I didn't take much photos since I came back from New Zealand, so I was itching to go out again. Decided the weather is slightly warmer and so I headed out towards Murrumbateman. I have been keeping an eye on some poppy fields out there but they haven't fully bloomed yet, and also waiting for the right light.
Anyway this time I headed out at about 10pm (takes about 30 minutes from Canberra) on a clear night and this is the result.
There is more than one way to do startrails, but this is my preferred method.
My system:
Intel Core i5-2500 3.3GHz
RAM: 8GB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Software: Adobe Lightroom 4.2, Camera Raw 7.2, Photoshop CS6
Equipment used:
Nikon D90
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 (You will need a fast lens like f/2.8)
Tripod
Intervalometer/timelapse remote control (to automate shooting)
Weather and setting up:
Wait for an absolutely clear sky. Any clouds in the sky will ruin the startrails, but in some cases the cloud streaks may add effect to your photo, provided they are not obstructing the startrails. Also avoid full moon nights, as this would mean faint star trails.
Also keep an eye on dew point in the area you're going to photograph. Dew point is temperature at which water in the air condenses and fog up your lens. So never head out if the temperature is close to dew point.
Some startrails would give you circular pattern and this is due to the presence of north and south poles. If you're on Android there is an app called Google Night Sky which tells you where the poles are as you point your phone towards the night sky. As a rule of thumb the South Pole is quite close to the Southern Cross and the North Pole (Polaris) is part of the constellation Big Dipper.
Once you have located the poles, centre them in your camera so that so can get circular startrails around the poles. Or you could aim somewhere in between the two poles to get an image like above.
Startrails are often nice if there is a nice foreground to complement the image. This could be trees, rocks, reflection of the stratrails from a lake etc. Much like landscape photography, without a foreground startrails will lack in composition.
Camera settings:
ISO: 1250
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure: 40 second exposures, 1 second apart - You will have program this on your intervalometer
Make sure to set your camera in Bulb mode in Manual
Manual focus to infinity.
Number of shots: Usually I will take between 130-150 shots. The more the better to get long lines but it depends on how long you want to wait.
Set up your camera, then take a nap or read a book while the camera is clicking away. This could be an hour or more depending on how many shots you want to take.
In lightroom:
Do the usual such as profile correction for your lens, and remove chromatic aberration (both options are on the right sidebar in Develop module, under Lens Correction)
Also change the white balance to daylight to bring out the colours later.
The easiest way to do this (without having to do for each 130 photos for example) is to profile correct, remove chromatic aberration and change white balance for the first photo, and then select all 130 photos and hit the sync button in the right sidebar, in Develop module.
Once the settings are synced across all 130 photos, right click in any one of the photos with all 130 photos still selected, and Edit in.. > Open as layers in Photoshop.
Please be patient, refrain from clicking anything. I waited close to 2 minutes before the first image started appearing in Photoshop and it took more than 5 minutes to open all images in Photoshop.
In Photoshop:
Select the first image, right click and set Blending option to Lighten. Now right click again and copy the layer style.
Next select all the other images, right click on one of them and paste layer style.
Photoshop will do its thing, and depending on how many shots you have, this could take a while.
Once its done, you will see your startrails photo on screen. Flatten image and save a TIFF.
OPTIONAL: You could post-process further in Photoshop to arrive at your final cut but I prefer to do it in Lightroom. Things I would play around is White Balance, sharpness, contrast, vibrance and saturation.
That should do it. Simple isn't it?
My previous startrail shots here and here.
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