Camera Picture style for star trail photography

I'm going to give star trail photography a try and I have a few questions.

Does it matter what picture style the camera is set to?
Using a Canon 40D.

I plan on using the one long exposure method and the look i'm going for is the circular pattern star trail effect. Are there any guide lines to follow regarding minimum/maximum exposure time to get this look?
I will be using bulb mode, remote release, and a tripod.

I have two "fast" lenses that I can use.
Canon EF 50mm 1.8II
Canon EF-S 60mm 2.8
Also have the Canon 70-200mm non IS F4 and the Canon 28-135.
Which of these would be best to use?
I know these lenses are probably not the best to attempt this with but, it's all I have.
Any suggestions provided, would be appreciated.

Picture style? No. Not that I know of....

Okay. Aim for polaris - the north star for circles.
Set your iso at oh.... 200. Try a wide aperture... and depending on where you are...an exposure time of 45m to 1 hr?

As to the lenses, I'd go as wide as possible. So I'd probably use the 28-135 on about a 28-30mm range.

Have fun

Yup, what Rachel says - except.....

I'd try doing a quick exposure of just 2 minutes first. Have a look at it, checking for two things - that you can see some stars and that the bits of sky without stars are black (or very nearly black).

The main problem with doing one long exposure is that you need really, really dark skies. Any slight bit of light pollution will accumulate and wash out any stars you may have captured. Another problem is noise, which tends to increase with long exposures. Keeping the ISO low will help with this, but it will also limit the number of stars you'll catch.

That's why most star-trail shooters capture short (20 to 30 second) exposures and add them together in the software.

hollis_f wrote in post #14877247
Yup, what Rachel says - except.....

I'd try doing a quick exposure of just 2 minutes first. Have a look at it, checking for two things - that you can see some stars and that the bits of sky without stars are black (or very nearly black).

The main problem with doing one long exposure is that you need really, really dark skies. Any slight bit of light pollution will accumulate and wash out any stars you may have captured. Another problem is noise, which tends to increase with long exposures. Keeping the ISO low will help with this, but it will also limit the number of stars you'll catch.

That's why most star-trail shooters capture short (20 to 30 second) exposures and add them together in the software.

Ditto.
Have fun with whatever you decide!

Thanks for the tips and information.
I'll probably try both methods.. single long exposure & multiple shots.
My post processing skills aren't too advanced so, not sure how the mutiple shots route will turn out.
But, I'm sure things will turn out exactly the way I want them to on the first attempt.
Right?!
Hoping to give things a try at the start of the week.