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Archive 2013 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

river rover
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

140 frames shot at f5.6 and 25 seconds on Rokinon 14. Lessons learned:

Wait until WELL past sunset to start. Exposure differences from even residual light an hour after sundown can affect exposure.

Find out whether your subject lies in a major airway corridor.

Even a small amount of wind wreaks havoc on trees over several extended exposures.

http://www.laughingtotemphoto.com/img/s4/v9/p701757522-5.jpg

Now I know.

Edited on Nov 01, 2013 at 08:52 AM · View previous versions

Oct 31, 2013 at 08:28 PM

Joe_A
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

I'm no expert in start trails, still have to try it out, but if that's your first attempt, I'd hate to see (in a good way

) what you'll come up with in the future. To me that is a fantastic photo and a really good choice of foreground, even though you were probably unlucky with the light streaks (airplaines?).

Oct 31, 2013 at 09:30 PM

JimFox
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

Hey Mark,

Nice work with your first try at star trails. It's a learning process that one can only really learn by doing. This one looks nice, though the airplanes are sure a pain. Now did you try processing different amounts of the stacks? For me, 60 mins is too long generally speaking. Course it's all individual. But when stacking them, usually for me anywhere from 10 mins to 30 mins looks the best. One thing I think about, is if the star trails fill the sky so much that you can't really see the sky, then it's too much...

Again, it's your personal preference. But how about stacking a group of 25 of your shots. Find a group where the airplanes are not as active, then you can just clone out what few airplane trails that there are.

Jim

Nov 01, 2013 at 12:50 AM

JohanEickmeyer
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

This would have also been sweet as a time lapse, which is still possible, albeit a short one. I think the stars along with the movement in the tree and planes flying by would combine for some fun visuals.

Hope you can post some more shots like this soon!

Nov 01, 2013 at 04:13 AM

river rover
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

Jim, when I was running it through StarStax. It was building and I started thinking ,"Um OK. You can stop now." I was honestly surprised at how full the sky got. I'll run it through the first half or so again and see how that looks.

Johan. Now THERE's an idea. I should be able to get about 4seconds of sunset and star rise.

Nov 01, 2013 at 05:32 AM

psharvic
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

RR, you certainly have a great foreground to work with.

Nov 01, 2013 at 06:05 AM

river rover
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

http://www.laughingtotemphoto.com/img/s4/v11/p394736579-5.jpg

OK so I used the first 60 or so images which lightened the overall exposure. I also focus stacked a bit in the forground to help with the worst of the needle blur. Lost some contrast and the cooler cast though. Thoughts? Am I overpolishing a... well, you know.

Nov 01, 2013 at 08:54 AM

camboman
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

I like the one with less trails, but I just want to see it darker, closer in overall brightness to the first one.

Nov 01, 2013 at 09:02 AM

river rover
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

One mOre edit to bring the contrast back.

http://www.laughingtotemphoto.com/img/s8/v83/p92537544-5.jpg

Nov 01, 2013 at 09:23 AM

nburwell
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

Personally, I like the most recent edit you posted. I also like your original image as well. The planes can be a real pain. I have learned to go out after midnight, and that usually reduces the frequency of planes entering your frame.

For this being your first time at star trails, I think you did a great job. Surely better than my first time. Like Jim mentioned, the more you get out and do it, the better you will get at it.

-Nick

Nov 01, 2013 at 11:41 AM

JimFox
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

Hey Mark,

The most recent edit is the best here. Less is sometimes more when it comes to star trails. One suggestion with the movement of the pine needles. Since you are in reality stacking a bunch of shots to make this one anyway, I would say to take one single shot of that group, where the needles, branches, etc are the sharpest, and then use that one single frame to blend in for the foreground. Let the star trails come from your stacked group, and then let the trees be from 1 single shot from that group. That should help solve the movement issue.

Jim

Nov 06, 2013 at 09:56 PM

dgdg
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

if you have trouble with peripheral artifacts from the moving tree while blending with the single tree image, you can resize the tree, making it a bit larger, covering over unwanted things.

Nov 07, 2013 at 09:54 AM

river rover
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

I went back and looked for a frame where there was no movement. Short answer, they all had a lot of movement on the right side. It was like a mini wind storm there!

Nov 07, 2013 at 10:07 AM

camboman
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

I really like the last one - everything works!

Nov 07, 2013 at 10:10 AM

Matt Tilghman
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · First Attempt at Startrails.(Rev added)

KILLER first attempts!

Nov 07, 2013 at 10:19 AM


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