CaptainNapalm
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2012
- Messages
- 796
- Reaction score
- 143
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Hi guys. I'm currently enjoying the next few days at the cottage and the weather here is great. No humidity, warm weather and clear skies. With no city lighting around it creates a perfect setting for capturing some star trails. Yesterday I carefully picked a spot which I thought would work well for creating a pleasant photo and although I'm not totally displeased with the results what bothers me is that the star trails themselves don't stand out as much as I see they do in some other photos taken by others. This photo was taken on the edge of my cottage property. I was pointing at a neighbour's property which was surrounded with trees and all his cottage lighting was off with the exception of a mild driveway green light which I thought would add some interest to the photo. As for composition, I wanted the bottom of the photo to show the green light and I wanted slightly less than half of the image to show the irregular tree line with the rest of the photo left for star trails. I also composed the photo such that the centre of the star trail rotation would sit within the upper right frame of the photo just at the tip of the tree line. As for technical aspects, I shot at 18mm, F/8, ISO 100 and the exposure time was about 15 minutes. With respect to the star trails not being so pronounced, would it have helped if I found a spot with absolutely no artificial lighting around and exposed for longer, say half an hour? Also, I am always paranoid of negatively impacting my sensor by exposing for more than 15 minutes. Is it safe for me to expose for say 40 mins at a time? Lastly, what techniques can I employ in post processing to improve the end result of such a photo? I use PSE. I'd really appreciate any advice, thanks in advance.

