first star trail

what can I do better other than shoot a longer one with a much more interesting foreground? and I was wondering, if I'm shooting at f/2.8 and focused to infinity for the stars, wouldn't an object in the foreground be super out of focus? should I focus on the object and let the sky lose focus? everything seems quite soft anyway. shot with the 5dmkii and 16-35 at 17mm (thought I was at 16). iso 3200, f/2.8, 105 25 second exposures with 2 seconds between shots

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the big issue here is your aperture...

iso on the high side also....

So did you set the exposure yourself, or was that a manual exposure? Like stated above, sort of, why f2.8, and why such a high ISO. Even in the best lenses, f2.8 is a lens at its softest. I haven't done much of anything like this, but I do shoot lightning a lot and I will go for the lowest ISO I can get so I can get a long exposure.

So just kind of wondering why you choose the settings you did. All that said, it is a nice shot from whay you posted. Also remember trees and shrubs move unless the air is perfectly still, so in a long exposure that will show up as perceived softness.

basically I wanted to show as many stars as I could. lower Iso's meant less stars, and 3200 isn't awful for the 5dmkii and it's pretty controllable. Aperture, same reason, just wanted more stars to show up, I guess I could have shot longer exposures instead? I was trying to prevent hot pixels or whatever as well

composition is poor, but the results are muuuuch better!

Haha yeah I meant to mention, was not trying anything in the ways of composition, (which of course I should have) just different settings. thanks for the advice

Your ssettings are fine. I shoot larger that 2.8 and 3200 ISO all the time.

As for focus, look into the hyper focal distance of your desired length and the lens's MFD.

Othe than that, these types of shots are all about composition and an interesting foreground element.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #14859181
Your ssettings are fine. I shoot larger that 2.8 and 3200 ISO all the time.

As for focus, look into the hyper focal distance of your desired length and the lens's MFD.

Othe than that, these types of shots are all about composition and an interesting foreground element.

wow! you have some amazing work. Thanks for the tips, and I'll start hunting those foregrounds

Thanks! Yeah, that's the hardest part I think... finding something interesting in a dark place.

for sure, how have you been composing your shots? I usually throw it on Hi2 iso for a 3-4 second exposure to see what my composition looks like.. is there a more efficient way? then I do a 6-10 minute exposure to see where my trails will be... seems like I'm making it more time consuming than it could be but perhaps it's just time consuming work

I typically work the same with a high ISO to get framing but most of the I don't even bother. I've gotten pretty good an visualizing scenes even in the dark.

Once I locate Polaris, then I start looking for a way to frame something in the foreground with it.

Normally I do ISO 1600 with 30 second exposures f/3.5. Those turn out fine for me and its on a t2i.

I focus on the foreground subject and shoot wide open. my iso will depend on what is needed to properly expose the photo

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/chrisloh/690852​1575/