Great job on this turorial, Floris. I've done quite a few long single exposures startrail images before, with the usual issues of noise and color banding. I've done a couple of basic stacks still with pretty long exposure times of around 15 min. each frame and still had too much noise for large prints, so I'll certainly give this technique a try.
I second all the others about how wonderful your tutorial is. I've read many on this subject, and yours is clear, detailed, and well-informed.
I took your advice into practice and here are a couple samples of mine from rural Arkansas the other night. The moon was almost full at the time, so the barn was well-illuminated.
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6 five minute exposures ISO 400, f/5.6 stacked using your method.
chikku wrote:
Thanks again Floris.
One more question. When doing the stacking procedure, does adding more darkframes make the images less noisy/less hot pixels?
I don't use dark frames, since with the 20D/5D/5DmkII they don't seem to do anything for me. I would guess there's only so much they can do, but sure using a few (and averaging them I guess) might help. Also be sure to shoot the dark frames right after the primary exposures so you have an accurate representation of the sensor/environment temperature.
At some point there's probably not much you can do to fix the noise issues, some cameras are just noisier than others.
I particularly liked the badwater shot, the contrast of the geometric shapes with circular trails of the stars is very effective. The blue tone of the salt adds another dimension to the image as well...gorgeous.
Thanks very much for the helpful technical observations, the thoughtful manner in which they are formulated, and the striking and impressive photographs accompanying them.
I had read that a way to fight condensation on the lens, is to use an elastic to affix some "glove warmers" (such as http://www.safetycentral.com/hot2hanwar.html) around the lens. I haven't tried it yet, but thought it might be worth sharing.
VanIsle wrote:
Thanks for the excellent writeup Floris.
I had read that a way to fight condensation on the lens, is to use an elastic to affix some "glove warmers" (such as http://www.safetycentral.com/hot2hanwar.html) around the lens. I haven't tried it yet, but thought it might be worth sharing.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy, I have heard of this as well - I've never had issues with condensation beyond what a lens hood can't cure, but I'll add it in as I'm sure there's more condensation prone places than the areas I've shot!
