Thank you very much Joshua and Mike
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Aaaah theats Photoshop cheatin man  
Actually, could you get this view in a single shot....  |
Yeah I know *hangs head in shame* One of the very few times I have combined exposures. I always try and get it all in one where ever possible unless I am doing a panorama or star trail image for example. Although, apart from moving the writing to where I wanted it in the image this isn't that different from combining exposures in deep sky images where you would take short exposures for the core of a bright nebula and then really long ones for the background faint dust and gas, for example.
If I had of just pasted in the sky from another time and location or even from a different direction in the sky from the one I was shooting here, or worse, stolen someone elses image, then yes that would certainly cross my "photoshop" (and moral) boundary. This is more like a HDR image.
With enough time, practice and planning I think this could still be done in one image but I did not have that luxury at the time with 30 odd people standing around waiting for their turn (after all the whole point of the evening was for all the participants to have an enjoyable and memorable time under the stars- and not have me barking "let's try it again" constantly). The writing and the sky is easily achievable, but the sparklers would need very careful handling not to blow out the image. Something like lighting them off camera, putting a cover over them, taking them out for a brief 1 second twirl and then covering them again, could possibly work. Doing a "magic glove" image where you cover part of the lens for most of the exposure could also work quite well but is fiddly to get exactly right.
If we had small low power torches instead of sparklers, then yeah it would absolutely be possible in one shot.