Star Trail advice?

.Longshanks.

The below is my first attempt at a stair trail this evening. This is the processed jepg version to reduce noise and slightly adjust the levels. I also have a RAW version that i haven't (dunno really know how to) touched. Would I be able to get a better result from it?

The framing isn't the best. I wanted to include part of the tree to give some form of a reference point - but its a lot harder to do in the dark that i thought The exposure time was roughly 30-mins, I must try another night with warmer clothes!

Any suggestions or commets?

Click for larger

Duchovny

For my experience you are better off taking like 50 30s shoots, than a full long exposure, you get less noise, and less pollution in the picture.

Take a flash light with you so if you take photos to a house or a tree, you can light it up in one or 2 pictures and when you join everything you get good colors.

Overblood

That's pretty good, is that your 1st attempt?

Raw photos can handle white balance adjustment a bit better. Making the colour temp a bit colder can get rid of most of the light pollution. If you look at this star trail photo I took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestphotgrapherever/2953282070/in/set-72157613996369789/ I used a 30minute exposure, and the area was bathed in orange streetlight. Setting the WB a bit colder sorted it out.

If you aim the camera at the north star you get the "swirly" star effect.

I've never tried using many small exposures and joining them up, will try it next time though. But here are two free programs you can use:

http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

http://www.schursastrophotography.com/software/photoshop/startrails.html

TJM

Great image for a first attempt - certainly beats mine. We've covered this relatively recently here.

Overblood

Here's another thread about star trails *warning! may contain traces of crankiness!!*: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055264414&highlight=star+trails

Tactical

I wonder if you might be able to describe your set up for this shot (start a new thread if it'll bring this one off topic).

I like the shot a lot and as I've no experience with this type of shot I can't really offer any meaningful comments other than I like the inclusion of the trees in the shot.

.Longshanks.

Duchovny wrote: »

For my experience you are better off taking like 50 30s shoots, than a full long exposure, you get less noise, and less pollution in the picture.

Take a flash light with you so if you take photos to a house or a tree, you can light it up in one or 2 pictures and when you join everything you get good colors.

Cheers. I might check out the software linked below. I'm guessing the merging option will work better in an area with light pollution?

Overblood wrote: »

That's pretty good, is that your 1st attempt?

Raw photos can handle white balance adjustment a bit better. Making the colour temp a bit colder can get rid of most of the light pollution. If you look at this star trail photo I took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestphotgrapherever/2953282070/in/set-72157613996369789/ I used a 30minute exposure, and the area was bathed in orange streetlight. Setting the WB a bit colder sorted it out.

If you aim the camera at the north star you get the "swirly" star effect.

I've never tried using many small exposures and joining them up, will try it next time though. But here are two free programs you can use:

http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

http://www.schursastrophotography.com/software/photoshop/startrails.html

Yep - first attempt!

Thats a CRACKING pic you linked!

I was hoping for the swirl effect i kinda got but to be honest I was relying on by scouts days to figure out which way north was!
I might have a go processing the RAW version - but it will be my first attempt at that as well.

Cheers for the software links.

TJM wrote: »

Great image for a first attempt - certainly beats mine. We've covered this relatively recently here.

Cheers. TJM's description in your thread is excellent. I've save it.

Overblood wrote: »

Here's another thread about star trails *warning! may contain traces of crankiness!!*: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055264414&highlight=star+trails

Tactical wrote: »

I wonder if you might be able to describe your set up for this shot (start a new thread if it'll bring this one off topic).

I like the shot a lot and as I've no experience with this type of shot I can't really offer any meaningful comments other than I like the inclusion of the trees in the shot.

Cheers mate - no problem, i'm a n00b myself!
As described above, its a single shot with an exposure time of roughly 30mins. I drove to the local forest as i knew it would be the darkest place about without an light pollution.
I made sure i picked a spot away from any passing car lights but more important somewhere i could park close to the camera. It gets very cold!
I set the lens as wide as possible and manually focused on the moon and set the aperture to about f9 i think, the iso to 400 and put the camera in bulb mode.
Then with out moving the focus I roughly figured out where north was to get the swirl effect and pointed the camera (on a tripod) in that general direction. Locked the shutter open with a remote trigger (best €5 ebay purchase ever ).
After 5 mins of the shutter opening i closed it to roughly check if the framing was ok on the LCD screen - but it was hard to tell cos there was so little light in the shot at this stage. So i fired it again and warmed back up in the car for half an hour

When i try again i will got for a lower ISO

Tactical

Thanks a million for taking the time to post the description.

Sounds ok to set up for from your description and I'm interested enough to give it a go some clear night. I should be lucky on the light pollution aspect as I'll literally be in the middle of nowhere

I think the next time there is a clear night without a moon might be a runner.