Neal Grosskopf
Milky Way in the Marion, WI Countryside
Before & After
I was at a family get together which is out in the country so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some Milky Way shots since there isn’t much light pollution out there.
Location
This shot was taken near Marion, WI out in the country on a dead end road that family friend lives on. It was very cloudy for the entire day, but fortunately just before we were going to leave the clouds started to break apart so I got this picture quick.
Composition
Before night fell, I scouted out several locations to ensure they would have some foreground interest. I liked this spot as the road curved in it. I also liked the tall tree on the left. I used Stellarium on my phone to make sure the Milky Way would end up in the shot. Once it was dark out and the clouds cleared I spent 20 minutes getting this shot. It consisted of 6 images of the Milky Way and 1 image of myself with a flashlight holding it up in the air. You can’t tell in the photo, but I’m also holding my dog in the picture as I had nothing to tie her to while I got the shot.
EXIF Information
Post Processing
I ran the photo through Photoshop using manual alignment and applied a medium blend to it. After that, I decided I wanted to take this picture in a different direction than my other astrophotography shots lately. Most of mine have had a purple tinted white balance and I wanted this one to be a bit more natural. It took a fair amount of messing around with the white balance, tint, vibrancy and saturation in Lightroom to get it to this point.
Software Used
- Lightroom
- Photoshop
Techniques Used
- Exposure Stacking