Star Trails - C&C

[boogschd]

Long story short.. I saw the problem and didn't need a "respected member" to point it out.

so back to my FIRST question, how does it get moved?

and you didnt have to reply that violently either :/
ease up man

@1st question.. it gets moved by the moderators of the forum

 

[Garbz]

I have already asked how to get the post moved ... yet no response.

Not all people will read all things, afterall half of threads is just ramblings. No need to be uppedy.

There's a small button bottom left of a post with an ! in it. That's the report post button. Hit it, report to moderator, and just ask the thread to be moved.

What exactly is a "stacked photo"

Stacking is when several photos are put on top of each other, either adding the result to get the final photo or averaging. What this dose is pull detail out of noise or reduce overall noise. Another cool one is it takes the max value from each image and contributes that to the final. This has the benefit of taking star trails through light pollution.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1353/773160897_fae20200db_b.jpg This image here I took is made up of around 200 30 second exposures with a 5 second gap in between each to allow the sensor to cool a bit. (Since you can burn out camera sensors by taking really long exposures.) Google "ImageStacker" for more info and a program.

 

[Jaszek]

Yea, I do 5 minute exposures, with 5 sec. breaks and stack them. I thin kthe program is called "Image Stacker" lol. This is one of the few I did: Startrails 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Sn00bies]

I myself was curious about image stacking. I somewhat understand the concept, but just wasn't sure how it was done. I thought of trying it through photoshop layers, but couldn't figure out how you would get all the details from multiple layers to show up at 100% opacity (I'm not super educated on layers). Is it possible to do through PS (without spending hours on end) or is the best way through an image stacking program?

I'd be curious to know the OPs method of stacking...

To take all the shots, do you guys use timed intervals in-camera, or do you sit there and actuate the shutter each time manually? I haven't used timed intervals yet so I'm not sure of its possibilities/limitations as far as setting breaks in between, etc.

 

[Jaszek]

I myself was curious about image stacking. I somewhat understand the concept, but just wasn't sure how it was done. I thought of trying it through photoshop layers, but couldn't figure out how you would get all the details from multiple layers to show up at 100% opacity (I'm not super educated on layers). Is it possible to do through PS (without spending hours on end) or is the best way through an image stacking program?

I'd be curious to know the OPs method of stacking...

To take all the shots, do you guys use timed intervals in-camera, or do you sit there and actuate the shutter each time manually? I haven't used timed intervals yet so I'm not sure of its possibilities/limitations as far as setting breaks in between, etc.

I just hook it up to my netbook and in the Canon remote shooting software set the intervals.

 

[astrostu]

I myself was curious about image stacking. I somewhat understand the concept, but just wasn't sure how it was done. I thought of trying it through photoshop layers, but couldn't figure out how you would get all the details from multiple layers to show up at 100% opacity (I'm not super educated on layers). Is it possible to do through PS (without spending hours on end) or is the best way through an image stacking program?

Photoshop does have a layer Blending Mode that is equivalent to "Add," however this will brighten everything. In CS4, Adobe introduced a feature called "Stacks." This lets you create a "stack" out of any number of layers, and then it will FINALLY do image arithmetic on the stack. Once you have your layers in a stack, you can set the stack mode to "Max," which will produce a final product where it will look through every pixel position across all the images and only pull out the maximum pixel value. So where there's a star, it will have a star as opposed to sky because the star is brighter than the sky.

I realize I haven't explained this very well, but that's because there are so many different guides online on how to use Stacks in CS4 ... my purpose was really to give you the terminology so that you can search for it.

 

[Sn00bies]

Photoshop does have a layer Blending Mode that is equivalent to "Add," however this will brighten everything. In CS4, Adobe introduced a feature called "Stacks." This lets you create a "stack" out of any number of layers, and then it will FINALLY do image arithmetic on the stack. Once you have your layers in a stack, you can set the stack mode to "Max," which will produce a final product where it will look through every pixel position across all the images and only pull out the maximum pixel value. So where there's a star, it will have a star as opposed to sky because the star is brighter than the sky.

