Star Trails at our local church

n1kcy

n1kcy

Special.....Extra Special
Messages
2,174
Name
Nicky
Edit My Images
Yes
Last night I ventured out... on my own, to an isolated lonely graveyard. It was pretty windy, but I held my nerve against all the spooky shadows and strange howlings and came home with this shot.

Camera: Olympus EM1iii
Lens: 8mm fisheye

ISO1600, f2.8, 40 minute exposure using the cameras built in Live comp feature to combine all the images and I made use of the AF Starry Night focusing (after manually focusing on the church for the initial ambient light shot). I love Olympus for it's clever features, it meant I could sit in the warm car while the camera did all the work.

I'm pretty new to night photography so all critique is welcome. Thanks.

star trails.jpg
 
Cool ;)
I think the star trails are a little on the long side, but overall I like it:)
 
Norkie said:
Cool ;)
I think the star trails are a little on the long side, but overall I like it:)
Click to expand...
Thanks, funny I was thinking I'll go for longer next time. I guess a variety is key.
 
See...... I'm not so keen on these overly wide fisheye style images :ROFLMAO:

But, the church is well lit and the trails are nice though :) Nice one.

I've actually got some 35mm film scans to download which I think have got some star trails in there!
 
LeeRatters said:
See...... I'm not so keen on these overly wide fisheye style images :ROFLMAO:

But, the church is well lit and the trails are nice though :) Nice one.

I've actually got some 35mm film scans to download which I think have got some star trails in there!
Click to expand...
I know what you mean, they are cool a few times and then a bit meh.
The church was lit by a nearby street light and I pulled the sliders quite a bit (probably too much) in LR, I wanted to bring out the tree shadow on the church.
Wow, doing star trails on film must have been seriously challening.
 
n1kcy said:
I know what you mean, they are cool a few times and then a bit meh.
The church was lit by a nearby street light and I pulled the sliders quite a bit (probably too much) in LR, I wanted to bring out the tree shadow on the church.
Wow, doing star trails on film must have been seriously challening.
Click to expand...

The most difficult bit is having the right amount of foreground light to allow a 20-40 minute single exposure for the trails without the subject being blown out too much!

I'm just downloading my most recent film scans right now so I'll have a few good or bad surprises shortly :)

And, believe it or not, with all the night sky, Milky Way, Orion, Constellation, one Aurora (image & timelapse), etc images I've taken..... I've not yet tried actual star trails on digital!
 
LeeRatters said:
The most difficult bit is having the right amount of foreground light to allow a 20-40 minute single exposure for the trails without the subject being blown out too much!

I'm just downloading my most recent film scans right now so I'll have a few good or bad surprises shortly :)

And, believe it or not, with all the night sky, Milky Way, Orion, Constellation, one Aurora (image & timelapse), etc images I've taken..... I've not yet tried actual star trails on digital!
Click to expand...
then what are you waiting for ;)
 
fantastic shot, and fair play for sticking it out, think id have locked doors though :), can I ask how you came to 40mins exposure?
 
eccles lad said:
fantastic shot, and fair play for sticking it out, think id have locked doors though :), can I ask how you came to 40mins exposure?
Click to expand...
Yes, the newer Olympus mirrorless cameras stack the images in camera and display a preview of the final image on the LCD, so it's just a case of looking at the back of the camera and just stopping the image when it looks how you want. It's mind blowing technology.
 
not sure my Nikon d300 does that:cool: ! amazing what's available now, looking to get into astro ,congrats on a inspirational shot
 
eccles lad said:
not sure my Nikon d300 does that:cool: ! amazing what's available now, looking to get into astro ,congrats on a inspirational shot
Click to expand...
If astro is going to be a big part of your photographer, consider a 2nd hand olympus with live comp.

LeeRatters said:
Well, I can't really be bothered to deal with 300 typical timelapse images for a star trail compared to a single film exposure :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Yep forgot about all the image stacking, those where the days
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top