Star Trails

[vishaljadhav]

For some time i have been thinking of doing videos of the sky movement, and hence thought doing star trails might be a good way to start .
this one is a second attempt at getting star trails.

148071

Done with a 5D MIII + Samyang 14mm 2.8 at 2.8, ISO 1600, each exposure of 30 seconds and 150 such exposures. Stacked in StarStax and finally converted in Photoshop.

These were the base files for my milkyway timelapse.

let me know what you think about it.

cheers
vishal

[Don Railton]

Hi Vishal

I'll be honest and say I am not a big fan of these, but.. I quite like this one. I like because it has some detail FG elements, the lake/river and the glow provide enough of a base for the image so the concentric rings have some context, and the purple glow appeals.. 150 images huh, that's a lot of effort...

DON

[dankearl]

Way, way too gimmicky for me.
These need to be subtle to have any interest I think, while your techs are fine and I have and really like the lens you use, the trails
are way too bright.
The only saving grace is the FG, sorry......

[Diane Miller]

I absolutely love the ground, and how it fades out into that glow at the horizon! (Even though the effect may be due to air pollution...) Would love to see the time lapse!

For just regular trails to be assembled into one static image, I find I can get away with ISO 200, 3 min exposures at f/4 to 5.6, 1 sec intervals. Stack in PS in Lighten mode. But of course that isn't the best for a time lapse as it shows trailing. Lens distortion is so prominent at wide angles, and can be avoided by placing Polaris in the center of the image then cropping for composition. But you would lose too much of the interesting composition here if you did that.

[Don Lacy]

I like it but i am into this type of image, I think it s well composed and I like the sweep of the star trails

[Andrew McLachlan]

Well thought out and composed but I am also thinking that the star trails are much too bright. While I do like star trail images I find the way these ones stop abruptly at the horizon to be a little bothersome.

[TimothyGriesel]

I like it the idea and execution but am not a fan of the processing, seems you've used a bit to much noise reduction to me.

I would also look at removing the random dots to the bottom left of the center spiral, just above where your FG meets the stars and the stars to the right of your center spiral.

But otherwise, nice work