Star trails

[p-photography]

This is one of my favourite photos and I took it on a very cold winters night and wanted to share it with you.

[canonloader]

Excellent work. 38 minutes 20 seconds. Did you use a remote cord to do that?

[rjcanon]

Nice shot. Was this on film or digital?

[p-photography]

I used a remote cord yeah, I used my 350D back then. I own a 40D now.

[Nistelrooydude]

Very intersting shot, I like it a lot. I feel like I've seen it before. And a side note/question, how do you get an exposure more that 30 seconds, I've always wondered that.

[p-photography]

It was pitch dark on the night, the stars were out and not a cloud in the sky. I set my camera on bulb, my lens on manual ISO 100 and locked up my relase cord. The orange tint in the photo is light polution that you cant see with the naked eye.

Where I live in Guernsey in the Channel Islands these buildings are a common sight around our coast.

[ArcticShooter]

I like this picture.
You know what would be cool to see?
Move close to the building and shoot with WA straight up! With the wall on one side and star trails on the rest. Or is this a protected building? I wish I had a building like that close to me.

[canonloader]

I wish I had one like that to live in. :)

[p-photography]

Yeah thats what I'm going to do soon as the nights draw in, use my wide angle which I didn't own at the time sadly.

These buildings are not protected, however they are a big part of Guernsey history so maybe they are.

[canonloader]

I am going to try some long exposure night shots soon. Maybe tonight if it's dark enough. But I have heard that a UWA is a better lens to use for star shots, especially when using an equatorial mount, because it takes more movement for it to show. Meaning, you can take up to 2 minute shots without using an EQ mount and trails will be negligible. Haven't tried it myself, but saw none at 30 seconds.

[www.mbpixel.com]

Hi Gareth.

Excellent image mate.

[jdizzle]

Love these types of shots! Nice work!

[joelham]

Just wondering, with a 40min or so exposure how much battery power does this consume. I'd just like to know how many shots you could get out of a single battery. cheers

[rgmcleod]

Very Nice!

[p-photography]

Hello, my battery when fully charged managed to take around 10 long exposure photos. Not only that but it was cold at night as it was winter so this used up a bit more battery power. I just set it all up, pressed and held in my shutter relase cord and sat in the car. :)

[Chandler.]

Did you use long exposure noise reduction for this shot?

[Avi]

beautiful shot..

thanks for sharing..

Avi

[CamDiver]

..... pressed and held in my shutter relase cord and sat in the car. :)Can't you lock down the cable release? I have a Canon one, can't remember the model, and it allows me to depress and slide the control to a locked position. I can then go off, make a coffee, watch a video or just read until the exposure time has been met.

Cheers,
Mark.
P.S Very nice shot by the way.

[p-photography]

Yeah I had one that locks in... (this was when I owned my 350D and used it for this shot)
I didnt want to stand around in the cold so I sat in the car and waited.

[joelham]

I'm looking for a cable release (preferably one i can lock down) any recomendations?? Do you think its work getting wireless?
cheers

[canonloader]

I bought both a wired and wireless remotes on E-bay. The Wired one was like $9.99 and took a week to get here from Florida. The wireless was only $15 and another $12 for shipping from Hong Kong and took a couple weeks. Both work good, but I think I would want to use the wired one for long exposures. The wireless is for subjects that would be scared away by me being near the camera. Like birds.

[Rodreguez]

Hey nice one! I've been doing alot of this recently too and have started getting some good results. I'm going to the National Parks of Utah next month, so that'll be when I get some really good stuff if I can time it when there isn't much moon!

For anyone not familiar with it, it can be a very tricky technique to get right. This article is fantastic and will teach you almost all of what you need to know:

http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/index.php/category-photographic-technique/41-photographic-technique/233-star-trail-photography

The only thing I remember that isn't in the article is how to deal with lens condenstion during long exposures. I have found that disposable hand warmers wrapped around the lens with elastic bands, help to keep the lens above air temperature, and therefore avoid condensation. Also, if it is cold you can get a pop up tent, cut a hole in one wall, and put your camera on your tripod inside the tent and point the lense through the hole. If done right, you should be able to keep the end of the lense well inside the tent. Then you can plug a portable heater into a car lighter 240V adapter and keep a hot airflow around the tent, keeping you warm and the lense free of condensation! You'll have to keep the car running though unless you have a battery powered heater....

With the long exposure noise reduction on in camera, you can do some pretty long exposures on a decent camera. Alot of people do hundreds of short exposures, but I've managed a 2 hour exposure so far on m 5D which is perfectly clean of noise. I'm going for 3.5 hrs next!

[p-photography]

Thank you Rodreguez! I'll read up on that article!
Hope you will post your photos of star trails? I'd love to see the them!

[Rodreguez]

Well, I'm not really happy with any star trail shot I've done yet, but I now know enough to do it right I think.

I'm please with the star trail effect of this one, but I don't like the messy, uninteresting foreground:


http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/1432/windspitstartrails272jr5.png


With the next image, I like the foreground, but the star trail is weak, because the sky is too bright from the moon, limiting the amount of time you can keep the shutter open for the stars to trail, and also making them less visible in the sky because of the light from the moon. I also hadn't learnt how to avoid lense condensation at this point, so 20 minutes was all I could've have managed whatever the moon was doing. I'm going to come back here when there's no moon one week, and hope for a clear night, and make sure I frame it horizontally to get the polaris in shot. It's 4 hours drive away though so I can't go there that often!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3018/2710830387_bd56ac84ce.jpg?v=0

[p-photography]

I like them!

Was there a red light on the rock though? Kinda looks like people sitting down in the rock where its all red :)

[Rodreguez]

I like them!

Was there a red light on the rock though? Kinda looks like people sitting down in the rock where its all red :)

Yeah the red light is from our campfire below and that long squiggly line is from someone's torch as they walk away to have a pee pee!

[p-photography]

Haha! Thats cool, was wondering where that red light came from :)

[vroom]

Well, I'm not really happy with any star trail shot I've done yet, but I now know enough to do it right I think.

I'm please with the star trail effect of this one, but I don't like the messy, uninteresting foreground:


http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/1432/windspitstartrails272jr5.png



I really like the stars and perspective on this one.

OP, great work on yours as well. It's cool those buildings are common in that area.

[Celestron]

Excellent ! And yuo chose a great foreground image also !

[Nighthound]

Great work everyone. The best star trail shots I've see always have an interesting landscape or structure in them. You've chosen great locations, looks nice and dark too.

[fubarhouse]

Very intersting shot, I like it a lot. I feel like I've seen it before. And a side note/question, how do you get an exposure more that 30 seconds, I've always wondered that.

Go to the slowest shutter setting in Manual mode and then keep going, the shutter speed will read 'bulb' and this is basically the time that the button is pressed, combined with a tripod and remote, it can produce amazing results!