Help With A Shot Please

[smoke665]

I have a dark brown wood and stone building with exterior Christmas lights, sitting on top of a hill. I'm trying to capture the look of a night scene, with the lights, and the night sky/stars visible overhead. With a 3/4 profile of the building I have about a 60' DOF to deal with. However as the lights are mostly on one end and only partway down the side, I may be able to shorten that some. I have close to 200 yards of open field in front of the building to shoot from. Lights are small constant on white, that emit star points. This first attempt was around 8 pm, 5 step composite 28 mm (2 stops +/- F/8.0), ISO 200 at 30 secs. I'd like to get more detail on the lights (less blow out), and a lighter sky. Suggestions please on how to shoot this? Time of day, ISO, composite, anything???? I'm open to try any and all.

 

[snowbear]

Other than spot metering on the lights then the background trees, I'm not sure. I'm sure you can pull the sky up in post.

 

[greybeard]

Set to ISO 100, this should let you bring out more shadow detail. Like Snowbear wrote, "spot meter on the lights" (expose for highlights) then bring up the shadows in post processing. Once something is "blown out" there is nothing you can do with it. Same thing goes for absolute black, if the sensor records a (0) then no details can be brought out of it. This isn't gospel or anything like that, it is just what has worked for me in the past. Your results may vary.

 

[smoke665]

I'm sure you can pull the sky up in post.

Using Luminosity Masks, I was able to pull up the sky and trees. Discovered that part of the problem seems to be difference in the WB of the shadows, highlight and sky. By adjusting that individually I was able to bring the color back in the sky and shadows. I still need to shoot over, to be sure I don't blow as much of the lights, and possibly expand the number of shots.

Set to ISO 100, this should let you bring out more shadow detail.

I'd love to but I was already at 30 secs at ISO 200, and was concerned that opening the aperture further would decrease the DOF I was looking for.[/QUOTE]

 

[snowbear]

Do you have a graduated ND?

 

[smoke665]

Do you have a graduated ND?

Well duh, you mean you can use them upside down??? LOL Never even thought of that. Terrible when you get old and set in your ways. I've got several, I'll try it.

 

[astroNikon]

Do you have a graduated ND?

I was going to recommend this.
The Square ones are really handy for work during the day and night time then you can set the "mid line" where you want it .. depending upon the type soft/hard GNDs you have.

 

[snowbear]

Can't wait to see the result.

 

[smoke665]

Here's the result of playing around with what I already had. Still believe I need to reshoot to get better detail on the lights.

 

[snowbear]

I like the second shot.

 

[greybeard]

I like the second shot.

Me too

 

[Drive-By-Shooter]

better, but not where you want it to be. right?
that's a lot of latitude; bright lights to stars.
[i'm surprised no one said, "dim the lights"]

perfect time to learn HDR. this is what HDR is for.
can your camera do it? get out the book.
if not, there are lots of apps: Top 20 Best HDR Software Review 2016
I use corel because i have used it for years, long before going digital two years ago.

scroll to slide 13 to see how in camera HDR works.
post-processing-23may16.key.pdf

 

[smoke665]

perfect time to learn HDR. this is what HDR is

See first post this is a 5 shot composite individually adjusted then blended in PS using a neutral HDR action. I've used in camera HDR but prefere composing post. I've used Corel (still have X8). Switched to Adobe because of the expanded features.

better, but not where you want it to be. right?
that's a lot of latitude; bright lights to stars.
[i'm surprised no one said, "dim the lights"]

Yes it is. Last night I tried changing the white balance to Tungsten which helped the lights but killed the house and sky. Also tried a graduated filter but haven't had time to process. your suggestion to "dim the lights" might be an option.

 

[Drive-By-Shooter]

sorry, did not notice that it was a "composite".
dimming lights may not be possible since they are LED. oops, again.
Why not try a longer exposure with the stars?

 

[smoke665]

sorry, did not notice that it was a "composite".
dimming lights may not be possible since they are LED. oops, again.
Why not try a longer exposure with the stars?

Following your suggestion on using in camera HDR I went back to the manual to check something, and found this interesting note. "Using HDR and Auto Align, causes the sensitivity ISO to switch to actively increases sensitivity automatically". Not sure if other manufacturer's do this but it could be an issue.

Actually lights are not LED's so I may be able to use a plug in dimmer, going to check that out.