stacking photo's

Lynton

Lynton

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Lynton (yes really!)
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Not 100% sure if this is the right area or not, but it kind of fits.

Father Christmas was kind enough to bring me a wireless remote for Christmas - one that works up to 100 yds away, and it can do all sorts.

given it's predicted to be a fairly clear night and it's quite dark around these parts, I thought I'd give star trails a go. (What could possibly go wrong?)

Any astro togs on here recommend some cheap (i.e. £0.00) software to stack the photos together with?

It can be done in photoshop but is very time consuming.

I am thinking the load 100 images in click a button and then leave it to chug away kind of processing. :clap::clap:
 
cheers - just downloaded it - looks simple enough to work out.......... lol....
 
Lynton said:
cheers - just downloaded it - looks simple enough to work out.......... lol....
Click to expand...

Registax may do it? but that's not what it's designed to do. Registax is for stacking and aligning images such as planets \Moon etc. I would look for startrails.de which would do the job perfectly well. :)
 
Why are you layer stacking instead of using a long shutter speed???
I guess you mean the Hahnel wireless romote, yeah it's great, I have one, real handy for self portraits....

Looking forward to seeing the pics. Good luck. Mark.
 
MADDOGHARPER said:
Why are you layer stacking instead of using a long shutter speed???
I guess you mean the Hahnel wireless romote, yeah it's great, I have one, real handy for self portraits....

Looking forward to seeing the pics. Good luck. Mark.
Click to expand...

Star trails can take up to 2 hrs so a long shutter isnt good you just use 30secs and take 120 an hour then stack them
 
MADDOGHARPER said:
Why are you layer stacking instead of using a long shutter speed???
I guess you mean the Hahnel wireless romote, yeah it's great, I have one, real handy for self portraits....

Looking forward to seeing the pics. Good luck. Mark.
Click to expand...

Most people live in an area that doesn't have completely dark skies. Light pollution is bad enough in a lot of places to effectively overexpose the sky after a minute of exposure, depending on aperture and ISO used. Generally when doing star trails a wide aperture and highish ISO are required to capture the fainter stars, so light pollution becomes a very real problem. Stacking is a way to get round this particular problem.
 
Just posted in another thread too, did my first star trails last night. Cheap remote release didn't work so I had to manually press the shutter after each 30 sec exposure for an hour. The following image is the result, from 103 images

6709554415_375b63838e_z_d.jpg


Forgot to add, I used StarStaX, free and easy to use for a total stacking novice like me
 
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ShrubMonkey said:
Just posted in another thread too, did my first star trails last night. Cheap remote release didn't work so I had to manually press the shutter after each 30 sec exposure for an hour. The following image is the result, from 103 images


Forgot to add, I used StarStaX, free and easy to use for a total stacking novice like me
Click to expand...

Oooooooo! I like that... a bit scary too :D (y)
 
ShrubMonkey said:
Just posted in another thread too, did my first star trails last night. Cheap remote release didn't work so I had to manually press the shutter after each 30 sec exposure for an hour. The following image is the result, from 103 images

Forgot to add, I used StarStaX, free and easy to use for a total stacking novice like me
Click to expand...

Nice image. I want to try this soon! What settings did you use?
 
Well I've been interested in trying these for a while and did some reading up and there seems to be some conflicting information out there on the web, some seem to say shoot wide open, others about f8. Some say ISO 800, some as low as 100.

I took the below at f3.5 on my kit lens on my 400d (17mm end)
ISO was 400 then each exposure was 30seconds and I stacked in photoshop (about 111 frames)

There was a fair bit of light pollution even though I was a couple of miles away from Bedford and Kempston but I'm happy for a first attempt.

st001.jpg


What have I learnt?

