Startrails

[darkeeboy]

I ventured out in the cold a few days ago and tried out my first long-exposure set of startrails. You learn very quickly, ie make sure there are no light sources (garage security light!) and its also bloomin cold out there, pressing a shutter button every 30 seconds!

Anyhow, now I need to find a suitable foreground object to compliment the image. I didnt know how fast the stars moved either, in just half an hour!

[Strobe]

I think it's pretty good as it is, not sure you need to add to it. Nice one.

[Just call me Al]

just point the camera at the North star & turn the camera around. One minute & it's done...

[Sorj]

darkeeboy if you have a remote then you can have your cam on bulb mode and have a longer exposure say... 30min

[darkeeboy]

yeah, I tried to figure out how to use the remote in conjunction with taking a set of 30sec exposures and then combining them later, maybe a single longer exposure will do the trick too. As you can tell Im not that informed, just following a recent magazine article.

Does anyone know how to take continuous 30 second exposures using the remote on a D90? All I could get was single 30s shots..

[stylgeo]

Just set your camera on bulb, set an aperture of say f/16 and just have a single exposure of 30 minutes. That's the right way actually, not combining 60 30sec exposure!

[Farno]

So...just to clarify...If i set the camera to bulb and press the button on the remote and wait say 30mins and press the button again i'll have a 30min exposure or do i have to sit/stand and hold the button in for 30mins?
Sorry

[ksten]

Originally Posted by stylgeo

Just set your camera on bulb, set an aperture of say f/16 and just have a single exposure of 30 minutes. That's the right way actually, not combining 60 30sec exposure!

That's fine if the stars are the only thing in the image but one benefit of combining shorter exposures is that you can include ambient lit "things" in the scene without blowing them out.

Cheers.

[stylgeo]

Originally Posted by Farno

So...just to clarify...If i set the camera to bulb and press the button on the remote and wait say 30mins and press the button again i'll have a 30min exposure or do i have to sit/stand and hold the button in for 30mins?
Sorry

Well, for bulb you have to hold the shutter for 30 minutes but that's what remote shutter releases are for. You can press the shutter button and then push it a bit up and it stays pressed if you know what I mean.

ksten, I understand what you are saying but it's good to have a metering chart and see what kind of aperture you will need to get a 30min exposure, with the given metering that your camera gives you for, say f/3.5. But to shoot star trails it means that you'll need to find a place with very little light pollution, so someplace dark. And with a 30 minute exposure, even if you don't see the tree or whatever you are using as foreground interest it will definitely show!

This photo was taken on a very very dark night, 25minutes exposure. I could hardly see the pole infront of me, even after half an hour adjusting to the dark. I manually focused at a distance of 3 meters, used a very small aperture and started the exposure.

Oh and make sure that your batteries are full and that your monitor is turned off while processing the photo, which will probably take the same time as your exposure.

[ksten]

Fair enough, but your example is one with very little ambient light so the circumstances allowed you to take a single long exposure. If you wanted to include something in the foreground, that was lit with any reasonable amount of light, then exposing it for 30 minutes would blow it out. A long exposure with a small aperture also means the individual star trails aren't as bright - compare your stars to the OP's image.

I basically just disagreed with your statement that the long exposure is the "right way". I reckon the right way is whatever method allows you to get the shot in what can be very different situations.

Nice photographs by the way. I tried this earlier this year for the photo competition and was also surprised by how quickly the stars appeared to move across the sky.

Cheers.

[stylgeo]

I see what you mean. Instead of right way I should've said the easiest way!

Yeah, you are right about the brightness of the stars in my photo, it's a bit hit and miss with really long exposures, and a lot of trial and error but since it takes about an hour a photo (30min to expose, 30min for the camera to process) it is a bit difficult to try again on the spot! I did note it down for the next time I'll try something similar though!

You are right about ambient light again, but I imagine it will be a b$%ch post processing 60 photos, wont it? There might be an easy way that my limited PS skills let me unaware of?

[CraigO]

Originally Posted by ksten

Fair enough, but your example is one with very little ambient light so the circumstances allowed you to take a single long exposure. If you wanted to include something in the foreground, that was lit with any reasonable amount of light, then exposing it for 30 minutes would blow it out. A long exposure with a small aperture also means the individual star trails aren't as bright - compare your stars to the OP's image.

I basically just disagreed with your statement that the long exposure is the "right way". I reckon the right way is whatever method allows you to get the shot in what can be very different situations.

Nice photographs by the way. I tried this earlier this year for the photo competition and was also surprised by how quickly the stars appeared to move across the sky.

Cheers.

Indeed. You'll find obvious movement on a 30sec exposure with a 200mm lens. Mixed messages re exposure but quite correct to say whatever works for you. Where I live, a 30 min exposure makes the sky look like daytime due to light pollution.

[darkeeboy]

Originally Posted by stylgeo

You are right about ambient light again, but I imagine it will be a b$%ch post processing 60 photos, wont it? There might be an easy way that my limited PS skills let me unaware of?

Yes indeedee, try this free program Startrails application

[ksten]

Originally Posted by stylgeo

... I imagine it will be a b$%ch post processing 60 photos, wont it? There might be an easy way that my limited PS skills let me unaware of?

Originally Posted by darkeeboy

Yes indeedee, try this free program Startrails application

That's the software that I used.

I guess you could set up an action to work on a batch of files to add each photograph to a new layer in lighten mode. I've never done that sort of thing though so could be very wrong.

Cheers.

[stylgeo]

Cheers for that guys! Will deffo try and use this programme. it does open up opportunities for light-polluted areas!