My first star trails shot...comments? Suggestions?

Hey all...well, I finally shot my first star trails shot...

EXIF: about 59 minute exposure, ISO 100, f5.6, Canon 30D with Tokina 11-16 at 11mm

I think the light in the left corner came from some nearby houses...lesson learned...if it looks "dark enough" it's not. Anything less than pitch black won't do it.

Overall, the picture came out lighter than I would have liked (ie: pitch black sky)...why is this? I took it over the ocean, thinking there are no lights there...could it be all the mist about me?

Also, I got quite a bit of noise, even though I used Long Exposure Noise Reduction...any way to get around this? I know stacking would help, but I'm trying to take these the old way

Thanks!

(straight off the card...currently working on a PP version)

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And the edited (levels, contrast, nothing else) version:

Might want to try a smaller aperture, maybe smaller than f8?

yeah, I think I'll do that next...probably f11 or something...also, I want to open up the shutter for a little longer (around 90 minutes to get more sweep), so I might have to close it down even more

Maybe also get a little bit of a horizon in the shot...sometimes that gives good depth perception on the image.

kezug wrote in post #10580476
Maybe also get a little bit of a horizon in the shot...sometimes that gives good depth perception on the image.

Absolutely! That was the original plan, but I got there and there was so much mist right above the ocean it would have been utter garbage...next time I'm going inland and getting some sort of a tree/horizon/mountains in the shot...

I myself don't mind a bit of background light in the image, and I also prefer a bit of something landscapey in the image if possible. Otherwise they're good shots.

Thanks will def try again with some foreground stuff...I'm actually thinking of putting one camera up to shoot the sky with some trees or whatever in the foreground and another one to shoot the first camera...so it'd be a camera's outline against the startrails just gotta get another remote control for my other 30D