yes, great stuff Floris,
have being trying out your advanced blending and iam not quite sure what iam doing, dosent seem to make that much difference. i presume that the CMD key is the Ctrl key for use pc users?
could you put this in to a action to share? maybe usefull if you have lots of images or as thick as iam
Good work on this Floris. Well instructed and detailed. I am not fond of star trails particurlarly but I'm going to save your instructions and try.
Randy
Great work on the tutorial. I have tried one star trail in the past. But with your tutorial I feel that I will be more prepared to do more in the future. I think that tutorials like this one are a huge benefit to the FM community. Can the moderators or even Fred himself dedicate a separate page for tutorials like these?
parsons wrote:
yes, great stuff Floris,
have being trying out your advanced blending and iam not quite sure what iam doing, dosent seem to make that much difference. i presume that the CMD key is the Ctrl key for use pc users?
could you put this in to a action to share? maybe usefull if you have lots of images or as thick as iam
iam sure it works, just need some help
simon
I'm not sure how to write an action to work with an arbitrary number of layers like that.. if someone does I'd be happy to work with them to put that together.
The command e is just to combine the two layers - so after you set layer-1 to screen, select it and layer-2-copy, and combine them using merge layers (which is command e on mac).
doigal wrote:
I'm reasonably sure someone has scripted or put the steps you described into an action for photoshop to chew through without you having to do all that work (might be helpful if you have 200+ 30sec shots!)
Either way, great tute!
I haven't seen one that does my advanced method, as far as I know, I invented that method :P But it would be wonderful if someone knew how to script stuff wanted to try putting that together!
Daniel K wrote:
What is your interval between shots? I did 15 min exposures with 20 second intervals and had small but noticeable gaps in my trails. I did the intervals shorter than what was recommended to me to allow time for the sensor to cool down. Does anyone know how long the sensor retains heat? I use a mark 3.
I use 1 second, to minimize gaps. If you're not shooting star trails, ie. doing astrophotography on a telescope with a rotating base it is quite possible that it's recommended to have a longer time between shots for that very reason, but for star trails you need a continuous exposure. I forgot to note that you need to turn long exp. noise reduction off, and mirror lock up off, I'll add that in somewhere..
I appreciate the time and effort you put into this tutorial. Star trails are one of my favorite night time subjects. Looking forward to putting your tips to good use!
This is a great article, and I'm very grateful for it. I wanted to do a startrail shot for so long, but I never found a real oportunity for it. This is the best incentive to make me think harder and do it. Thank you!
I hope you will find a magazine that will publish it and you get the reward you deserve
Very long and extremely informative. Thanks a lot for the effort, I'm sure many of us will find this extremely helpful. Also, many thanks for posting the illustrative images too. I remember your "essence of time" shot from a while ago and searched everywhere to see it again (the fact I forgot who posted it didn't help at all .
Thank you for the tutorial. I saw your Badwater Flats image in the landscape thread on you favorite image of the year and decided to experiment with star trails. Now I don't have to experiment quite so much . Very well put-together-superior to many magazine tutorials I have read.
You're awesome for taking the time to write this tutorial and sharing your knowledge. The sample images you've provided are great complements to get those interested, like me, inspired to go out and try it for themselves. Much thanks.
floris wrote:
I haven't seen one that does my advanced method, as far as I know, I invented that method :P But it would be wonderful if someone knew how to script stuff wanted to try putting that together!
I'm hoping to get a clear night on an upcomming trip to tasmania next month, if I do i'll have some RAWs to work with! I know a bit of scripting but havnt done any with photoshop before, certainly if it can be scripted i'm happy to give it a crack when i get back in march.
Probably the easiest way to get around the random number of layers is just to ask for the input at the start. I dont know if 'shop can do this.
Also, whats your opinion of lots of 30sec shots vs a few 30min shots?
Absolutely great presentation - I have done a lot of night work over the past 15 years, but there's so much more that I got from your tutorial. Well done, and thanks!
