First try at Star Trails

[mstrozewski]

Last night I spent hours attempting to get star trails and capturing the stars in general. I was up till 3am. This was my first time attemp at doing star trails(I recently purchased the Canon 7D with the 10-22 lens) and excited on what kind of challenges this can bring me. I'd like to share a still image from one of the 100 shots I got and also the one with the star trails (produced in the star trails software) I am looking for honest, genuine cristism(not harsh) opinions or thoughts...My ultimate goal is go to the Great Salt Lake here in Utah and hopefully capture the sky and star trails from all 288 miles of the lake. Which will be difficult considering I don't own 4WD lol. So Here's my first attemp at capturing the sky and doing star trails. Thanks!!

[Donald]

Mavourneen

Firstly can I add my welcome to those already in the 'New Members' thread and also add my compliments about the quality of work in your website.

I hope you enjoy being part of CiC. And, so that you don't continue to get people asking you what your proper name is, because most us use that on here, you can go to Edit Profile and enter your proper name under 'Real Name'. Then it will appear underneath your Username in all your posts. You can also enter your location so that it does the same, just as in my details alongside this message. Then we all know where everyone is in the world.

Anyway, after all that - I'm not the person to comment on start trail shots, because I've never tried one.

But, on the second one (the long exposure), does it need a bit of a rotation? The lights down at the borrom l;ook as if they are sloping up to the right.

Purely non-technical, but my preference lies with the first shot. I feel the second is a bit 'Oh yeh, another start trail shot' type of image. Whereas, the lighting in the first one is gorgeous. You've packed that image full of mood and atmosphere, in my opinion. You've got the big sky, but we're given the context in terms of its link to the land by being shown signs of habitation and nature.

The one thing I'd wonder about are those small branches in the top right hand corner. Cloning feels like it might be cheating because we would then be shown the nigth sky not as it is; i.e. starts in the wrong place. But for the purposes of exercising artistic licence .....?

[mstrozewski]

Hi Donald, thanks for the tips on the profile info; And While I was aiming at some kind of quality I wasn't aiming to get it completely perfect. It was severely dark outside, so I was trying to use best judgement based on the lights at the bottom, but I wasn't prepared at all for this.

These shots were taken in my backyard and unfortunately we have some trees. I'm not so much worried about the trees in the right corner, I barely notice them, especially in the second one. I'm not one to over process my images, so I won't be cloning out anything in particular. These were test shots to see if I could achieve star shots with the camera.

And you've got a point...the second one does display a cliche star trail shot. I just find it so interesting the way they develop. Thanks for your thoughts Next time there won't be any trees, just a lone lake with a mountain and water.. Thanks again Donald!

[Splatsworth]

Saw these on your FB page and thought they were stunning

[RockNGoalStar]

Hi there Mavourneen, and welcome to CiC.

May I commend you on the quality of your star trails! They are very good indeed!

Some more attractive foreground subject(s) would make these shots much more interesting, but I noticed you said that this was more of an experiment and you weren't concerned about that. So get out there and do it again in a much more picturesque location! I order you!

[Marty]

Hi Mavourneen,
I thought this excellent article and video might be interesting to you and anyone else interested in star-trails...

http://shuttersalt.com/blog/10-examp...-and-how-video

marty

[PBelarge]

Marty
That is a great link, thanks.