Fiesta ST-3
Ok so after a few PM's on asking how I achieved my star trails, I've decided to do a noobs guide on how to achieve them.
197 Star Trail by scott.thomas21, on Flickr
Introduction
So what causes star trails? Well in essence the Earth is not in a fixed place and rotates. As the Earth moves on its axis, it moves in relation to the stars in the night sky and thus the stars appear to move their position over the period of the night. To photograph them all you need is a Camera fixed to one point without moving.
The stars appear to rotate around both the North and South poles in the sky, of which you generally only see one. Stars very near the pole are almost stationary in the sky leaving short trails, while stars closer to the equatorial plane move faster leaving much longer trails.
Star trail photos are always eye-catching, if done correctly. The major problem doing these exposures is that they can last a long time, like several hours.
Equipment
Some other items you may need but are not essential
You need to go somewhere dark. Somewhere away from any light pollution so out of town or cities to get the best results. Also avoid pointing the camera at a town on the horizon as you will get glow issues. You may also want to consider going somewhere that has foreground interest such as a Castle, rock formation, pretty much anything you would like to make the picture more 'interesting' as you can paint these with light.
The Method and Execution
There are two main methods to shooting star trails and these will be explained below.
Firstly though before punching in your camera settings, set the camera down on your tripod and try to compose the image of how you would like it to look. Then focus in the image in.
Focus
In the dark it is very difficult to get the camera to AF on a subject or the sky. But not to worry, there are other options for you.
Now you have the camera focused you need to sort your composition.
This is the way I shoot star trails and is the most popular and the one I would recommend. Shooting much shorter exposures results in much less noise but allows you to have a wider aperture and faster ISO thus picking out more stars in the night sky. In essence you take lots of short exposed images say 20-30 seconds long and then stack them using special software to get a complete trail.
As a base to start I would say Exposure 30 seconds, apature as wide as you can go with ISO at 800. Obviously this will vary on your surroundings so its only a base guide. Once you have taken your first image, asses how it looks in relation to noise. If there is too much then knock the ISO down and close the aperture if need be until you get the right result. Then set the camera to shoot using the remote and take as many images as you would like. The more images you take, the longer the trail. Try to avoid gaps between each image starting and finishing. I'd also recommend shooting in JPEG format otherwise your going to have 100+ images in RAW format to process.
Once you have your images of the stars you need to light the foreground if you decided to use anything. I'd suggest shooting your final image in RAW as you can then adjust the temp for the one image. Use a high powered torch and simply paint the object parts you want to show.
Now you have all your images you need to stack them. The soft ware I use and highly recommend which is free is Star Stax.
The password is : enzweiler
The soft ware is easy to use. You open all your images and click the stack button. It then processes them into one image, making sure you use the foreground lite image last.
Method 2: Star Trails (Single Exposure)
This option is not often used due to the numerous amount of things that can affect the image. Simply it is one long image of 30 minutes or more. The camera records the movement of the stars as they move across the night sky. If you must shoot this way, your biggest issue is going to be noise. The other negative is that if you are out of focus, your composition is rubbish or you knock the tripod you won't find out until you finish the shot which can some times be an hour or more. You also have to shoot at a lower ISO and get fewer stars in the sky.
I hope this guide helps. Fell free to post your results and questions below
197 Star Trail by scott.thomas21, on Flickr
Introduction
So what causes star trails? Well in essence the Earth is not in a fixed place and rotates. As the Earth moves on its axis, it moves in relation to the stars in the night sky and thus the stars appear to move their position over the period of the night. To photograph them all you need is a Camera fixed to one point without moving.
The stars appear to rotate around both the North and South poles in the sky, of which you generally only see one. Stars very near the pole are almost stationary in the sky leaving short trails, while stars closer to the equatorial plane move faster leaving much longer trails.
Star trail photos are always eye-catching, if done correctly. The major problem doing these exposures is that they can last a long time, like several hours.
Equipment
- Camera (capable of shooting in 'bulb')
- Tripod
- Remote shutter release/cable release
- A lens that allows manual focus
Some other items you may need but are not essential
- A good light source i.e LED torch
- Warm Clothing
- Anything else that may be of use against the elements
You need to go somewhere dark. Somewhere away from any light pollution so out of town or cities to get the best results. Also avoid pointing the camera at a town on the horizon as you will get glow issues. You may also want to consider going somewhere that has foreground interest such as a Castle, rock formation, pretty much anything you would like to make the picture more 'interesting' as you can paint these with light.
The Method and Execution
There are two main methods to shooting star trails and these will be explained below.
Firstly though before punching in your camera settings, set the camera down on your tripod and try to compose the image of how you would like it to look. Then focus in the image in.
Focus
In the dark it is very difficult to get the camera to AF on a subject or the sky. But not to worry, there are other options for you.
- If you are including foreground objects I suggest making sure that they are in focus. If you are using a wide angle lens the foreground object and the stars will probably both be in focus even at a very wide aperture. I find that it is fairly safe to just set the focus to infinity if it is a wide angle or fisheye lens right from the start.
- Light the foreground object and then AF on it. Once the camera has focused in, switch the lens to MF straight away and leave.
Now you have the camera focused you need to sort your composition.
- if shooting a foreground object don't forget to get as much as the sky in around the object
- Avoid pointing your camera at direct light such as street lights and towns/cities in the distance as they will destroy the image over a long exposure.
This is the way I shoot star trails and is the most popular and the one I would recommend. Shooting much shorter exposures results in much less noise but allows you to have a wider aperture and faster ISO thus picking out more stars in the night sky. In essence you take lots of short exposed images say 20-30 seconds long and then stack them using special software to get a complete trail.
As a base to start I would say Exposure 30 seconds, apature as wide as you can go with ISO at 800. Obviously this will vary on your surroundings so its only a base guide. Once you have taken your first image, asses how it looks in relation to noise. If there is too much then knock the ISO down and close the aperture if need be until you get the right result. Then set the camera to shoot using the remote and take as many images as you would like. The more images you take, the longer the trail. Try to avoid gaps between each image starting and finishing. I'd also recommend shooting in JPEG format otherwise your going to have 100+ images in RAW format to process.
Once you have your images of the stars you need to light the foreground if you decided to use anything. I'd suggest shooting your final image in RAW as you can then adjust the temp for the one image. Use a high powered torch and simply paint the object parts you want to show.
Now you have all your images you need to stack them. The soft ware I use and highly recommend which is free is Star Stax.
The password is : enzweiler
The soft ware is easy to use. You open all your images and click the stack button. It then processes them into one image, making sure you use the foreground lite image last.
Method 2: Star Trails (Single Exposure)
This option is not often used due to the numerous amount of things that can affect the image. Simply it is one long image of 30 minutes or more. The camera records the movement of the stars as they move across the night sky. If you must shoot this way, your biggest issue is going to be noise. The other negative is that if you are out of focus, your composition is rubbish or you knock the tripod you won't find out until you finish the shot which can some times be an hour or more. You also have to shoot at a lower ISO and get fewer stars in the sky.
- Focus and compose the shot.
- Set the time value to “bulb”
- Set the aperture to its widest
- Set the ISO at 200
- try for a 30-minute exposure with a wide aperture of 3.5 - 4.0.
- If there is too much noise then drop the ISO to 100 and either shorten the exposure time or try a narrower aperture.
I hope this guide helps. Fell free to post your results and questions below