I realize I haven't explained this very well, but that's because there are so many different guides online on how to use Stacks in CS4 ... my purpose was really to give you the terminology so that you can search for it.

I believe I understand what you explained, at least enough so I can research it further. I appreciate it. I guess I'll have to work on getting CS4 then since I'm still on CS3.

I just hook it up to my netbook and in the Canon remote shooting software set the intervals.

I looked up some software for Nikon - does anyone use NKRemote, or is there some better remote software for Nikon that someone has experience with? I didn't know there was software you could use for interval shots, I just thought you had to do it in camera. That's pretty cool though, definitely makes it more customizable I bet.

 

[astrostu]

Photoshop does have a layer Blending Mode that is equivalent to "Add," however this will brighten everything. In CS4, Adobe introduced a feature called "Stacks." This lets you create a "stack" out of any number of layers, and then it will FINALLY do image arithmetic on the stack. Once you have your layers in a stack, you can set the stack mode to "Max," which will produce a final product where it will look through every pixel position across all the images and only pull out the maximum pixel value. So where there's a star, it will have a star as opposed to sky because the star is brighter than the sky.

I realize I haven't explained this very well, but that's because there are so many different guides online on how to use Stacks in CS4 ... my purpose was really to give you the terminology so that you can search for it.

I believe I understand what you explained, at least enough so I can research it further. I appreciate it. I guess I'll have to work on getting CS4 then since I'm still on CS3.

My apologies -- it was CS3 that introduced this. That's what I run on my laptop and it has Stacks.

 

[Garbz]

I looked up some software for Nikon - does anyone use NKRemote, or is there some better remote software for Nikon that someone has experience with? I didn't know there was software you could use for interval shots, I just thought you had to do it in camera. That's pretty cool though, definitely makes it more customizable I bet.

If you just want to take photos at an interval then get a Nikon remote off ebay. For the $30 I spent it's 6 month battery lasts a lot longer than the 2h laptop battery and is lighter to boot

 

[Jaszek]

I looked up some software for Nikon - does anyone use NKRemote, or is there some better remote software for Nikon that someone has experience with? I didn't know there was software you could use for interval shots, I just thought you had to do it in camera. That's pretty cool though, definitely makes it more customizable I bet.

If you just want to take photos at an interval then get a Nikon remote off ebay. For the $30 I spent it's 6 month battery lasts a lot longer than the 2h laptop battery and is lighter to boot

My netbook stays on for at least 5 hours when doing start trails, even with wifi on

 

[McNugget801]

Yea, I do 5 minute exposures, with 5 sec. breaks and stack them. I thin kthe program is called "Image Stacker" lol. This is one of the few I did: Startrails 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Cool results, guessing that you are using a really low ISO setting with the bright foreground.
Are you using anything for noise reduction?

 

[Jaszek]

Yea I use ISO 100. I'll post three other star trails on my flickr later. The only noise reduction I do is the one in Lightroom. I was amazed myself I didn't get a lot of noise from 5 minute exposures.

 

[Sn00bies]

If you just want to take photos at an interval then get a Nikon remote off ebay. For the $30 I spent it's 6 month battery lasts a lot longer than the 2h laptop battery and is lighter to boot

I actually already have a cable release. What I was more intrigued by was the option to more complexly set the intervals (which I'm assuming is possible through the software?). For example, setting 60 1min. exposures with Xsec. break in between. With just my cable release, I'd have to sit there and manually time each actuation/break. If there were no alternative that would be what I would do, but it sounds like it's not necessary to manually take hours of interval shots when it could all be automated by laptop... is this true or am I misunderstanding the abilities of this type of software?

 

[McNugget801]

For example, setting 60 1min. exposures with Xsec. break in between. With just my cable release, I'd have to sit there and manually time each actuation/break. I

I picked up an intravolometer remote for 35 bucks off ebay.. works great.

For stacking I have been using "Star Trails", it works quite well and is much faster then using photoshop.

 

[Garbz]

My netbook stays on for at least 5 hours when doing start trails, even with wifi on

Yeah but did it cost $30 I get what you're saying. Just adding that there's a very cheap small and light dedicated solution to this.