Had to pick between a wide field and a close up shot of the Milky Way last night

I was out at this little spot near a creek about 20 miles outside of town, trying to get a good photo of the summer Milky Way. My camera was set up on the tripod and I had two lenses with me, a 14mm wide angle and a 50mm. I kept going back and forth on which one to use because the wide angle would get the whole arc but the 50mm would catch way more detail in the core. I ended up going with the 50mm because I figured I could always stitch a panorama later, but then the clouds rolled in after only 15 minutes of clear sky. The close up shot I got is pretty sharp but I missed the full view entirely. Has anyone else had to make that snap decision and regretted one choice over the other?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_carr75d ago

Feel your pain on that one, man. I've been in almost the exact same spot more times than I can count, where you make a call and then mother nature just laughs at you. The 50mm core shot sounds like it came out solid though, and at least you got something instead of packing up empty handed. Did you try to see if you could blend anything in from a previous night's wide field to fake the full view later?

the_simon5d ago

Nah, blending feels dishonest to me. Keep it real or don't bother.

oscarc125d ago

Bro come on, blending is totally legit. Its not like youre faking the whole thing, youre just filling in gaps where the data is weak. I do it all the time with my moon shots when the seeing is trash on one half of the frame. Stacking a few good frames from a different night to fix a noisy corner is way better than leaving a blurry mess or just binning the whole image. Simon, youre telling me youve never had a night where one panel came out perfect and the next one looked like a watercolor painting? If you did it right nobody can even tell, and you get a cleaner final result. Its still a real photo, just assembled from the best parts.