Making the impossible possible

It is impossible to combine the Milky Way with a sunrise (or sunset) glow in the sky with a single shot.  The reason is that in order to record enough light for star photography, long exposures in the 20 to 30 second range are required with a wide open lens aperture.  That kind of exposure would completely overexpose the golden colors in the sky.  In addition, the natural glow in the sky drowns out the stars and it will be very hard to see the Milky Way at all if it's positioned near the glow.  The only way to get a picture like this, given the photographic limitations, is with an in-camera double exposure or a composite in Photoshop.  I showed the workshop participants this past weekend how to do it in Photoshop.  Essentially, you paste the star photo over the landscape --in this case the Totem Pole in Monument Valley at sunrise -- with Select > all, then Edit > paste.  Then you make a layer mask (Layer > layer mask > reveal all).  Finally, choose the gradient tool and drag the cursor from the bottom to the top.  That eliminates the bottom portion of the stars and it allows the landscape to show through.