Star Trails from Warraweena

[Phoenix (Steve)]

Hi Folks

Taken on a recent trip away to Warraweena Station, Northern Flinders Ranges, looking south over the Sliding Rock Creek to the distant hills from the shearers quarters. Little over 2 hrs of combined 30 sec exposures, taken with Canon 40D.



Cheers
Steve

[h0ughy (David)]

i like that - a beautiful composition

[leon]

Very nice Steve, really like that one.

Leon

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

i like that - a beautiful composition

+1, very cool.

RB

[Phoenix (Steve)]

Hi David, Leon and Andrew - glad you like it. Thanks for your comments - appreciate it.

Cheers
Steve

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Very nice job Steve, well composed and captured.

I visited the northern flinders last year and I reckon it is an amazing place for nightscapes, can't wait to go there again.

Cheers
Jo

[Phoenix (Steve)]

Thanks Jo. Yes a wonderful place to visit. Plenty of old ruins from times long gone that make interesting photos. Not that I had the opportunity... I was working up there at the time and just grabbed a couple of spare hours during the evening. The moon was at three quarter illumination (waxing Gibbous) - so plenty of illumination to colour the sky and foreground.

Cheers Steve

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Great photo, Steve. Nice to see you getting some time under the stars. Looks like a great place - shame about the moon.

[Phoenix (Steve)]

Thank you Graeme. Nice to hear from you. Good to catch up when we are both free.

Cheers Steve

[rogerg (Roger)]

Nice startrail The only distracting aspects I find is the little bit of light pollution on the left (on the foreground) which I wonder if it could be edited out somehow, and the slightly embossed/3d nature of the tree against the stars, which is curious Love the composition and the trails with blue sky against outback australia foreground

[Phoenix (Steve)]

Hi Roger

Thanks for your feedback. Yes I see what you mean about the light pollution on the left foreground. There was an 'outhouse' just to the left of where I was set up. I was on camp with about 20 students and several times during the 2 hours of exposure the outhouse light was turned on. I also had one person walk into the frame on the left just below the main tree with their smartphone - this effected 5 frames so I had to cut a mask to paste over the top of the effected area (this did not include the tree though) - otherwise I would get a break in the star trails. I usually mask the foreground from the sky and process differently, but not in this case because the moon was so bright. The tree is a little blurred as the wind picked up in the latter frames - the only processing applied to the final image stack was curves and levels (to adjust for modded 40D) and a hint of vibrance.

I had a lot of international students with me on camp who were very excited about seeing the southern cross so I also processed a single frame for them with the intent of blurring and popping out the main stars (attached). In this case I did process the foreground and background differently - a bit of a lazy effort on the mask as you can see around the tree branches - hence the reason why I wasn't going to post... but what the heck...

Cheers Steve

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

There was an 'outhouse' just to the left of where I was set up. I was on camp with about 20 students and several times during the 2 hours of exposure the outhouse light was turned on.

It could be more trouble than its worth, but I wonder about excluding the lit frames from the foreground stack ... of course it makes the whole startrail processing a bit more teadious so I forgive you if you don't want to spend the time on it

Originally Posted by Phoenix

The tree is a little blurred as the wind picked up in the latter frames - the only processing applied to the final image stack was curves and levels (to adjust for modded 40D) and a hint of vibrance.

How interesting - I haven't done many moonlit startrails, perhaps this kind of embossed/shaddow effect is just a product of the tree movement and lit sky background. Interesitng.

Originally Posted by Phoenix

I had a lot of international students with me on camp who were very excited about seeing the southern cross so I also processed a single frame for them with the intent of blurring and popping out the main stars (attached).

Fantastic shot - I love that one

[Phoenix (Steve)]

I think I will do this and compare which one I like - I don't think it would be too difficult to fix.

Originally Posted by rogerg

It could be more trouble than its worth, but I wonder about excluding the lit frames from the foreground stack ... of course it makes the whole startrail processing a bit more teadious so I forgive you if you don't want to spend the time on it

Fantastic shot - I love that one

Yes I rather like this one - again I will reprocess and do a better job of the mask.

Thanks Roger for your comments.

Cheers Steve