Can anyone give me a crash course....

on star trails? I'm new to Astronomy photography(I perfer sports/motorsports), and I'm making a trip out to some islands off the coast of California this week, and would like to try some star trail shots. I could use any and all advice you can provide. I have a sturdy tripod to use, and I also have a remote.

Thanks a ton guys, and gals!

-Keith

Are you going to be using your 300D and 50mm f/1.8?

Adrena1in wrote in post #8118615
Are you going to be using your 300D and 50mm f/1.8?

most likely, but I also have the 18-55 f/3.5-4.5.

-Keith

I personally think the 18-55mm at 18mm will give the best results. The wider you can go the more curved the trails will appear, and you'll get a good shot. Here's all you need to do really.

1) At your dark site, set the camera up, plug into a/c power if you have it, (or if not then make sure the battery's well charged!), turn off mirror-lockup, turn off in-camera-noise-reduction, turn on burst-shooting mode, then get ready to take some test shots.

2) Set the camera into Manual, 30" exposure time, ISO1600, aperture wide open, then find a bright star and, looking through the eyepiece, focus as best you can. (I find this rough focus method to be okay for trails, but you might want to take a shot of 5 or 6 seconds and check the focus, then adjust it and take another shot until you're happy.)

3) Set the camera on the tripod and point to a good area of the sky with lots of stars. I find including the pole in an image adds to the effect, and I also like to get some static objects in the image, like trees or buildings or something, just to frame it. (If there happens to be a pool or lake then getting star trails reflected also makes for a nice addition to the image.)

4) Take a 30" exposure and see how it looks. You won't see much trailing at 18mm, but you'll get a good idea of the exposure. At a really dark site you might feel it's a bit dark, so might need to go to 1 minute per exposure, but 30" is easier really. If it's a bit too exposed then stop down the aperture a couple and/or perhaps try ISO800. Take another test shot.

5) Once you're happy with what you're getting, you're ready to shoot loads. This is where I prefer 30" or less, because you can lock down the remote shutter and go away for half an hour or an hour, and the camera will sit there taking pictures. If you're going to 1 minute exposures you'll need to do each one manually. (At least I assume this is the case with the 300D?)

6) You could even try longer exposures if you want, but too long and you'll introduce hot pixels and noise, (though it's possible to remove these later on.) I took two 12-minute shots at a dark site once, and though the exposure was good, the shots did look noisy and there were hot pixels all over the place.

7) At least 20 minutes and up to about an hour are my chosen total-exposure-times for good trails. Too long and you get too much I think, but that's just personal preference.

8) If you've got several hundred images to stack, try using StarTrails, a free piece of software from www.startrails.de. Really easy to use, stacks your pictures while you wait, and you can abort it mid-stack if you find you like what you see and don't want it to stack any more.

And that's all there is too it really. Be a good idea to practice before you go to your dark site, if possible, but I'm sure you'll end up with something pretty good anyway...it's not that difficult.

Adrena1in wrote in post #8125244
I personally think the 18-55mm at 18mm will give the best results. The wider you can go the more curved the trails will appear, and you'll get a good shot. Here's all you need to do really.

1) At your dark site, set the camera up, plug into a/c power if you have it, (or if not then make sure the battery's well charged!), turn off mirror-lockup, turn off in-camera-noise-reduction, turn on burst-shooting mode, then get ready to take some test shots.

2) Set the camera into Manual, 30" exposure time, ISO1600, aperture wide open, then find a bright star and, looking through the eyepiece, focus as best you can. (I find this rough focus method to be okay for trails, but you might want to take a shot of 5 or 6 seconds and check the focus, then adjust it and take another shot until you're happy.)

3) Set the camera on the tripod and point to a good area of the sky with lots of stars. I find including the pole in an image adds to the effect, and I also like to get some static objects in the image, like trees or buildings or something, just to frame it. (If there happens to be a pool or lake then getting star trails reflected also makes for a nice addition to the image.)

4) Take a 30" exposure and see how it looks. You won't see much trailing at 18mm, but you'll get a good idea of the exposure. At a really dark site you might feel it's a bit dark, so might need to go to 1 minute per exposure, but 30" is easier really. If it's a bit too exposed then stop down the aperture a couple and/or perhaps try ISO800. Take another test shot.

5) Once you're happy with what you're getting, you're ready to shoot loads. This is where I prefer 30" or less, because you can lock down the remote shutter and go away for half an hour or an hour, and the camera will sit there taking pictures. If you're going to 1 minute exposures you'll need to do each one manually. (At least I assume this is the case with the 300D?)

6) You could even try longer exposures if you want, but too long and you'll introduce hot pixels and noise, (though it's possible to remove these later on.) I took two 12-minute shots at a dark site once, and though the exposure was good, the shots did look noisy and there were hot pixels all over the place.

7) At least 20 minutes and up to about an hour are my chosen total-exposure-times for good trails. Too long and you get too much I think, but that's just personal preference.

8) If you've got several hundred images to stack, try using StarTrails, a free piece of software from www.startrails.de. Really easy to use, stacks your pictures while you wait, and you can abort it mid-stack if you find you like what you see and don't want it to stack any more.

And that's all there is too it really. Be a good idea to practice before you go to your dark site, if possible, but I'm sure you'll end up with something pretty good anyway...it's not that difficult.

Thanks for the tips sir! But, my trip ended with no success for my star trails attempts. Clouds rolled in every night I attempted, and wind got pretty insane. I'll give it another try at another location. I believe with your tips you provided me I'll be able to get something, again, thanks for taking the time to help me.


-Keith

Mods, can you put this as a sticky - tutorial?

John