# First attempt at 'star trails'



## amateuraperture (Jan 1, 2011)

My first attempt at 'star trails'. As you can see - all the mistakes I have made. But I was too excited to give it a whirl. Future ones sure to improve. C&C at will, thanks.


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## Ajlista (Jan 1, 2011)

I think it looks cool, haha 
This probably sounds extremely noobish but, how exactly did you do that? D:
Thanks


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## SabrinaO (Jan 1, 2011)

amateuraperture said:


> My first attempt at 'star trails'. As you can see - all the mistakes I have made. But I was too excited to give it a whirl. Future ones sure to improve. C&C at will, thanks.



How long was the shutter open? Usually star trail streams are smooth... I don't know what happened here. Maybe some camera shake from the wind??? Did you have it on a tripod? Why did you have it in portrait?


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## Gruen Photo 7 Design (Jan 1, 2011)

interesting
how did you end up with dotted trails?


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## amateuraperture (Jan 1, 2011)

The stars didnt appear to come close enough to the horizon, so I set up for a portrait shot to get more sky (also, I only have a 55-250 lens  I need a wider lens).  The reasons for the dotted lines are because I dont have a remote for my camera.  I shot 33 exposures at 30sec each, and for each exposure I had to press the shutter button and this would cause camera shake.  I used free software that I downloaded to stack the images for the final image.  My settings: f4.0, ISO 100, shutter 30sec.  I used this website as a reference on how to shoot star trails.  Thanks for the comments.


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## point-&-shoot (Jan 1, 2011)

You can do a timed shutter release and eliminate the shake.


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## HonCBRf4i (Jan 1, 2011)

mount the camera on a tripod and set it to "bulb" with a timer release...sit back and let it go.  I think most bulb' settings go for thirty minutes so you better have a large SD card in there:

here is one I did a bit ago:


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## SabrinaO (Jan 1, 2011)

amateuraperture said:


> The stars didnt appear to come close enough to the horizon, so I set up for a portrait shot to get more sky (also, I only have a 55-250 lens  I need a wider lens).  The reasons for the dotted lines are because I dont have a remote for my camera.  I shot 33 exposures at 30sec each, and for each exposure I had to press the shutter button and this would cause camera shake.  I used free software that I downloaded to stack the images for the final image.  My settings: f4.0, ISO 100, shutter 30sec.  I used this website as a reference on how to shoot star trails.  Thanks for the comments.



What??wow! I don't know much about Canons because I'm a Nikon girl but I don't think you should be needing to do all this! Lol! Can you set your shutter to bulb? You should also have a timer to eliminate camera shake.


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## LittleMike (Jan 1, 2011)

What he did is very similar to what a lot of digital photographers are doing now. Take several shorter exposures, and stack them together to get the trail effect. However, a timer is a must to eliminate the shake. The focus seems to be soft as well, beyond what the camera shake would cause.

I personally use a single long exposure when doing night shots. I've left it open from anywhere between 15 minutes and close to an hour. The main thing to watch out for when doing long exposures is that it will introduce noise.


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## OrionsByte (Jan 1, 2011)

HonCBRf4i said:


> mount the camera on a tripod and set it to "bulb" with a timer release...sit back and let it go.  I think most bulb' settings go for thirty minutes so you better have a large SD card in there:



The bulb setting will keep your shutter open until you click the shutter button again to close it.  The longer exposure is not going to create a larger image file, so the size of your SD card is not going to make a bit of difference.  It _is_ going to drain the crap out of your battery though, which could cause your camera to close the shutter and turn itself off sooner than you might have preferred.


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## DerekMellott (Jan 1, 2011)

I prefer to stack the images, long exposures can over heat the sensor. 

These are both stacked time lapse images. I believe 80-100 images


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## amateuraperture (Jan 1, 2011)

Very nice shots!


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## LittleMike (Jan 1, 2011)

Just for fun, here's one I did with a single half-hour exposure under 3/4 moon:


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## amateuraperture (Jan 2, 2011)

LittleMike said:


> Just for fun, here's one I did with a single half-hour exposure under 3/4 moon:



Wow, nice pic LM.  What part of Utah are you from?


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## LittleMike (Jan 2, 2011)

amateuraperture said:


> LittleMike said:
> 
> 
> > Just for fun, here's one I did with a single half-hour exposure under 3/4 moon:
> ...


 

Southern. One of the suburbs of St. George. Only half an hour away from Zion N.P.


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## Restomage (Jan 2, 2011)

Here's two of my recent ones, both off the camera:


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## amateuraperture (Jan 2, 2011)

LittleMike said:


> amateuraperture said:
> 
> 
> > LittleMike said:
> ...



Cool.  I've been in that area before, very red, like being on mars.  Zion and Kolob are beautiful places to visit.


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## amateuraperture (Jan 2, 2011)

Restomage said:


> Here's two of my recent ones, both off the camera:



Nice pics!  Is there an astrophotography section in this forum?  If not, we should start a thread...


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