Examples of Milky Way Photography

[PopsInABox (Tom [Nikon Z8,MacOS, PL8+FP7+VP5, PR4, Nik7])]

Hey folks… Hope everyone is doing well… We’re prepping for our 2nd hurricane in the last few weeks.

Does anyone have an example of Milky Way photography edited solely in PL? I’m still messing around getting used to masking and such in PL8, and thinking of best practices for processing this type of image.

Thanks,
Tom

[mwsilvers (Mark - New Jersey, USA)]

I did not realize you live in Florida. Best of luck on Thursday

Mark

[Joanna (Joanna Carter)]

Greetings

Here’s one, taken from our garden near the coast of Brittany from 2021…

[PopsInABox (Tom [Nikon Z8,MacOS, PL8+FP7+VP5, PR4, Nik7])]

Thanks Mark.

Tom

[PopsInABox (Tom [Nikon Z8,MacOS, PL8+FP7+VP5, PR4, Nik7])]

Joanna,
Thanks for responding… How would you mask the sky? Luminance mask on the trees and invert?

Tom

[Joanna (Joanna Carter)]

No masking, just an unusual Tone Curve…

[PopsInABox (Tom [Nikon Z8,MacOS, PL8+FP7+VP5, PR4, Nik7])]

Ok… Let me put it out there then… What methods, techniques would you experienced folks use to apply a mask to the sky using PL?

Tom

[Joanna (Joanna Carter)]

As you can see, I wouldn’t but, if you insist, then a Control Line or a Luminosity Mask would be the obvious choice.

It depends on what you want to keep visible in the foreground. Can you show an example?

[PopsInABox (Tom [Nikon Z8,MacOS, PL8+FP7+VP5, PR4, Nik7])]

@Joanna

As you can see, I wouldn’t but, if you insist,

Well, my insistence is only for academic reasons.

@Joanna

Can you show an example?

Well, you’ve provided the example… Again, I’m just trying to learn masks in PL that I’ve used in other software in the past… IE, for Milky Way photography (not necessarily or specifically your image), the ability to mask the night sky (dark) and not the foreground elements (also dark) to affect exposure, haze, color balance, etc.

So again, if I were to choose a luminosity mask, would I place it on the foreground elements (of your image) and invert it to cover everything BUT the foreground elements (I think this would work).

Your image is a great example since its a dark on dark image…

Tom

[Ian78 (Ian Kewhotzyk)]

Just a few hints of mine:

• control point and control lines can be mixed together
• control point and control lines also can be used to subtract elements (negative CP/CL)
• if you put both the chroma/luma sliders to zero, a CP becomes a normal radial gradient and a CL becomes a regular gradient.

Mixing those tools together, most of the time I’m able to select exactly what I want.

If you have a particular example, I strongly suggest to share your RAW image here to let us trying to do what you’d like to obtain. We’ll them share the .dop file to let you learn directly from our editing (if we succeed of course )

Ian.