Star Trails Using "Stacking" - Incredible

[DDWD10]

If I had known it would turn out this nicely I would've let it run for more than 30 minutes! I basically set my 10D on f/4, ISO 200, 30" continuous shooting and locked the shutter down with my remote. It took about 60 30" exposures and I combined them using the Star Trails Photoshop action (free, Google it). The result is clean and virtually free of stuck pixels and light pollution, the two major pitfalls of long-exposure night shots. I was limited in this shot with only 28mm to work with (46mm equiv) so the FOV isn't wide enough for my tastes. I was lucky to get Polaris in, I didn't even know where it was! I have a question for anyone who has used this Photoshop action: When it is combining the pictures, a window for the blending settings comes up for each picture and I have to hit "Enter" every time. Any way to automate this?

[Celestron]

WOW ... !! You did a fantastic job ! Got a link to the action ??

[DDWD10]

This site helped me out :)

http://www.robertreeves.com/startrails.htm

[evorgsumaf]

Nice you have inspired me, have just set up the camera to do a star trail photo. Looks like it is going to be a long day tomorrow at work because I will be tired. ;)

[theague]

Too bad the airplanes flew through the image, otherwise it'd be great. Also another nit pick, the house is blurry, especially the colorful window in the peak.

[Celestron]

Too bad the airplanes flew through the image, otherwise it'd be great. Also another nit pick, the house is blurry, especially the colorful window in the peak.


Not meaning any harm but sometimes the planes make for a nice image and the house is probably blurry cause when you take star shots you want to focus on the stars and not the foreground . The way to illiminate the foreground blurriness is to back off at least 30-50 ft or more and use a short lens .

[DDWD10]

It was hard for me to get the house clear - I was about 50 ft away but my widest lens only goes to 28mm (46mm on my 1.6x crop) combined with f/4, focus at infinity = blurry house :(

Maybe I should stop it down to f/6.7 or so?

[Shift507]

Wow! One could find so many interpretations for a picture like this one.

[acchildress]

I think the plane trails are as much a part of the image as the star trails.

[DDWD10]

I like how the plane trails look like a futuristic skyway with the direction and perspective. I only wish I had a wider lens!

[Adrena1in]

That is a nice shot...I like star-trails images that have Polaris in them, and I agree that the plane-trails make for an additional interesting subject - I love the dots along the plane-trails, indicating the flashing lights on the planes. (I got this on a long exposure photo once at 10mm, and people thought it was a satellite, but the dots gave it away as being a plane.)

The only thing I prefer in star-trails images myself is more brightness, be it light-pollution or sky-glow or whatever...but that's just a personal thing.

Well done. Now go and get yourself a super-wide-angle lens and do it again! ;)

[KaseyK]

great shot

[woodsie]

Loving it.
I assume that you have to remember to switch of the in camera noise reduction exposure so that there is not gap between shots.
Actually, the plane trails, this might be fun to play with on the approach and departure paths of an airport. Mixing star trails with multiple aircraft trails.

Hmmmm, I can feel a night on top of a hill freezing my bollocks off coming up one evening this winter... :confused:

[zcp m3]

thats pretty awesome!

[Buttkicker]

Loving it.

Hmmmm, I can feel a night on top of a hill freezing my bollocks off coming up one evening this winter... :confused:

Just what I was thinking LOL

nice shot to the OP
cheers Chris