Taken from the top of the Passo Giau at night with a full moon. The moon was so strong it was creating shadows on the rocks, no need for a head torch. This is a single 35 minute exposure. The orange glow on the right of the image is streetlight from the nearby town of Cortina.

Lovin the night images,cracking shot.

Thanks Shaun :) .

fantastic.

Sorry, I just don't buy this. No night time scene ever looked anything like this. Sunglasses would be more use than a headtorch!

Thanks Hikerman.
Robert - Not sure quite where you're coming from. I'm not trying to 'sell' you anything. This obviously isn't how it looked that night, it may have escaped your notice but we can't see star trails with a naked eye...
It was an exceptionally light evening, but the camera picks up more light over a 35 minute exposure than our eyes do and hence it looks brighter than it was. It is however an accurate 'artistic representation' of what was there (on what was a beautiful evening). Though the noise has been tidied up a bit there has been very little post processing done and the final image strongly reflects the RAW file taken from the camera. There is no 'photoshop trickery', everything is as it was.
Obviously though this was an artistic shot and I doubt there is a user on this website that isn't fully aware of your opinion on such photos. It may not be for you however and that's fine. I would encourage you not to suppress a style which others very much enjoy however.
I thank you for your constructive feedback as ever.

Obviously I am not accusing you of deceiving anybody and, equally obviously from the comments, a lot of people on here like this sort of photo. That is absolutely fine. The fact that your "artistic interpretation" (which it clearly is since no one could possibly mistake the photo for realism) does nothing for me is my problem alone. I suppose what I am really wondering is whether you take photos like this because you can't take realistic photos of stars and moonlight or whether you just prefer not to do so. If you know how to do so, I would be genuinely interested in an appendix to your article!

Of course it's possible. For example the sky in: https://www.flickr.com/photos/104635722@N04/15270144174/in/photostream/ is much more natural. However I'm not after cataloguing the night sky in the Dolomites on just any evening. For the photos I generally wait for those special nights when the moon is just right, where there is no light pollution or where the light pollution is in the right place.
Rightly or wrongly people generally (and it is a generalisation - it would be boring if we all liked the same thing) prefer the dramatic photos. However at some point I would encourage you to camp out at the Marmolada South Face (or some equally dark place) when there is a new moon, wait until 2am and give your eyes 5 minutes without head torch light, then look at the sky. The milky way really is amazing.
The night article will get you a natural looking sky if you just reduce the ISO accordingly on the star field section. Obviously star trails will never look natural.

Remember however (and now we're getting very sidetracked) it's impossible to fully recreate what your eyes see. The lens distortion, focussing, depth of field, focal length (zoom), perspective distortion you get from using a large zoom, in camera corrections, chromatic aberration, vignetting and a hundred other factors ensure it's impossible.
Thus is could be argued all photographs are 'artistic representations' of reality. How artistic depends on the user. Something to think on...

Thanks. Yes, not many things better than an unpolluted night sky. I'm escaping Christmas to spend some time in the Arabian desert. I'll print off your article; there should be plenty of time to experiment!

Stunner, what sharpening technique did you use mate?

I would imagine you'd get a cracking night sky in the Arabian desert, I look forward to the photos.
Stroppy - I actually took the clarity down slightly as I wanted a softer look. The Nikon 14-24 is an amazingly sharp lens though.

Stunning and beautiful shot James. Usually cameras do not come close to being able to do what our eyes can in terms of focus and exposure adjustment, but in this case, the camera has outdone us! Out of interest, if it is a single shot, why is there a consistent gap in the star trails?

I was wondering James what proportion of your photos are night shots? You really are a night owl! Obviously a better chance of clear skies in the Alps than here in the SW (especially having just had 6 weeks of non-stop rain) and light pollution is a real killer. I sometimes think of setting up the tripod in the middle of a Scottish winter night (it was -11c the last time that the sky was clear) but the warm hut beckons. It must be an age thing!

While I fully accept that everyone is entitled to like this photograph,I would genuinely like to know why (if they can put their finger on it) they do.

Sorry, that last comment was posted accidentally prematurely - start again! While I fully accept that everyone is entitled to like this photograph, I would genuinely like to know why (if they can put their finger on it) they do. I confess to being baffled. James says it is an artistic imression of the scene. Fine, but in what way does it convey in any way the magical essence of moonlight? Indeed, if the stars were photoshopped away, what would be left would just be a rather oddly grainy picture that, paradoxically, could ahve been taken at almost any time other than night. To me, an artistic impression must at least evoke a memory or a feeling. And this does not. Please could someone explain!

Robert, for me; the photo is extremely well captured in difficult lighting conditions, also, it's very well balanced in colour.
The contrast in the hard colours of the rocks/ridge and the muted pastels of the clouds are beautifully complimentary. The softness of the cloudscape balances the hard rocks. The movement of the stars gives a sense of time passing, and the center of the stars, where they are "stationary", gives a feeling of the whole image revolving around that point, not just the stars.
The decline of the ridge leads the eye into the background where there are more areas yet to be explored.
Just my 10c.

Mike - Thanks very much. The gap between the star trails is dictated by the exposure time. You get longer lines with a longer exposure. This was taken at 14mm so the lines aren't really long despite the long exposure. If that's what you meant? The intermittent cloud broke up some of the trails.
Sean - Thanks. I reckon only maybe 1/10th, but I do really enjoy it. I think I like the challenging nature of shooting at night. Though I agree forcing yourself into the cold in the dark is def the hardest bit. You can do some a bit closer to home though - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100988006439583&l=d72214b11e .
Stroppy - Thanks for the kind critique!
Robert - I think some of the graininess is the resizing on UKC - https://www.flickr.com/photos/104635722@N04/15329051105/ . Obviously it's my photo, but for me light and the way it interacts with the landscape / subject is the heart of photography. It's difficult to get dynamic light at night (because obviously it's dark). However here the moon was strong enough to create lovely shadows on the peaks which gives them depth.
I also enjoy it because ultimately night photography is hard which makes it all the more rewarding after. Getting a composition in the dark, stopping your lens fogging up, focussing, getting the settings right are all difficult.
And above all I had fun taking it, was lovely to be out alone on such a lovely evening. During the exposure I enjoyed reminiscing about climbs on the South Pillar of Tofana (def one of the best faces in the area).
Don't you ever look at a star trail and wonder how fast the Earth is spinning on its axis to make the stars blur for anything longer than a 30 second exposure. Or how many people over the years have used Polaris to navigate by...

James, clearly the difficulty fun and of taking this photo gives you satisfaction and, maybe because you were actually there, it evokes good memories, but I just cannot see anything evoking the quality of a moonlit night in it. Nevermind..... The star trails, by the way, I don't really have a problem with. I like them as a nice scentific illustration of the earth's axis and rotation rather than as art. I'd feel similarly about the exposure if it was, say, to reveal the night time activity of a marmot!

Excellent as usual James.I think you have been instrumental in changing views on what can be achieved on nighttime photography on UKh.

Thanks very much John :) . Your photos have really come on recently, some cracking images appearing.