There really is no need to comment on this one - I know it's not great quality but it's my first ever star trail from last night, and I've put it up because next year I want to be able to look back and think yes, cracked it now.
My dogs kept pestering to go in the garden yesterday evening and I noticed the stars. I also noticed the cold! So the camera and I went outside and strangely enough the dogs stayed in the warm while I froze.
I've read a little about star trails before and choosing a suitable foreground was the first obstacle because there was a slight breeze and branches and remaining leaves kept moving. So it was trying to find a starry patch of sky (spoilt for choice really) and see what happened. The focus wasn't great although I'd set the camera to Infinity. I think it was on about a 20 second exposure. I don't have any special stacking programme so I put these together as individual layers using the Screen mode and 70% opacity. I did play around with Color Efex to try and bring out the detail/darken the colour but this is the best I could manage.
If you have taken the time to look at this, thanks very much, and if you can please offer any help by way of suggestions for future improvements I would be most grateful:)
Sorry, no advice as never tried - but looking forward to seeing your further attempts. Thank for explaining how you did it, I may be brace enough to try it one day!
Creates a really cool abstract.
If I remember correctly there is a website called starstax that you can used that will automatically stack your pictures. I will try to find the link for you.
Oohh, not sure if I'd want to do this in the cold - great result though. I had a go at something similar recently (on a warm evening!) but just used one long exposure shot as I didn't have stacking software - will have to investigate the one Sally mentioned. How many shots did you layer?
Wow, 22 shots - that must have taken a while. You got long light trails though - mine are quite short. My photo is on my project on 11 December. Sorry can't copy link because I'm on my phone and not very good at copying and pasting using it!
I notice on your exif that the shutter speed was set for 30 seconds, which is usually a good place to start when stacking star trails, and there is lovely colour in the sky.
You seem to have quite a gap between the trails though. Let me know how you set your camera up for the shoot, and I might be able to offer some advise.
@deborah63 Oh thanks so much Debbie! I am a real newbie at this. All I can add is that I pressed the shutter, it took the picture, then the light came on for the same length of time while it processed it (which explains the gap). I downloaded StarStax but I can't unzip the files (don't think my computer has winzip). My using the Screen mode in Elements to lighten the sky made it progressively paler and paler ... any advice would be very appreciated!
@deborah63 I used a Micro Nikkor 55mm 1:3.5 lens. You can only use Manual mode with this lens so you can't change the metering or ISO once it's fitted. ISO I think was 600 or 800. Hope this helps.
I'm thinking that your camera probably has a default setting for Long Exposure Noise reduction. Turn that off and that will stop that gap between the shots.
Does Elements allow you to add a 'Curves' Layer? If it does add a curves layer to add contrast to the shot, this will darken the back ground again.
If your not familiar with Curves layers, this is a link to fairly simple tutorial for Elements. I would try the presets to start off with to see what you like better,and then just fiddle.
If I remember correctly there is a website called starstax that you can used that will automatically stack your pictures. I will try to find the link for you.
You seem to have quite a gap between the trails though. Let me know how you set your camera up for the shoot, and I might be able to offer some advise.
Does Elements allow you to add a 'Curves' Layer? If it does add a curves layer to add contrast to the shot, this will darken the back ground again.