Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

FM Forum Rules
Landscape Posting Guidelines
  

FM Forums | Landscape Photographer | Join Upload & Sell

  

Archive 2013 · My first stacked star trail image

  
 
kurt765
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · My first stacked star trail image



Camp Trails by Kurt Lawson, on Flickr

I've always been a big fan of capturing star trails in-camera in single exposures. This was my first successful attempt at doing a stacked image, which I did at our camp in the Alabama Hills over Thanksgiving weekend.

458 x 30 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon 5D3, Zeiss 21mm ZE

I think the image turned out pretty fun, capturing the chaos of camp as we cooked and ate dinner and relaxed afterwords. Total elapsed time in the image is about 4 hours and 15 minutes.

-K



Dec 10, 2013 at 11:12 AM
jord217
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · My first stacked star trail image


This is sweet just for the shear insanity of it : )

Great work!



Dec 10, 2013 at 11:16 AM
JimFox
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · My first stacked star trail image


Hey Kurt,

That is one crazy shot. It looks like it does represent a lot of fun. How about doing another stacking with half of the images that were used in this one? While the chaos is interesting, I am thinking the chaos looks like more fun to you because you were there. As a viewer, I think there is too much chaos. Sometimes too much of a good thing is just too much...

Jim



Dec 10, 2013 at 02:17 PM
kurt765
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · My first stacked star trail image


I've been experimenting with that Jim. I was curious what others would think of this chaotic scene, so I thought I'd post it and see what people said. Now that I think I have a good recipe for stacking, I need to get my hands on a ZE lens for this sort of thing. Being able to focus at infinity in the dark and not guess at infinity was a huge improvement over the numerous misses I've had trying to focus my various Canon AF lenses in darkness. It's never quite right it seems when you can focus way past infinity. The ZE though was cake. DSLRs can certainly see WAY more stars than film does, but I still prefer the challenge of one shot film deals. I still scour ebay looking or a good deal on the Mamiya 7 / 43mm combo for that purpose.


Dec 10, 2013 at 02:31 PM
JimFox
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · My first stacked star trail image


Hey Kurt,

When I have shot a scene with the intention of stacking the stars, I usually will stack the whole series first, and then cut back and stack again using less photos. And then just see what I like best. Sometimes I will chose different groups to stack based on where the stars start at as sometimes with shorter trails that can add to a composition.

As for shooting trails with film, I certainly did tons of that in the old days, and so for me, to do that again with film doesn't appeal to me. But I am glad you want to go do that still and certainly getting a Mamiya 7 /43 combo would be very enticing!

Jim



Dec 10, 2013 at 07:12 PM
Steve Perry
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · My first stacked star trail image


Just about had a seizure when I opened the page

Still I gotta say I really like it!! Very cool shot and concept.



Dec 10, 2013 at 10:10 PM
DSC01
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · My first stacked star trail image


Kurt, very out there but I like it , I bet this would look really cool printed on very glossy paper. Regards,
Dean



Dec 11, 2013 at 06:53 AM
camboman
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · My first stacked star trail image


When I first opened it, I thought it was a shopping center, due to the flurry of activity in the foreground !

Excellent image!




Dec 11, 2013 at 11:26 AM
Charlie Shugart
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · My first stacked star trail image


Fantastic image, Kurt.
Either you camped with about 300 people, or the gang was VERY active.
I wonder if bringing down the super-bright areas would permit better identification of what was going on? It might be worth a try just to see.
Charlie



Dec 11, 2013 at 05:28 PM
dswiger
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · My first stacked star trail image


Steve Perry wrote:
Just about had a seizure when I opened the page

Still I gotta say I really like it!! Very cool shot and concept.


What Steve said!

Makes you feel like the world is spinning at some crazy rate and you're trying to adapt/keep up

Dan



Dec 11, 2013 at 08:19 PM
kurt765
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · My first stacked star trail image


Thanks for the comments everyone! It was fun.

Charlie Shugart wrote:
Fantastic image, Kurt.
Either you camped with about 300 people, or the gang was VERY active.
I wonder if bringing down the super-bright areas would permit better identification of what was going on? It might be worth a try just to see.
Charlie


I stacked two versions of the image, one where I crushed everything but pure white (for the foreground) and the other where I boosted the shadows (for the stars). Since the image is 250 minutes long, pretty much every attempt I have done at getting a calmer foreground has been pretty futile since we were running around like crazy. There's about 12 people moving around in the image. When I have time I may see if I can do another version with a few very select foreground images combined with the aggregate star trails.

I just uploaded a time lapse of two nights here:



The first night doesn't lend itself to stacking but the second clip you'll see is what was stacked to make the above craziness

It is definitely a very chaotic image.

I still like the challenge of using film and doing everything in camera, like this 4.5 hour single exposure I did from a few years back.


The 97 Switchbacks at Night by Kurt Lawson, on Flickr

I want to do more like that. It was shot with rented Mamiya 7's with the 43mm lens on Fuji Provia 100. My 5D3 certainly sees a LOT more stars than that combo did though. It's all fun.

-K



Dec 13, 2013 at 12:46 PM





FM Forums | Landscape Photographer | Join Upload & Sell

    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.