I'll be taking a trip to the Grand Canyon in a few months. This is my first practice session with star trails. I'm close the city of Richmond and according to
www.lightpollutionmap.info , the radiance value is 8.56 (yellow to pink on most maps).
Nikon D7000 at ISO 400, with 17mm lens, 13-seconds at f/2.8. 60 images combined with GIMP.
Beautiful work Curve and good luck in the Great Southwest.
Marc G
Loc: East Grinstead, West Sussex, England
Curve_in wrote:
I'll be taking a trip to the Grand Canyon in a few months. This is my first practice session with star trails. I'm close the city of Richmond and according to
www.lightpollutionmap.info , the radiance value is 8.56 (yellow to pink on most maps).
Nikon D7000 at ISO 400, with 17mm lens, 13-seconds at f/2.8. 60 images combined with GIMP.
Great practice shot Curve.
TBH im not a fan of blue skies, perhaps higher ISO or shorter exposure?
Marc
That's funny because I made the sky more Blue to make the trees stand out.
SonnyE
Loc: Communist California, USA
Good to see!
Don't be afraid to crank up your exposure time. (It makes the trails longer. Use your ISO choices to adjust the brightness.)
If you haven't tried it, you might like to download
Startrails, a program to make star trails out of a series of images.
I will caution you though, startrails is what helped me enter this lunacy.
Also, if you don't have an Intervalometer, I would recommend one. They aren't too expensive. And they do all the work for you.
I misplaced my first one (wired type). When I replaced it
I went wireless. Love the wireless version! Run camera over there, from your chair by the campfire.
Bonus: You can also use it as a wireless remote for those shots with everybody in it. (This is another reason I need this, Dear!)
Beyond Startrails, your camera, a wide angle lens, and a full nights batteries can give you images to weave into a time lapse of the night sky.
From the Perseid Meteor Showers of 2015. (Sorry, better viewed in full screen mode.) Easy with
Windows Movie Maker software.Practice and Play.
And have a GREAT time!
(Be careful, you are trodding on a slippery slope...
)
Not bad. I think what I would do is decrease the ISO a bit, or stop down the lens a little, in order to get finer trails, then simply let the series run for a longer period of time. So, what has worked for me is exposures of 30 or so sec., with just a couple of sec between each exposure, and let the sequence run for two or three hours, giving longer trails. But it is good you are experimenting beforehand! You can work out any bugs befor trying for the prize shot! Star trails are lots of fun. Someone suggested the program startrails, which I have used, and it is easy. good luck!
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