Star Trails

[soxboston]

I had seen this technique in many pictures on the internet and in different magazines, so I thought I would try it out myself. Basically, if you have a tripod and your camera has a bulb setting, you can create these cool looking shots with an exposure of about 15-20 mins, or longer depending on the effect you would like. If you would like the stars to seem to rotate about a certain point, like my shot, then you will have to include Polaris, the North Star, somewhere in your shot. For people south of the equator, I'm not sure which star is the southern celestial pole, but you would have to include that one depending on your location. Northerners, find the last star in the handle of the little dipper and you're good to go. Position the star in your frame, add maybe a tree like I did for some foreground, and make sure you don't bumb the camera or cuase any vibrations during the exposure. If you don't have a remote or cable release for your bulb setting (like me), you can set your camera to its highest exposure length (mine is 30 sec), and take multiple shots, one after another. Try to leave as little time between shots as possible in order to avoid gaps in your trails. Once you have taken about 20-30 exposures, you must stack them on top of one another. I used a program called RegiStax found at http://registax.astronomy.net to stack my exposures on top of one another. The result is a cool looking star trail behind a tree in my backyard!

Settings:
28mm @ f/3.3
400 ISO
White balance: Incandescent
30 sec x 37 exposures
Stacked with RegiStax

Note: I realize my trails are not as bright as other pictures. I haven't had time to do it again and bump the ISO to 800 or even 1600, but this would obviously create much brighter stars (and more noise). If anyone else has experience with trails, let me know how you fared with your own settings, etc. Thanks!

[Saralonde]

A little difficult to see, but an interesting technique.

[slipping_halo]

Hello this is my first post and I just saw this pic and had to show you one of mine that isent too much like yours with the wonderful swirl of stars, just one of stars that I really felt lucky for getting. This was taken with a nikon d70 and a sigma 28-70 cheap lens at iso 1600 and a exp. time of 30 secs. I should apologise about the senser burn in the corner, if anyone has a easy tip on how to remove it, im all ears!

[Tifosi248F1]

Not a bad attempt Colby. I can imagine how much work it was taking 37 separate shots, just standing around for 18 minutes or so. You should definately get the ML-L3 remote if you want to do more shots like this. It's even a helpful addition when you want to be away from the camera and take a shot.

slipping_halo, to remove that amp glow turn on Long Exposure NR. It takes 2 pictures, in effect doubling the exposure time, however the second exposure is mirror down. It takes a picture of black and the camera uses this to subtract the amp glow and any noise from the actual exposure. Note that you won't be able to use your camera for the same period of time as the exposure, so if you take a 5 minute exposure your camera won't be ready to take another picture for another 5 minutes.

[soxboston]

Well I didn't exactly stand around for all those exposures. I used Nikon Camera Control, set the number of exposures I wanted, and then just let my computer do all the work.

[jalenaaron]

I am not trying to be rude but can anybody tell me the beauty of one dot

[Saralonde]

If you look closely, Jalenaaron, you can see the swirls. As I mentioned, it is hard to see.

[whiteflyer]

Little hard to see, but well done for the effort, there is now way I could be bothered to take all those shot and then stack them.


I did have ago at this back in January , but did not know which was the north star. I had to convert to B&W as the original has a red sky from a near by town lights.


f11
ISO 100
21mm
3191 secs

[chanedcomm]

Originally Posted by Saralonde

If you look closely, Jalenaaron, you can see the swirls. As I mentioned, it is hard to see.

Colby, thanks for sharing the technique.

I am wondering how the brightness of the other stars could be improved given the aperture was already wide open (f/3.3). Would a higher ISO help? But then I wonder how Whiteflyer got the shot (bright and clear) with f/11 and ISO100.

Thanks
chanedcomm

[ryan s]

Originally Posted by chanedcomm

I am wondering how the brightness of the other stars could be improved given the aperture was already wide open (f/3.3). Would a higher ISO help? But then I wonder how Whiteflyer got the shot (bright and clear) with f/11 and ISO100.

Thanks
chanedcomm

It appears he used an ~60 minute exposure versus a pile of 30-second exposures put together.

ISO plays a part, but in my night photography experiences, you can compensate by using a longer shutter time. My camera never leaves ISO 100