Bit of advice on a start trail

cymruchris

cymruchris

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Chris
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I had a wander into the wilderness last Friday night as the lunar calendar said it was a moon free night - and after studying star trail tutorials - I went off and had a go.

I set my camera on a nice sturdy tripod, got the wide lens on, set a nice wide aperture - did all the techy stuff right - and then set the intervalometer to shoot one 60 second exposure followed by another for 60 minutes.

I've then used both photoshop and a stacking program to try blend all the images together - and from a distance - they look pretty ok.

Close up though it seems like quite a few dots/dashes along the trails - not quite the smooth line I was expecting - see the example here.

Am I missing something obvious? Or is that just to be expected?

star-ttrail-large-wth-crop.jpg


small-sample.jpg
 
Did you have in camera noise reduction turn on by any change? That could cause the gap.
 
Nope - noise reduction of all types was turned off as I'd read that could have a negative impact....
 
IIRC there will be a gap between exposures if using an intervalometer. May only be one second but that could be enough. Have you tried using a remote release, setting the shutter to continuous and then locking the shutter button open? There will he a gap here but it is very much smaller than an intervalometer.
I'll try and dig some of thus winter's shots out to try and illustrate it.
 
Right; this first one was done with an intervalometer. Don't know if you can see through the compression but there are hints of gaps all along the trails.
Ribblehead by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

These next two were done with a remote release and the trails are pretty continuous. They show better on the full size versions so if you can't see through the flickr compression you'll just have to take my word:)

Formby Point by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

Jimmy Lowe by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr
 
You're right - There was a one second gap between exposures as the intervalometer did it's thing - but would have been surprised if that was enough to cause the dot dash effect? That's a good suggestion on the locking option and continuous though - hadn't thought of doing it that way.
 
Can't really zoom in that much - but what you've said makes a bit of sense - even though I didn't expect it to have that much of an impact...
 
The Ribblehead shot was the first time that I've used the in camera intervalometer. I had reservations over the 1 second delay, but others on here said that it wasn't a problem. So I tried it and I don't like the results. That's why I went back to continuous locked on shooting. Won't be using the intervalometer for trails in future.
 
Makes sense - I didn't realise it would have so much impact. I'll have another go on the next new moon night if it's clear - and this time try the method you've mentioned - continuous drive and locked shutter release... Thanks for posting and helping me understand a bit more :)
 
Yes - I tried Starstax - and Photoshop scripts - pretty much the same result with both....
 
@mickledore is spot on with the one second gaps. I had it when I used an intervalometer for the first time. Soon ditched that. Just lock down a wired remote, just remember to reset the remote as most Nikons have a 100 shot limit. You can do this at anytime by releasing and relocking the button( not sure which system you have though). Also you can use the moon to your advantge to light up the foreground interest. The following shot was taken on a quater moon high in the sky behind my back.

148GannelStarTrail59MinsPS2 by Martin Coomer, on Flickr
 
Nikons have a limit do they? Most of my trails are 2 hours long and with 30 second shots that makes 240 exposures or so.

I used to use Canon and am now on Fuji and have not come across this limitation before.
 
mickledore said:
Nikons have a limit do they? Most of my trails are 2 hours long and with 30 second shots that makes 240 exposures or so.

I used to use Canon and am now on Fuji and have not come across this limitation before.
Click to expand...

Most Nikons including my D750, D7100. 100 shot limit. PITA. Just have to remember to release and relock the remote before the limit is reached. Only the higher end D810 D4 etc are without this limitation.
 
I use Canon - so based on the above shouldn't be an issue - let's see next time around...
 
Well as I'm in the middle of a wet season - I was lucky to get a clear sky on Friday night - but will keep a watch on the weather, and the size of the moon, but may be a while before I get another chance :) Now's good for lightning shots though....
 
When you let StarStax process your images, did you use the Gap Filling blending option..?
If you did, it is adjustable.
If you didn't, see if that helps..

:)
 
I had a fiddle around with the settings - didn't seem to make much visible difference as far as I could see though :)
 
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