Tutorial Photography Guide: Star Trails

parker455 said:
Is that for windows only?
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It would appear that it's still remains Windows only from my quick read, I'm just running a series of frames from a startrail done in Jan through the new version to give it a test, but from initial impressions it looks good (y)

For Mac and Linux operators StarStax will remain the software to use, which is no loss as it's great software (y)

Matt
 
Well I've given Startrails V2 a good test and I suspect that there may still be some bugs to be worked out but as it is It's my belief that StarStax will remain my recommended software, it maintains the cross platform compatibility, and I can see not clear difference between a stack done on the new version of Startrails and the existing StarStax

Matt
 
You talk about lighting the foreground with a flash unit... what is the best way to do this? Did you just do a burst of flash during one of the long exposures? How many bursts did you have to do to light the whole scene at the bottom of your posts and did you do all the bursts in one exposure?
 
Set_Nights said:
You talk about lighting the foreground with a flash unit... what is the best way to do this? Did you just do a burst of flash during one of the long exposures? How many bursts did you have to do to light the whole scene at the bottom of your posts and did you do all the bursts in one exposure?
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To be honest it sort of depends on the scene (y) but if you take this one below it was about 15 flash bursts on 1/8th power for each colour (y)


212/365 by mwhcvt, on Flickr

Just press the "Pilot" button on the flash gun to make it fire (y) it's a little difficult to say x or y number of flashes as it really depends on the scene (y)

Matt
 
Thanks Matt!
Can't wait to try this along on Sunday night, along with some wire wool painting!
 
Scrulooose said:
Thanks Matt!
Can't wait to try this along on Sunday night, along with some wire wool painting!
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Not a problem (y) I look forward to seeing your results, hopefully you've also given my wire wool guide a good read too (y)

Matt
 
Going to try this when I can find the right place around. Can you do star trail on the beach shore?
 
KitinanL said:
Going to try this when I can find the right place around. Can you do star trail on the beach shore?
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Yeah you can (y) although not a star trail check out this amazing picture shot recently by Andrew it's stunning HERE

Matt
 
parker455 said:
How comes you can't get a trail on the beach?
Tom
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I didn't say you couldn't it's just an example I had to had wasn't a star trail, but if you can take a picture of the stars then you can do star trails (y)
 
parker455 said:
I was going to say! Phew!

Any idea how Andrew brought the stars out so much? And the colours?

Thanks!
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I'm not really in a position to say exactly how, what I do know is that this is a 9 shot photo with different settings for the land/sea and stars

ISO1600 (foreground for 60sec)
ISO3200 (sky for 30sec)

Both at f/2.8
 
hummm, surprised it wasn't all blown out. With more exposures, you'd expect trails to be present even at 30 seconds.

Must have a look at it in more detail!
 
parker455 said:
hummm, surprised it wasn't all blown out. With more exposures, you'd expect trails to be present even at 30 seconds.

Must have a look at it in more detail!
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That part of the world has a lot less light pollution and as Andrew was shooting out to sea there is of course no lights to cause pollution out there :D I quite often shoot high ISO like that at night (y) there will be a little bit of trailing showing it's way through but not to the point to be noticeable (y)
 
Have to give it a go, moving to southampton in a couple of weeks so should be wicked for it! Right near the harbour too
 
First real try at photographing stars - no star trails as I couldn't find my remote :(

We were on holiday in Northumbria so the light pollution was less than back at home


IMG_2346 by Buck_68, on Flickr
 
Thanks Matt

I wish the power lines hadn't been there but hey ho!

It has spurred me on to think of a night shoot location close to home and hope I can marry up a bit of free time / understanding from the wife / clear skies :LOL:
 
Buck said:
:ty:

I've put it in the diary - just got to get it past the social police aka wifey :police: !!
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Just tell her that your going out for a photography course in night time photography lead by a leading light in the genre and best of all it's free, the leading light bit is BS but she don't know that :LOL: :cautious:
 
MWHCVT said:
Just tell her that your going out for a photography course in night time photography lead by a leading light in the genre and best of all it's free, the leading light bit is BS but she don't know that :LOL: :cautious:
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I told her I was going out with a master of the art - no pressure :eek:
 
Hi matt, really wanted to try this so set up in local graveyard - pitch black. Using church as a backdrop but alas couldn't focus correctly - all the shots came out as out of focus. Tried shining torch on the church with auto focus on but wouldn't work just kept searching. How do you or others set up manually focusing to get the shot. Help me please thanks.
 
woody12 said:
Hi matt, really wanted to try this so set up in local graveyard - pitch black. Using church as a backdrop but alas couldn't focus correctly - all the shots came out as out of focus. Tried shining torch on the church with auto focus on but wouldn't work just kept searching. How do you or others set up manually focusing to get the shot. Help me please thanks.
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Hi there Paul, it all else fails switch to manual focus, focus to infinity then work back a little at a time and doing test exposures till you have focus, or to be honest it sounds like you need a better torch ;) it sounds like it wasn't bright enough
 
Great tutorial, thanks. So tomorrow evening I'm going to do a recce up the local church and hopefully get some trails on Saturday when there will be no moon.

For the foreground I intend using one of the ornate head stones, it's been mentioned that focussing can be difficult Could I set the camera to auto focus with the flash to assist?
then take the flash off and set the focus to manual.
 
Manninagh said:
Great tutorial, thanks. So tomorrow evening I'm going to do a recce up the local church and hopefully get some trails on Saturday when there will be no moon.

For the foreground I intend using one of the ornate head stones, it's been mentioned that focussing can be difficult Could I set the camera to auto focus with the flash to assist?
then take the flash off and set the focus to manual.
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You could try this (y) alternatively take a torch and shine this on where you want to focus, and this should allow you to focus then switch to manual focus once focused (y)
 
Im loving star trails and cant wait to try. Which software is better in your opinion? I have a canon 550d if that means anything software wise?
 
colined said:
Im loving star trails and cant wait to try. Which software is better in your opinion? I have a canon 550d if that means anything software wise?
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StarStaX hands down (y) look forward to seeing your results (y)
 
This makes me wish I DIDNT live in London with its terrible light polution :(
 
I've only just found this thread because I decided to try a star trail shot on my way home last night. I did a very quick google of how to do it and ended up with this.


53 shot star trail over looking Killington Lake. by RobGeorgeson, on Flickr

Two things I learnt from doing this shot is that I need a much wider lens than my 28-75. I want to invest in a 17-40 f4. Also, looking North and picking out the brightest star isn't necessarily the North star. How does a non-astrologer find the north star? Any tips? Clearly from this photo I just needed to look higher, hence the need for the 17mm lens.
 
-Rob- said:
I've only just found this thread because I decided to try a star trail shot on my way home last night. I did a very quick google of how to do it and ended up with this.


53 shot star trail over looking Killington Lake. by RobGeorgeson, on Flickr

Two things I learnt from doing this shot is that I need a much wider lens than my 28-75. I want to invest in a 17-40 f4. Also, looking North and picking out the brightest star isn't necessarily the North star. How does a non-astrologer find the north star? Any tips? Clearly from this photo I just needed to look higher, hence the need for the 17mm lens.
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How to find polaris (pole star) well you just need to find the plough/big dipper and that leads you to polaris (y) see the image in the opening post for how to find polaris, there are a couple of gaps in your trails what happened to those exposures?
 
-Rob- said:
A car went past and ruined one exposure. At least it was only a 30 second exposure and not a 5 minute one.
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That is an issue though with a little processing it can potentially be worked round in about 50% of cases anyway :LOL:
 
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