rv8striker Loc: St. Louis, MO area

Every year at this time I go to a friend’s ranch in north central Kansas. I’ve wanted to try a star trail photo there and got my chance this year. I got a late start as the moon didn’t set until 9:30. Over 240 images stacked using Sequator and a bit of post in Lightroom. I knew there would be color in the stars but did not change or enhance any color adjustments in post.
Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens at 20mm. 30 second exposures at f2.8, ISO 800. WB 3800.
I’m not really pleased with the foreground. The intent was to have the hill on the right side of the frame be the point of foreground interest. That hill is the highest point on his ranch with a monument at the top where his ancestors’ ashes have been scattered. I’d love to be at that location, but the drive up there is precarious in daylight let alone on a moonless night. Discretion seemed to be the better part of valor.
I few oddities can be seen; airplanes with white strobes and one with a red rotating beacon or strobe but one I can’t explain. At the 7 o’clock position from the north star, about halfway to the horizon is a small single white point of light that does not move. I went through all the frames, and it appears in only one of the 240. It’s as if there was only one short burst (strobe?) of light…weird.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Ues Lightroom and Photoshop?

Place a graduated filter on the foreground and fiddle with shadows and highlights to bring out some detail.
Find the image(s) with the aircraft and remove them from the sequence.
Try opening the images as layers in Photoshop, do an Auto Align, then an Auto Blend. With 240 exposures, you should be able to get complete circles out of the star trails.

I've also had tremendous luck with StarStax, a free specialized star trail application.
You can also find numerous YouTube tutorials on star trails.

rv8striker Loc: St. Louis, MO area

Thank you for your input and suggestions.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

For your first attempt you did a very good job of nailing down the trail and the colors. It's been awhile since I shot a trail mainly because I have run out of locations with interesting foreground subjects. I usually do a blend of two images for my final image. 1 being the finished trails and two being a late blue hour foreground image. Editing out the annoying plane trails in post is a time consuming process. Again, nice first attempt. I look forward to seeing your next one. Safe Shooting!

rv8striker Loc: St. Louis, MO area

Thank you for viewing anf your comments. Great advice about the blue hour shot to add to the final image.

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Yes, you did very well for the first or tenth attempt. I'd just cut the exposure in half so that the tails are not so long and that way more trails will be visible. --Richard

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Nice star trails around Polaris.

2buckskin Loc: Wyoming

Your capture is really nice, I just did my 1st attempt a couple weeks ago, and turned out very nice.
I had a 1/4 moon that gave just the right amount of ambient light on the subject which was an old abandoned ranch house.
I tried light painting the foreground and ranch buildings, but need more practice with that, the ambient moon light was much better.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

Can we see you image?

2buckskin Loc: Wyoming

Yes you can, taken a couple weeks ago near Hereford Colorado. 170 shots blended in Star Stax and minor Lightroom adjustments and removed some errant airplane lights in Photoshop.
16mm, 20 sec, F4, ISO 1600.
It was fun and I learned from the experience and would do a few things differently next time.

(Download)

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

Nice job! Okay, tell us the things you would do differently.

2buckskin Loc: Wyoming

Thanks for commenting, I really do appreciate it.
Next time I would include a little more foreground leading up to the structures. I would like to be able to light paint effectively, my attempt was a failure but the ambient moonlight did work well. I centered this shot on the old cistern and windmill, where the house was off to this side and using a wide angle lens skewed the house a little. Perhaps if I centered more towards the house it wouldn't be as noticeable. Maybe 35mm focal length may work better, then again if I was better in Photoshop I could probably fix it.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

Thanks for the feed back. I probably would have taken multiple blue hour shots until I got one I liked and then just used that to blend with the startrails in post editing.

2buckskin Loc: Wyoming

I did that too, along with the light painting, the moonlight seemed to work better. I may go back with just the blue hour shots and blend the star trails as you suggested, thanks for your feedback Fstop12.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky