First night shot with my 20D

[BMWJNKY]

Here is one of my first night shots with my 20D. I learned 2 things last night, I need a remote shutter release and my tripod head is not level I was having trouble with getting the background properly exposed with out the fountain being over exposed. Any sugestions for a more proper exposure would be great. Also how can I get the starts to show up more? Last night was a really clear sky with no moon so there were a lot of stars out but all that would show up in any of my pics was the planet Venus.

[payn817]

I think as bright as the fountain is, you may need to bracket and combine the shots to get the detail you want.

As for the stars, if you want them to show in this photo, perhaps a third image of the sky only, and replace the blank sky in this one, although I'm not sure that's what your intention is.

One final suggestion is to do "night" shots just as it begins to get dark, when there's just a tad bit of light left. That will help retain detail in darker areas without blowing out the highlights.

Either can be a good choice, it depends on your situation (if you got enough time to set up, once in a lifetime, etc.).

[gomm]

I am a little bit confussed! Are there supposed to be stars in this particular picture? If so it is very difficult to soundly expose the stars without severly overexposing the fountain. A trick that I often use in such situations is to first take a reading high up in the sky with only stars in the frame. Your camera's meter probably wont get a properly exposed shot so you'll have to overexpose by one or two f-stops. Do a few test shots until you've found the exposure you are looking for. When you've found the exposure you want, remember those exposure settings. Then take a reading exposing for the fountain, again a few test shots may be needed. Finally you take two shots of the final composition, one using the exposure settings for the stars and the other with the exposure settings for the fountain. Then using photo shop or whatever programme you are using overlay the photo exposed for the fountain on top of the other but make sure it's transparent so the stars come through. Obviously for this techinque the exact same picture must be taken, so a remote shutter release may be worth it!!! Hope this helps.

[BMWJNKY]

No there wernt soposed to be stars in this pic, I was just wondering how to get them to show up. Could I "cheat" for my starts and take a full frame shot of stars one night then just add it into the night shots when I want? That way I wouldn't have to have 2 exact images. Normaly there are some more lights on in that small park making for more lighting but for some reason they were off last night.

[gomm]

Yeah I suppose you could cut and paste some stars into your pictures. I don't like doing that though because it takes a lot of work to get it looking natural and is to fiddly for me. If you can don't mind spending the time and energy then it's certainly a solution.