For some reason I'm having trouble liking any of them. But since I am not familiar with post processing Milky Way images, I'm not sure why. I think it has to do with the stars. They seem to be far too bright and larger than I've seen with other Milky Way photos. And that takes my eye away from the true subject which is the Milky Way.
Plus there is too much foreground and not enough of the Milky Way. But keep at it! You've reached the point where the real learning takes place. :encouragement:
Thanks, Cindy. First, I have realized this isn't a good example of photo composition as you pointed out that the foreground takes too much space. The truth is: night-sky shots are very hard, for ME, to get a good preview of the scene (through viewfinder and live view) even before test shot (all I can see is some bright star and some faint color of the MW). There's no way to know how big the foreground is. But I suppose now if I set exp to iso3200 and speed to 15", I can get a better preview and take better composition...and actually get much better shots with less PP.
Frankly and like you said, there isn't either of the three be the expectation or like of me also. Take aside the factors of the limitations of camera and lens, as well as my photo skills, there is only little sense to compare with others' great MW photos (e.g., Scott, David, etc... ). I know some photographers emphasize the contradictory scene with bright stars and the MW and make efforts to soften or reduce bright stars in PP. As for me, I kind of like to enjoy both if they do naturally co-exist in the sky... AW, my purpose of the post is mainly to check out my PP efforts (for MW shot) as to which way to proceed and how to improve.