Happy Easter

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

I shot this friday night coming from the SB national Park looking for more ghost forest and went a different way home and saw this. Thought there is a nice easter photo if I can pull it off. Found it very hard to get star trails with a constant light source. Blended many images to get on that looked ok, but still needs much work.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Curly,
Hope you had a great Easter too! Looks like the focal point was just a touch off. You didn't post the specs.....but judging by the trails.....the exposure was around 10 minutes? One option for this was the hand in front of the lens trick......put your hand in front of the lens....as close as possible.....looking through the viewfinder....and block all/most of the light from the spotlight.......depress the shutter.....move your hand slightly around....being careful not to hit the lens......concentrating on the brightest area. I would keep my hand in front of the lens for at least 3/4 of the time.....finally pulling it away. This should make life much easier and tame the brightest parts of the church. No, I'm not nuts (well actually I am:D).....I do it all the time....and it works! Just another tool in the bag of tricks!
PS Split ND's stacked....one diagonally, one upside down vertically, may also work....just move them up and down during the exposure not to get a hard edge/line.

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Thanks Roman as I have not been able to log on to the site for a while and appreciate everything the help from you and Dave