Album Night Shots and Star Trails

Peekaboo Arch, Canyonlands National Park

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I went out last night and shot my first star trails!!! :D I'm mostly happy with the results with it being my first time and all... Anyway, feel free to critique my photos, I'm a noob at this and would love some feed back.

So here's about 15-20 mins worth stacked. I didn't have too entertaining of a foreground. I was wondering why the starts seem so thick?
stackedImage.JPG

Here's one of the stills. Lens 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 (basic kit lens). 30 secs exposure, Iso 1250, F/5 (brand new camera and I couldn't figure out the aperture)
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HomerJ said:
I went out last night and shot my first star trails!!! :D I'm mostly happy with the results with it being my first time and all... Anyway, feel free to critique my photos, I'm a noob at this and would love some feed back.

So here's about 15-20 mins worth stacked. I didn't have too entertaining of a foreground. I was wondering why the starts seem so thick?


Here's one of the stills. Lens 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 (basic kit lens). 30 secs exposure, Iso 1250, F/5 (brand new camera and I couldn't figure out the aperture)
Click to expand...

Nice man! Like Wes said, dial in the focus. On most non-kit lenses there is a focus mark for infinity for when the lens is wide open, that is where I set mine since it's so hard to focus in the dark. Since the kit lens doesn't have that, try what Wes suggested or figure out where your infinity mark is by focusing on a distant object and making a tiny mark or observing the position. Then just set it there later when you're doing trails.

On aperture, set your came in full manual mode. That will give the ability to control the aperture, ISO and shutter speed independently. Using the lowest/fastest aperture available for the lens is critical. And keep in mind on a lens like that that does not have a fixed aperture, it is only f/3.5 when the lens is wide open at 18mm. If you were zoomed in a bit, say at 35mm, the lowest aperture would probably something like f/5. Maybe that is why you couldn't set it lower.
 
ibenick said:
Nice man! Like Wes said, dial in the focus. On most non-kit lenses there is a focus mark for infinity for when the lens is wide open, that is where I set mine since it's so hard to focus in the dark. Since the kit lens doesn't have that, try what Wes suggested or figure out where your infinity mark is by focusing on a distant object and making a tiny mark or observing the position. Then just set it there later when you're doing trails.

On aperture, set your came in full manual mode. That will give the ability to control the aperture, ISO and shutter speed independently. Using the lowest/fastest aperture available for the lens is critical. And keep in mind on a lens like that that does not have a fixed aperture, it is only f/3.5 when the lens is wide open at 18mm. If you were zoomed in a bit, say at 35mm, the lowest aperture would probably something like f/5. Maybe that is why you couldn't set it lower.
Click to expand...
Thanks Nick!!! Too bad it's going to be cloudy for a while now.... I missed that bit on the focus and making a mark, thanks! :twothumbs:
 
wes242 said:
I haven't messed with this program much yet, but did it make the clip for you too? Its pretty sweet!
Click to expand...


Yes and No.
The stills for the second lapse of the growing trials were created with starstax but I rendered them in Sony Vegas. Pretty raw stuff in the video...came out darker then the SOOC images.
 
Summit said:
Yes and No.
The stills for the second lapse of the growing trials were created with starstax but I rendered them in Sony Vegas. Pretty raw stuff in the video...came out darker then the SOOC images.
Click to expand...

I messed around with it a little bit and see that you can have it save a file after each stack. Then I can load it into my video program to make the clip. Thats pretty dang slick!
 
Mine headframe near Yucca, AZ. The moon was a little too bright for this shot, but I tried anyways. I was also pressed for time, but had I not been , I would have framed it differently.
 
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