1. Bring a flask ( I had thermals, hat, gloves, coat etc etc)
2. Save up for an intervalometer (have a remote already but be nicer to set it and basically sit and enjoy instead of having to click every 30 seconds)
3. When shooting north at Polaris like I did, I'd be better off on the east side of an urban area with most light pollution to my back, instead of shooting from the West effectively shooting north but above the light pollution :-/
4. Be aware of airplane trails :-/ I don't mind them too much and there's not a lot I can do about them as Im only 20 miles north of Luton so I was probably lucky to only get three!
 
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Donnie said:
Well I've been interested in trying these for a while and did some reading up and there seems to be some conflicting information out there on the web, some seem to say shoot wide open, others about f8. Some say ISO 800, some as low as 100.
Click to expand...

Generally speaking any advice about exposure settings for exposure is worthless because it's down to personal taste and light conditions, it's the advice about exposure settings for creative effect that you want to be paying attention to.

In the case of stars it would be the shutter speed that matters as it affects how much or how little blur you get, ISO and aperture are just to get the exposure you want.

If you get a wired remote you can just lock the shutter down, no need for an intervalometer. Set an alarm/countdown timer on your phone or something else capable of it and then unlock the shutter when the alarm goes off.
I've got one of these, though mine is the version that fits a 40D.
clarified below I'm talking about having it in continuous drive and a set shutter speed, not bulb mode taking one long exposure.
 
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DazJW said:
Generally speaking any advice about exposure settings for exposure is worthless because it's down to personal taste and light conditions, it's the advice about exposure settings for creative effect that you want to be paying attention to.

In the case of stars it would be the shutter speed that matters as it affects how much or how little blur you get, ISO and aperture are just to get the exposure you want.
Click to expand...

Makes sense :)

If you get a wired remote you can just lock the shutter down, no need for an intervalometer. Set an alarm/countdown timer on your phone or something else capable of it and then unlock the shutter when the alarm goes off.
I've got one of these, though mine is the version that fits a 40D.
Click to expand...

Problem is thats only good if I wanted to simply do 1 x 1 hour exposure, I prefer the method of taking 30 second exposures and stacking them.
 
Sorry, forget to mention it has to be in continuous drive.
What Mark has added is what I was talking about, if you're using a thirty second shutter speed it'll take the shot and then trigger the shutter as soon as it's finished. Then when you unlock the shutter again it'll finish the exposure it's currently doing but won't fire again after that.
 
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I can't imagine I would use anything but the lens' widest aperture for star trails. The idea is to gather as much light on the sensor in the shortest time possible. If you use a narrower aperture, less stars are visible, which surely defeats the object?

I generally use a fairly high ISO, for the same reason. Obviously if you go too high you get masses of noise, which is no good.

Then I settle on whatever shutter speed gives me the correct exposure.
 
Some software only works with jpeg and some works with both raw and jpeg so check that your software will work if you shoot with raw.
 
Before Startstax came out there was no free option for mac so I wrote a plugin for GIMP to do it. Despite Starstax coming out 2 weeks after my release I still maintain it and have added a few new features like the ability to save the in-between frames.

I have a short todo list of things I want to add/fix but currently only real gotcha is the exif is lost but this is a GIMP thing more than mine. I have an idea to fix it but haven't had time/motivation to implement it yet.

Currently you can get it from Google code: http://code.google.com/p/gimp-startrail-compositor/

Just as an aside I live inside the M25 (it's 400m away) and still can get reasonable results using the correct white balance and ISO800. I just set the camera at ISO800 30s and wide open. Sharpness isn't my primary concern with my camera, light gathering it. If I had a newer camera I'd be inclined to up the ISO and open the aperture for a sharper.

ps: I don't have a remote port so just jam the shutter button down with a pebble and a rubber band in continuous mode. Even on RAW the 30s shutter allows the buffer to clear well before the next image comes along.
 
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DazJW said:
Generally speaking any advice about exposure settings for exposure is worthless because it's down to personal taste and light conditions, it's the advice about exposure settings for creative effect that you want to be paying attention to.

