A Low-Level-Lighting "Blend" Tutorial (Patreon)

STEP-by-STEP ~ Here's a nightscape sequence I shot this Spring of "Temple of the Moon", in Capitol Reef National Park.

1. A single exposure (15mm lens on a Canon 6D • f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO 8000)

2. Same EXIF, but with my Low Level Lighting (LLL), and stacked 18 times to reduce noise. I like the drama and "character" one can achieve with LLL — it's similar to moonlight, but you get to control the direction of the light, and it doesn't wash out or lower the contrast of your Milky Way sky.  Here's the LLL website that Wayne Pinkston and I co-host.

3. Longer foreground exposure, using overhead starlight (f/4, 120 sec, ISO 6400, with Long Exposure Noise Reduction turned on), then blended with the sky exposure in number one. I like the detail I get in the foreground, but I often do not like the "flat" lighting this technique gives you. (One remedy is to do a Blue Hour blend rather than a starlight blend, as these twilight blends have more of from-the-side directional light.)

4. My LLL exposure (from 2.) blended with the foreground exposure from number 3. This gives me the best from both techniques: more foreground detail (from the longer starlight exposure) AND more "character" from the LLL. An enlarged view of number 4 is posted here.

Which technique do you like best: 1, 2, 3 or 4?  I'd love to hear your comments!

NOTE: As of May 25, 2021 there is no longer any artificial lighting allowed in Capitol Reef National Park due to a new Superintendent’s Compendium.

This includes LLL  — even though the intensity of LLL on the monument is equal to the light coming from a Quarter Moon that is about to set!

Capitol Reef now joins Arches, Canyonlands and Grand Teton National Park (and Natural Bridges Nat'l Mon.) in this artificial light restriction.

You can learn these and other techniques from a live presentation I gave at the 2021 NightScaper Conference.

You can get access to this video recording and many of the most popular presentations given at the conference for as little as $14 (NightScaper Standard Patreon). You'll learn astro, moon, tracking, stacking, blending, planning and lighting techniques from 40 world famous nightscape legends, like Wayne Pinkson, Yuri Beletsky, Alyn Wallace, Jess Santos, and Brad Goldpaint. Learn more here.

Note: My NightScaper "Standard" and "Premium" patrons already receive access to this content. If you are a "Supporting" patron, you may want to consider upgrading.