Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

No time like the present. What's holding you back?

BassmanBruce Loc: Middle of the Mitten

I like it.

fotobyferg

Question: what accounts for the bright foreground?

I have signed up for a Night Sky class but haven’t begun it yet. I have taken a few decent images at night with stars but have not tried star trails yet. I wonder about light pollution affecting the image....yet your photo clearly defines the barn, etc. as if it were only dusk. Was some of that lightening accomplished in post?

TIA

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

I have never taken a Night Sky class and I suspect you will learn a lot from it. My my images, when I shoot star trails my process begins as such. First I find a location that I think will make an interesting trail. ( something the trails go over, or an interesting foreground object.). Next I usually take a photo with my phone so that I will have the GPS location of the image. Also at this point I will use an App called PhotoPills and use the Night Augmentented Reality feature to have it show me where Polaris (North Star) will be in the composition of the image. It will show me this even when I'm standing there in bright sunlight. Later on, when I'm back at home, I will use PhotoPills app again to load the image I took on location and then find out what date of the month a New Moon will be, where the Sun will be setting in the image, Golden Hour time, Blue Hour time, and finally Night time. I save this plan inside of PhotoPills, and then wait until the date. A few days before the New Moon, I use another app called Clear Sky to give me the sky conditions for the day before, day of and day after the New Moon. I don't want clouds showing up in my shot, so if the conditions don't look good. I don't waste my time driving to the location. I usually try to get to the shooting location around Golden Hour, wait for Blue Hour when there is still light available and take some shots, I then pick the best one to use as my Foreground image that I eventually Blend in during the Photoshop edit. I have found that many people use two images to create their final image. 1 image is the Star Trails, and one image is the Foreground image. Hope this helps explain my process.

fotobyferg

Thanks for the detailed response. I only have so much will to learn all you do to get this shot. I have some of the apps you refer to, but merging two images is not within my current skill set. I stopped my subscription to LR/PS in favor of less complicated post processing applications.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky