Dooralong Star Trails

[iceman]

Captured on Friday night out at Dooralong, this star trails consists of about an hours worth of exposure. Unfortunately the lens fogged up after that!

Each exposure was 30s, f/4, ISO1600 with the Canon 40D and 17-40mm lens. Stacked using StarStax.

Larger less compressed version here: http://goo.gl/0GmBP

[niko]

Mike,

Is the tree a single image superimposed over the final trails shot? If so, could you provide a few details on how you achieve this?

Many thanks

Niko

[iceman]

It's not a single image but it's a composite of a separate stack from a little earlier on.

But ultimately, yes, it's a blend of a stack for the foreground and a stack for the stars.

I simply used layer masks in Photoshop. Topaz Re-Mask is an awesome masking tool.

[gregbradley]

Very nice Mike.

A simple anti fog solution is a strip of aircell insulation wrapped around the lens with a rubber band before you take the camera outside. It keeps the lens a few degrees above ambient.
You can also stick on those heat strips you can buy from a Chemist.

You need to have infinity focus taped down before all this though.

Greg.

[niko]

Thanks Mike

Can you go into a bit more detail about the layer process?

If the tree is in each shot I presume it would be a bit blurry and larger than a single shot because of the blur therefore how do you deal with that when using the masks?

Cheers

Niko

[AstroJunk]

Yup, I'm hooked on nightscapes. It's really great to see the thought going into composition in astrophotographs, as well as being great to take them! Lovely.

[iceman]

Thanks guys!



I've invested in some USB hand warmer gloves and a AA-powered USB power source that I can take out in the field next time. I also have some chemical hand warmers from the chemist, but forgot to take them with me on that night.

While changing dew shields I accidently bumped the zoom range so some of the later ones were at 20/21mm instead of 17mm.



Hi Niko. The composition of all shots was exactly the same. There's no blur - the tree wasn't moving.

I've attached a screenshot of the image in photoshop with the layers.

- The 1st vibrance layer isn't doing anything, I just didn't delete it.
- Layer 1 Copy is the foreground - you can see the layer mask where the white is the visible part. It's the same image essentially, taken from a different stack - more of a lighter foreground.
- Layer 1 Copy 2 is just a copy of the background, with the blending mode set to 'color' to bring some more colour back into the sky
- The top 3 adjustment layers are just personal take for colour, saturation etc.

I hope that helps!


Thanks heaps! I love it too, can be both relaxing and stressful, but always fun.