Starlit scenery, anyone ?

[Airy]

Shooting a starlit garden or landscape is impossible here in Lille, given the massive luminous pollution. Even in less polluted areas, I never managed to get any interesting picture. Moreover, exposure time of most digital cameras are limited.

Has anyone managed to get a good starlit picture ?

[simsurace]

You mean only the stars as a light source? The night sky is about three orders of magnitude (1000times) dimmer than a full moon, so it would take several hour-long exposures to get any exposure on the landscape, and of course any sort of light pollution will ruin that. Or are you just trying to catch the stars?

I have never had the occasion to try something like that. On the occasion that I've been to areas without light pollution (i.e. deserts in my case) there was always at least a partial moon.

[Airy]

Yes, stars as a light source. Possibly with some moonlight (10 stops down are indeed a lot).

[simsurace]

I have some with a bit of moonlight. This means that the scene is essentially lit by the moon, not by the stars. There was some light pollution as well.

[Airy]

Nice shot. WB setting ?

[armando_m]

Airy,
Here is a scene with no added light other than the stars ... and some light pollution from behind the hill, I'll see if i can find another one in a darker location
my intention has always been to capture the stars, not the ground lit by the stars, but it does sounds possible

exposure was 30 sec f2.5 iso 3200 with the D800
1. unedited, neutral profile, lightroom
2. added a graduated filter to the ground, pulling exposure +3 , contrast +100, clarity +50
3. found another without added light on the ground, 20 sec iso 1600 f1.8, +3 EV on the ground, significantly noisier , and magenta tones

[Airy]

Thanks Armando. The last one comes close to what I was hoping to see, despite your mentioned shortcomings. I particularly like the visual ambiguity between the milky way and what I think are clouds above the horizon, then the noisy foreground repeating the same kind of pattern... plus traces of human presence (boats ?).

[armando_m]

yes there is a boat anchored in front of this area
and a small town 40+kms away

I find it impossible to move around with so little light, I need the aid from a lantern, and that ruins my night vision.
With the naked eye I couldn't see any detail on the ground.

[Airy]

At the army we used dim red lights for not ruining night vision.

[simsurace]

Nice shot. WB setting ?

The WB was set manually "by feel". Some lowish Kelvin setting.

[elsa hoffmann]

Armando - that last shot is great !!!!

I know this wasnt the intention but have you thought of doing some light painting on the foreground?

the sample below is clearly not sufficiently painted (only a dab on the tree) - we were just playing around and when there are 2 people with different ideas - you dont get too far...

and do you notice the milky way is flipped on our side

[David H. Hartman]

Elsa,

Looks great to me. The "not sufficient" light painting adds mystery. 

Dave

[Hugh_3170]

I agree with Dave. 

Elsa,

Looks great to me. The "not sufficient" light painting adds mystery. 

Dave

[elsa hoffmann]

Thanks guys - but I think there could be a lot of improvement. It is a challenge finding a place where there isnt light polution

[Akira]

Armando and Elsa, I envy you!

Here in Tokyo, any attempt for this kind would end with the sky totally washed out, and the resulted images look as if they were shot in an overcast day.

The only way to capture the starry sky is to use the light composite mode which is now standard feature of Olympus cameras (live composite in the Olympus term).