Shooting Illuminated Man-Made Star

[Hill Country Hack]

I'll be travelling home for Thanksgiving and there is a landmark on top of a mountain I want to capture. It is an 88ft tall neon lit star. I want to be in the valley shooting up to it during late dusk and I'm concerned about blow out and how to meter for correct exposure.

I don't have PS to do HDR, but I do plan on bracketing my shots and develop in LR3.

Obviously I'll be using a tripod and electronic shutter release. I want to start at f11 with an ISO of 100 and adjust the shutter to slightly over exposure as to not lose details to shadows in the rest of the photo.

If I meter to the light of the star, I'll be grossly undersexposed in the rest of the frame. If I meter to the darker areas, I'll blow out the star. I'm thinking of metering to a brighter area around the star as a starting point and adjust from there. Sound like a good plan? If not, any suggestions?

I'm also thinking I may try to stop down further to say f22 to attempt to get the same star effect one gets using this technique with the sun as to get a star in a star?

Anyway...here is a stock photo of the object. I'll be shooting from farther away, a mile or more so I can include the mountain the object sits on.


This photo of Roanoke is courtesy of TripAdvisor

[wulf]

Take some pictures with a range of settings and review the results (histogram / blinking highlight tools). Use the initial sampling to suggest what settings you might tweak. Even if you come up metering strategy that works, you will still need to take some shots to check and each click is free, so I'm more inclined to shoot, review and adjust than to meter, calculate, shoot, review and adjust.

Wulf

[Hill Country Hack]

Thanks Wulf. I know this will take some messing about to get what I want. Adjusting the exposure from the previous shot and adjusting for the deminishing light at the same time. I'm not too sure if I'm not biting off more than I can chew. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I'm sure the histogram will be peaked at the far ends, and I'll be trying to minimize that as much as possible. I was asking if I was on the right path as a starting point.

[Doug Sundseth]

Light bulbs are bright. Earth half an hour after sunset is dark. It's unlikely that you'll be able to get the dynamic range to shoot both in a single shot.

You could shoot HDR and tonemap to something that a monitor can show or a printer can print.

But I'd recommend shooting earlier than "late dusk" and underexposing a bit so it looks late. This will reduce the dynamic range significantly and you might be able to hold detail in the dark parts without blowing out the star.

HTH

[Hill Country Hack]

Doug,
That is my usual M.O. for shooting the moon. I plan on getting there before the sun goes down. I believe the star is on a light sensor and on the east side of the mountian so should turn on while there is still plenty of light.

[sk66]

I think the best time to get lights like this is right after "sunset" when they first come on.
I think your plan is solid and you'll end up around 1/250 SS. I don't think I'd go to f/22 for star effect, and even if you do you probably won't get the effect due to the distance. Maybe consider a "star filter" if it's important to the concept.