Nighttime airport

[Foxx]

Is there any way I can keep star trails from forming other than upping my ISO/using a wider aperture?

Also any other C&C is appreciated

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[timphotos]

Cool photo! I know some address star trails via photoshopping... But I gather your not wanting to edit?

[FRK]

Definitely a cool photo, I can hardly notice the grain on the photo from the ISO, what settings did you use?

[Frequency]

Simply marvelous !!!!!

[SCraig]

Is there any way I can keep star trails from forming other than upping my ISO/using a wider aperture?

Also any other C&C is appreciated

Not with a 20 second exposure. The Earth moves and causes the star trails. It's amazing how much it actually does move in a short period of time but the star trails point it out clearly.

[Forkie]

Great shot, but where's the airport?!

[Foxx]

Great shot, but where's the airport?!

My friend is standing on the end of the runway, I was setup on the hillside slightly below it. The lighting is coming from a tower on the opposite end of the runway.

[Compaq]

I've visited this thread frequently this day, and that image still won't load!!!


What you need to escape star trails is simply a faster shutter speed. Also, keep in mind that stars trail "faster" on longer focal lengths. A star moves across the frame four times as fast on 40mm than on 10mm. Another thing to remember is that the stars appear to move around the north star. Stars close to this star moves "slower", and stars longer away move "faster". So, with that in mind, check which part of the sky you're shooting, and at which focal length, in addition to your normal exposure

[Patrice]

Double post - sorry.

[Patrice]

You can calculate how fast your shutter needs to be to avoid star trails. The earth rotates 15 arc degrees in one hour. This means that a star will rotate around the north star at a rate of 15 arc seconds in every second of time. The arc length of that movement is dependant on how far away from the north star the object star is. The lens you use has a field of view stated in degrees which can be converted to any other circular measurement so its easy enough for you to figure out how many units of circular measure are covered by each pixel of your sensor. As you've noticed by now this is dependant on focal length of the lens. Your shutter speed needs to be such that the arc length of the star's movement does not go across more that just a few pixels. The amount of pixels is determined by the image viewing distance and enlargement.

[r a y]

This is absolutely beautiful! Well done!

[manaheim]

I've no clue of the answer to your question, but the shot is very neat.