DEATH BY FIRE
About that title... I thought about it for a while. Before we arrived in Zermatt I got asked a lot if I'm going to climb the Matterhorn because of all the mountain equipment I had brought with me. And every time I was warned that Switzerlands most iconc mountain is „crumbeling away“. So I did some research on the web and found out that the Matterhorn suffers of the consequences of climate change. The night I got to take this photograph I instantly knew that the title had to be something fitting this topic. As the clouds in this photograph were lit up in fiery orange, I decided to call it „Death by Fire“. Together with my cousin I waited a good while until the Milky Way finally became visible and later on blended these two exposures together.
Quite nice, the orange cloud in front of the mountain really catches the eye and is pretty interesting. Without reading your title I wondered if it has been hit by some artillery. :)
Unfortunately I feel that theres a bit too much else going on. I guess I find the sky a bit too noisy. Getting rid of some of the purple dots would really calm the image and keep focus on the mountain. Also I would lower the blacks in front of the mountain to get that darker and calmer.
Thank you very much! Really appreciate the detailed critique.
Yes, I absolutely agree about the "noise", I would think so too, if I saw the image for the first time. It is something I might or might not change over time. This "mistake" first became apparent to me long after I did so many other edits on this time-blend, so, it's gonna be hard to fix. Normally, I would re-do this whole thing immediately after I spot something like it but in this case I just let it be. I agree that it might look distracting but keep in mind this is a 42 MP photograph reduced to much, much less. It looks more distracting now, than it would on the full-res shot.
About making the mountain darker: Yes, it was one of my first thoughts too when I first saw this image appear on my screen. I thought it would look great as a silhouette but then again, the resolution... I zoomed in and noticed all that great detail - something I didn't want to get rid of. Also, that is just my opinion, I think it would lure the eye away from the mountain and straight into the milky way - I don't know if I want that. The bright glacier in front of it makes the mountain more interesting with all its details and textures.
Again, thanks for the critique. Feel free to tell me more.