14th Sept, 2026
Warning: This one is more than a bit on the geeky side
If you’ve been following my most recent posts from Yosemite, and maybe the one from Arches National Park, you’ve seen some really cool photos of the night sky and Milky Way. And you might have thought…”Wow, that old Rich guy is a really great photographer.” And then, “How come I’ve never seen a sky like that before?”. For a good reason. I’m not that great a photographer, although I wish I was. I’ve got a lot to learn before I get close to that level. And, you’ve never seen a sky quite like that, because it’s never visible to the human eye (or brain) like that. And in some cases, the images I’ve created are to some degree, artistic creations that are not entirely real! Here’s why – take a look at the before and after photos of one of the image’s I’ve posted.
The original photo was taken pretty much at dusk, while there was still some daylight. The sky still had some blue in it, and you could see the stars, but overall, it’s really dark, especially Half Dome and the mountains. It was very under exposed. How did I turn this dim photo into an eye-catching creation? I do not have a magic wand, but I do use Adobe Light Room Classic, part of the Adobe suite of image processing tools, used by most serious photographers to enhance the images captured by their cameras. I’m not going to bore you with a lengthy descriptions of what LrC (or other Adobe products) can do – basically, if you have raw data files, you can change colors, exposure, contrast, clarity..pretty much every aspect of a digital image, all real-time using a complex menus with what seems like a hundred different sliders. Here is an example of the application, with that same photo in the Development panel.
One of the little sliders on the right side of the application window controls exposure. Slide it a bit to the right, and the result is pretty much what I was looking at through the lens when I pressed the shutter release on my camera. A nice view, post sunset but not even close to the final product I posted on the blog.
So why is this an issue? The simple change I made to that image was considered to be acceptable post processing. There was no physical change to the image – nothing added, nothing deleted. All I did was change the exposure. You can make quite a few changes to an image before a competition judge starts considering the results to be unnatural / over-processed – unless you are being judged for artistic creativity. Adding some crispness to an image is OK, but adding levels of contrast, clarity and dehazing can result in edges that are too sharp. Enhancing color is OK to a limit, but changing the sky or ocean to an unnatural shade, electric blue for example, is unacceptable in competition. And using tools which remove unwanted objects or people is definitely not allowed.
The cool Half Dome Starry Night photo definitely pushes the limits on acceptable post-processing. The most obvious issue is the deep blue cyan cast across the sky – I used a mask for the sky, which allowed me to alter the color and overall sharpness, so that the stars stand out. The edges of the mountains against the sky were sharp to begin with, but I over-processed the contrast to increase that sharpness – that leaves a bit of a halo or glow along the edge, something judges would notice.
I really like the over-processed version, and intend to order either a metal or glass print, and find someplace in the house to display it. But if I want to submit this for a competition, the photo below is likely what I’d have to submit. Same, nice looking composition, but it just does not have quite the same pop to it. And the sky might still be considered over-processed.
The only remaining issue are the large number of satellite tracks whih you can see if you exand the image – I’ve never seen this many before and masking them would violate rules. Not much I can do about that…maybe complain to Elon Musk? There is also a bright spot on Half Dome – that was a from a climber using a flashlight – not sure why someone would still be up there just before dark. I hope he made it back down. Safely that is. As I used to tell the rock climbing classes, haste makes paste.
Now I have to go back through all my Alaska brown bear pictures before I submit any for competition. I may have pushed a few over the no-no edge. Sigh. That might at least keep me busy until my next adventure in early November (Patagonia). I’m back home and bored already. Maybe I’ll get some photos of my upcoming cardiac procedure and post those. I used to send gross injury related photos to a friend at Google. He stopped opening any e-mail or texts from me. Smart guy.
Peace
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