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Wow, fantastic. You could write a book from your photos talking as much about where and why as you would technique and post processing.
Studying it heavily with my novice eyes, I do notice some uneven noise and coma/streaking from the milky way leftwards. Does this have something to do with the pano and your iso settings which are different for the moon compared to the darker milky way? I am surprised the milky way is that vivid during moonset. Wow.
Ben, properly exposed and processed I think you can have fine astro shots with your 5DIII. If you had a...Show more →
Thanks so much, I am glad you like it! I guess I ought to look into writing down a few things...
These were both shot at the same settings, ISO 4000, 30 secs at f5. Once I get a setting going, I pretty don't much change it until the light starts changing from the moon setting, etc... The moon at this point was not much of a factor as it was so low and there were clouds. Earlier, say 10 or 10:30pm it was brighter and I was shooting away from it more, though I did still take a few shots in that direction at that time. But mostly I was working the Tatoosh range then.
The area around the moon though was a bit brighter, so I did use a layer mask to bring down the exposure and make the scene blend a bit better from a sky perspective, but I don't think it was much different, perhaps 2/3rds of a stop?