[Barnster]

Is there any special tricks on taking a star trail with a DSLR,comparing to a film camera, other then putting the camera on a tripod,using B mode,mirror lock,cable release and pointing the camera towards a clear stary night.I'm currently using a K100D,so any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.

[Ash]

G'day mate.

Aint too much more in it, but you'll need a decent set of AAs on your power-hungry K100D, limit your exposures to <40 mins or so (as long as your batteries will take) to avoid battery drainage mid-exposure ('cause then you lose the whole exposure), and set the camera at a low-ish ISO to avoid too much noise (but most important is getting exposure right to record the star as you want them without having to 'push' exposure up in PP, thereby worsening noise).

All the best in that.

Well you've got the basics. DSLR have noise lots of noise when your shooting looooonnnngg exposures. There are a couple of ways round this and they are both very tedious.

1. One long exposure and one long dark frame. This has the problem that is your battery give out part way through the dark frame you loss the photo.

2. Lots of short exposures and stack them later. It takes a long time to stack 100 or more images trust my I've done it. Also depending on the camera and exposure times you will probably still need to do dark frames and the beginning and end but you will not loss the photo if your battery gives out.


Have fun.

[wildlifephotog]

I would first use a 30 second exposure and experiment till you get a good aperture to work with the sky you have there. Then set your exposure for 30 seconds, continous shooting mode, and lock the remote button down. After taking however many shots, you can use Startrails to stack them all. This all cuts noise in the shots.
Startrails application



Edit: And if the batteries do die, you don't lose all the shots.

[Steak76]

As Ash said - pretty much all the same. To try and be clever and save batteries, I turned the in camera noise reduction off and treated it afterwards on the computer, which seemed to work ok, and theoretically doubled the battery life.

[jezza323]

this is a whole lot of 30 sec exposures added together with the startrails application, just to give an idea

[Duck Dodgers]

Stacking short exposures (like jezza there) will often work better than one long one, depending on where you are. Unless you are at a truly dark site, it's all too easy to fog the exposure; moonlight, distant city sky-glow, thin-almost invisible clouds, the sun coming up (or even going down...sometimes we're not too good at judging "dark" ).

[MRRiley]

Care to share your aperture for that photo Jezza. I'm hoping to try this myself this weekend if the sky cooperates.

Mike

[Barnster]

Thanks for all your tips guys.I can now get out in the cold night and start shooting some stars.But I must say,jezza,fantastic final result.How many 30 second exposures roughly did you take to make this shot?!Like MRRiley,if you don't mind letting us know what aperture you had the camera on for this photo would be great.

[Duck Dodgers]

Yep, new moon coming up within the week...that'll help.

[BPT]

Yep, new moon coming up within the week...that'll help.

I tried star trails on a new moon, while the stars turned out well there was no background as it was too dark. I also tried it on a 3/4 moon and a 10 minute exposure came out like daylight with trails

[Duck Dodgers]

I tried star trails on a new moon, while the stars turned out well there was no background as it was too dark. I also tried it on a 3/4 moon and a 10 minute exposure came out like daylight with trails

Wouldn't that be foreground?

[BPT]

No I want to see the background of the stars darn it.

lol ok yes you are right I mean foreground.

[Ratmagiclady]

Film would actually just be a whole lot easier.

[geauxpez]

I agree with RML that film would probably be easier. I did it with a 1950's medium format folder while I slept in a tent nearby. No batteries needed.

BUT, here is the multi-30 second exposure method broken down step-by-step.