, 24-85 f2.8-4, manual focus just a hair off infinity; 24mm f2.8, 20 seconds, ISO 3200.

I set the tripod up on the dock, controlled with a CaseAir tether.

The bright object 20% in, 65% up, to the left of the Milky Way is Saturn. The object almost smack in the middle is Jupiter.

I am going to assume you have Adobe Lightroom or some similarily capable image editor.

Straighten horizon. Use spot healing brush to remove the red/white streak from an airplane on the left and that other vertical streak on the right.

Change overall tint to around 3400k, which will get rid of that bronze glow sky and look more like you remember when shooting.

Apply a radial filter to the central core of the Milky Way and adjust exposure (slightly) and bring up whites to enhance the contrast of the MW and the rest of the sky.

A Graduated Filter from the bottom of the image to the water level and open up shadows (slightly) to reveal hidden detail.

There you go.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Not bad at all for a first attempt, or second or even third. A suggestion, next time put less emphasis on the reflection and more on the sky. Once you've perfected your sky technique, add more to the photo. Still, good job...

george19

Thanks...yes. Next steps.

I literally came back to the cabin and uploaded. There will be time for tweaking.

I took 5 shots. This was not the best one...but it was the first.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Ronsh Loc: Floresville,Tx.

george19 wrote:

I find myself in Eastern Maine, with light pollution index at the edge of totally awesome and dark.

Nikon D810, 24-85 f2.8-4, manual focus just a hair off infinity; 24mm f2.8, 20 seconds, ISO 3200.

I set the tripod up on the dock, controlled with a CaseAir tether.

The bright object 20% in, 65% up, to the left of the Milky Way is Saturn. The object almost smack in the middle is Jupiter.

Awesome

byjoe Loc: Stillwater, OK

If you have a decent imagination it looks like a whale (cloud) is about to ear Jupiter. Just saying.....

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good capture, George.

smilenangler Loc: The Flood City, Pa.

that's Nice!