Photoshop and the Stars

As I begin to look at editing my photographs with Photoshop, the question arises 'Why not use Photoshop to introduce the stars into a night scene?' as I'm sure this is possible to do with enough skill and determination. Many different things can be edited,deleted or swapped around with the program which means any photo can become a masterpiece of design with some good computer skills.

Using Photoshop
For example Photoshop can be used to change exposures within a single photo, I have experimented with this technique below:


The technique is called exposure blending, which essentially allows you to use different parts of differently exposed images, together in one single image, resulting in an image which has the correct exposure across the whole image which simply isn't possible to shoot in one go.

I have had a go at the technique here but haven't completely finished the transformation as it will be very complicated with the brush strokes around the foliage behind the tower. The images from which the exposure was created, are shown below in there original appearances:

So if Photoshop can be used to do this, then why not use it for the star photos?

I will be using Photoshop to help make the best of the image as it is shot, but I won't be using it to introduce anything that isn't there initially. I have always been like this when using Photoshop as I do not like to 'cheat' I have to say I am very much a purist to photography and would be unhappy with an image which has had a considerable amount of alteration carried out in the program.

Many of the images I have looked at on the internet do not appear to have had elements added to them such as the star trails behind, although they may have done a very good job, I will never know, but all that I know is that I will not be using Photoshop to add elements which didn't exist on the night.