In the case of stars it would be the shutter speed that matters as it affects how much or how little blur you get, ISO and aperture are just to get the exposure you want.

If you get a wired remote you can just lock the shutter down, no need for an intervalometer. Set an alarm/countdown timer on your phone or something else capable of it and then unlock the shutter when the alarm goes off.
I've got one of these, though mine is the version that fits a 40D.
Click to expand...

100x 30 seconds stacked will be a lot cleaner than a 3000 sec exposure.



Vass said:
Novice ? :LOL:
Click to expand...

lol

ShrubMonkey said:
Come on, it was my first star trails and stacking shot :)
Click to expand...

yeah, hope you have the box and receipt to get a refund on the camera purchase....... :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
Lynton said:
100x 30 seconds stacked will be a lot cleaner than a 3000 sec exposure.
Click to expand...

You missed the clarification a few posts down, I skipped a key part of what I was talking about :p

DazJW said:
Sorry, forget to mention it has to be in continuous drive.
What Mark has added is what I was talking about, if you're using a thirty second shutter speed it'll take the shot and then trigger the shutter as soon as it's finished. Then when you unlock the shutter again it'll finish the exposure it's currently doing but won't fire again after that.
Click to expand...
 
Just Dave said:
Star trails can take up to 2 hrs so a long shutter isnt good you just use 30secs and take 120 an hour then stack them
Click to expand...

Scarecrow said:
Most people live in an area that doesn't have completely dark skies. Light pollution is bad enough in a lot of places to effectively overexpose the sky after a minute of exposure, depending on aperture and ISO used. Generally when doing star trails a wide aperture and highish ISO are required to capture the fainter stars, so light pollution becomes a very real problem. Stacking is a way to get round this particular problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, that makes sense, I've only done long exposure (30 secs) in the day using ND filters in the daytime, so assumed that in the middle of the night you'd be fine, although I have done a few longish 10 seconds or so in the middle of the night if a particular scene has caught my eye, (normally as you say light polution on a load of cloud with the stars shining through, that sort of thing.... I'm very interested in this tecnique, please do upload some shots if you get any!!! I've been watching that stargazing live, which showed an awesome pic from wales a guy sent in of the Milky Way, something I've said I'd like to shoot for a couple of years now.... They mentioned how he'd layer stacked loads of images, which reminded me of my post here, when I thought, aaaahhh, that must have been what they were talking about.

So do you not have to worry about the effect the cold has on the lens/camera or frost? Cheers, Mark.
 
The biggest help I find with light pollution is getting a decent white balance. I tend to use tungsten which gets rid of most the orange then do the rest in post as I don't yet have a gray card I can use to do it in camera. This done you won't get a 100% natural look it will still tend to be rather purple but then I am no master of WB correction.
 
Thanks guys, I also always shoot raw, so should I be considering jpeg???
P.S. Is there any software that is particularly good that isn't free??? Cheers, M.

Found so far;
http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html
http://www.markus-enzweiler.de/software/software.html (Starstax)

I also got to thinking is there anything alse you could shoot and use this software for, the answer is yes and here are a couple of examples here;
Shot using Starstax, pretty cool....

http://www.flickr.com/groups/starstax/

I'm downloading star stax now, just need some pics....
Here's the BBC guy explaining how it's done;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G83zI-jqvWw&feature=related
 
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maninsuitcase said:
The biggest help I find with light pollution is getting a decent white balance. I tend to use tungsten which gets rid of most the orange then do the rest in post as I don't yet have a gray card I can use to do it in camera. This done you won't get a 100% natural look it will still tend to be rather purple but then I am no master of WB correction.
Click to expand...

I shoot RAW and decrease the orange, red and yellow saturation then increase the black clipping. Obviously if you have anything in the frame that's orange, yellow or red you lose saturation in that but I'm finding it better than using the white balance as that make everything blue.
 
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