Not the usual time to go to the lake!

[fuzzyfelt30]

Thought I would visit our local lake last night. 11.30pm and the lights were all still on and restaurant was still pretty busy....plus I disturbed a family of coypu who were messing around exactly where I wanted to take the photos. They didn't hang around long, though, which was probably a good thing as I didn't really want to be surrounded by rats the size of cats!! The bright lights made it impossible to capture the Milky Way in one shot so this is result of blending 4 or 5 images....by no means perfect with the blown lights and buildings etc but I was pretty happy with the result considering the conditions!

Night at the lake by Mike Stuckey, on Flickr

 

[alan72]

I think you've done a really nice job there of blending these shots and I like the end result.

I've sometimes wondered about using grad filters, inverted, in situations like this, to hold back the bright building lights.

 

[philxthomas]

I think you've done a really nice job there of blending these shots and I like the end result.

I've sometimes wondered about using grad filters, inverted, in situations like this, to hold back the bright building lights.

Yeah this is so awesome but the lights are a bit bright, a grad or 2 exposures would have helped

 

[fuzzyfelt30]

Thanks, Alan & Phil! It is 4 or 5 shots blended but sadly I didn't take a short enough exposure to not blow out the lights! Maybe an inverted grad filter is the way to go....

 

[AndWhyNot]

Thanks, Alan & Phil! It is 4 or 5 shots blended but sadly I didn't take a short enough exposure to not blow out the lights! Maybe an inverted grad filter is the way to go....

Decent blend imo, looks pretty honest. You've got to be careful with grads/ filters generally as they can introduce flare, especially over long exposures. Study your test shot(s) before committing or you might get home and discover artefacts that make your shot unusable. Don't let that stop you trying, tho- it's possible to use them successfully.