![]() ![]() If we keep our framing towards the east, it will allow us to start our photo sequence in-focus and then slowly defocus it between shots. The stars rise in the east and set in the west, just like the sun and moon. In order to make sure this is the case, point your camera toward the eastern half of the sky. This will ensure that the stars will be less and less in focus as they rise and appear to fall like rain in the final composite. Making your exposures Frame your shot looking eastįirst things first, let’s frame up our foreground with a generous amount of sky. Since we will be periodically defocusing our camera’s lens between each shot, we want the stars to “rise” in the sky as we make our exposures. I’m sure there are other options but either of these programs will work perfectly. You can also pick up a free trial of Adobe Photoshop here. Download the GIMP from the official site here. I used Adobe Photoshop CS6 but you can also use the free and open source program called the GIMP. You will need some sort of software to combine multiple images in layers. For this particular image, I settled on 60 second photographs with 2 second intervals between each photograph. Intervalometer (Optional)Īn intervalometer or remote timer will allow you to setup a predictable time lapse sequence of photographs and will allow you to take exposures longer than 30 seconds. If you don’t have a strobe, you can also use a simple flashlight to “paint” the foreground with light. For this particular image, I used a strobe to the right of the frame to light up Diana and the foreground. Strobe or Flashlight (Optional)Ī strobe or flashlight is not explicitly necessary but it’s nice if you want to fill in detail in your foreground rather than having a silhouette. We will be taking about 10 to 20 exposures consecutively and we’ll need the tripod to be in the exact same location from shot to shot. You will want to be careful to not bump your camera or tripod while working. Pretty much any stable tripod will work for this shot. For this image I used a Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) Digital SLR. You will need a camera that can at least support manual focus and manual exposure capability. Adobe Photoshop or the GIMP ( The Gimp is free and open source)Ĭamera with Manual Focus and Manual Exposure Capability.Camera with Manual Focus and Manual Exposure Capability.Let’s take a quick look at how to make this image. The image above uses Andy Chatman’s defocused star trails method to create the comet like effect. If you are a little bit patient, you can get spectacular results. The execution is a little bit time consuming but it’s extremely easy. ![]() ![]() This is cool because it can help us identify what kind of stars we are seeing from blue supergiants to red dwarfs. Andy shows us a very simple method to capture the color temperature of stars by using defocused star trails. The idea for this image is based off of something I learned from a tutorial by Andy Chatman: Photographing the Color of Stars. I haven’t made a star trail image in a while because I’ve been lately concentrating on capturing the Milky Way. And don’t miss our recent story with four great tips for shooting stellar photographs of nighttime skies.An unusual method for photographing star trails creates a rain-like effect. You can find more astrophotography tips on the Milky Way Mike YouTube channel. At that point all that’s left is a bit of cleanup to arrive at the final result. He then adds gradient filters to both the foreground and the sky shots.Īfter exporting the images to Photoshop, it’s a simple matter to eliminate satellite and airplane trails, adjust the opacity of the sky, and merge the star trail layer with the foreground layer. The next step is making basic adjustments in Lightroom to vibrance and saturation, white balance, and sharpening. He explains that the underexposed shots provide more color for the sky, while the brighter images increase foreground shadow detail. In the tutorial below you learn an image-stacking technique for creating dramatic star trail photos of your own.Īstrophotography expert Mike Ver Sprill (AKA Milky Way Mike) begins by importing a number of images shot at different exposures into Lightroom. Star trail photos of nighttime skies are among the most spectacular images captured by astrophotographers. ![]()
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