Star trails (Page 3): :sm24: :sm24: :sm24: :sm24: :sm24:...

Transbuff1985 Loc: east central Iowa

CindyHouk wrote:

Do you mean something like this? I used a radius of 3 and threshold of 10...then increased the saturation of the blue, red, yellow and greens.

DougS Loc: Central Arkansas

I like both versions! I think also, that it would be interesting to also try a little 'light painting', on a foreground object (trees, rock formations).

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

Nice work, Cindy! Your patience in using hundreds of images to make this one paid off quite well!

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

rmalarz wrote:

Cindy, this is a very nice photograph. I've done star trails before but just one exposure. I'm not sure why one would need that many, unless it is camera-related.
--Bob

When I was doing research on how to do this, I read a couple of articles and it said to do it this way. So what would your settings be for a single image?

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

Thanks everyone....I will try a few suggestions on this image plus taking notes for the next time I am out camping! Combining them in PS is pretty easy. I worked with 25 at a time....so loaded all in LR...then opened 25 as layers in PS...edited out all airplanes in each image if needed....selected all layers...changed Layers from Normal to Lighten....flattened image ....saved image...them opened all of the flattened as layers in PS and changed from normal to Lighten to get the final image.

TKT Loc: New Mexico

Nice work Cindy - I really like the colors you got! What f stop was used? What does the "24m" refer to?
Thanks,
TKThompson

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

TKT wrote:

Nice work Cindy - I really like the colors you got! What f stop was used? What does the "24m" refer to?
Thanks,
TKThompson

Thanks, each time I try this is works a little better than the last time......f2.8 and the lens was at 24mm....sorry missed adding the f stop.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Can't say because I never have tried this. But I would of went wider, like 16mm to catch more of that goodness.

TKT Loc: New Mexico

Mucho Thanks Cindy!

Was there any non-exposure interval set between the 15 second star-trail exposures ? I've heard of some photographers using a 1 or 2 second non-exposure interval to allow the camera to cool down. They then used some kind of photoshop action or add-in to remove the gap in the star trail image caused by the non-exposure.

You really nailed the exposure - better than many so-called "experts". I'm referring to the esthetic value of the color balance in your image - not the "correct" color balance from a technical astronomical viewpoint. Keep up the good work - I find your interpretation much preferable!!

TKT

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

CindyHouk wrote:

I had fun editing this one....249 shots combined into 1 using PS. I did have to take out a lot of airplanes and I missed the North Star ...dang it! I normally don't do these types of shots so all comments, critique's welcome. This was at our camp in Quartzsite AZ.

How can I improve, what editing would you do?

Nikon D500 Sigma 15-35 F1.8, 15 sec exposure, 24m, iso 800, wb 3580

I like it as is...

However, if I was doing the same shot I'd brighten the star trails a touch and darken (or remove) the bright light in the lower right corner.

bwa

TKT Loc: New Mexico

Hi again Cindy,

You can find out the location and when the North Star (polaris) and Milky Way etc. will be visible as a function of the date and time by using an app named The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) which I think is available for both Android and iPad smart phones and tablets. It will also give sun rise/sunset and moonrise/moonset data as a function of location and time. Very handy device for landscape photography. It has very complete directions for use. I can't remember what it cost other than it was very reasonable considering what it bought to the party.

TKT

Umnak Loc: Mount Vernon, Wa.

CindyHouk wrote:

Not far at all from my home turf!! Spent tons of hours on the back of my horse in the Bob for days at a time....so much fun!

It sure is a special place! I was quite thankful for the surefooted mustang I had adopted. It was a lot of time and work to break him but he was an awesome horse/friend after it all.
All I can recall, for location, is we were riding East to get to a high ridge outside the Sun River Game preserve, targeting Elk.
Rob

khildy Loc: Brownsburg, IN

CindyHouk wrote:

I had fun editing this one....249 shots combined into 1 using PS. I did have to take out a lot of airplanes and I missed the North Star ...dang it! I normally don't do these types of shots so all comments, critique's welcome. This was at our camp in Quartzsite AZ.

How can I improve, what editing would you do?

Nikon D500 Sigma 15-35 F1.8, 15 sec exposure, 24m, iso 800, wb 3580

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

CindyHouk wrote:

I had fun editing this one....249 shots combined into 1 using PS. I did have to take out a lot of airplanes and I missed the North Star ...dang it! I normally don't do these types of shots so all comments, critique's welcome. This was at our camp in Quartzsite AZ.

How can I improve, what editing would you do?

Nikon D500 Sigma 15-35 F1.8, 15 sec exposure, 24m, iso 800, wb 3580

Very nice star trails.