Startrails.de. Any expert users on here?

mickledore

mickledore

Messages
9,372
Edit My Images
Yes
I’ve downloaded the Startrails.de programme, and have produced this shot:-



Startrails by Frank Yates2010, on Flickr

This was 76 30 second exposures - 38 minutes. It’s only a trial for a “proper” shot I’m after which will need a 2 hour time slot for 240 exposures.

The Startrails programme doesn’t seem to have any help pages, and Google searches only show conversations between guys who seem to know how to use it. So is there anyone out there who can answer a few, probably very simple, questions?

1) Even with just a 38 minute shooting period I have managed to get quite a few hot pixels. No lasting damage, but if I work for 2 hours is this likely to be a problem, and if so how do I stop it happening? (Camera is a 5DII). They don't show up very well on the flickr image, but on the original they are most definitely there, as are a couple of light trails from passing aircraft, and two (2) shooting stars!

2) The programme shows a feature called Foreground (averaged). What is this for? Is it automatic? If optional how is it applied or removed?

3) What is the Dark Frame feature used for? I presume this is just taking a shot with the lens cap on, but some conversations I’ve read refer to using upto 10 dark frames. What for, and how is the feature used or applied? Would this reduce the orange cast to the sky, which is odd given that there was little interference from street lighting?

Has anyone on here used this programme and know what I'm talking about, and if so can you give some guidance?

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Thats a nice trail first trail. Now to get some foreground interest (y)

Q1 - I can't see the hot pixels on that photo but it's not something i worry about much.

Q2 - no idea what the feature does

Q3- Dark frames are there to help reduce noise. You take a handfull of exposures at the end of your trail with the lens cap on. Then when you load the images into startrails you load your photos as normal and then load the dark frames. Startrails will do the rest for you.
It won't help with the orange cast to the sky. To adjust that you need to change the white balance to cool it down to reduce the oranges.

Another star trail program you can use is StarStaX http://www.markus-enzweiler.de/software/software.html . Alot of people on here prefer to use that over startrails.de
 
Ditch startrails for StarStaX as said above.

Dark frames are a good idea in theory but I've never felt the need to use them.

Otherwise, sound advice from the man above :)
 
That's a great start!
Pretty sure the orange cast is light pollution;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top