Tutorial Photography Guide: Star Trails

[MWHCVT]

Looking at the weather It looks to be a clear night tomorrow so I shall head out, I have in mind a old rusty tractor on a field to use as a foreground so will have to give it ago tomorrow and will share my results

Sounds fantastic as a foreground interest, I do love a rusty tractor especially with a little coloured gel work

 

[inyourface]

Hi mat

What size memory card would you suggest using?
at the moment i only have a few 8gb ones but can order a bigger one

 

[MWHCVT]

Hi mat

What size memory card would you suggest using?
at the moment i only have a few 8gb ones but can order a bigger one

Personally I use a 16gb and I shoot RAW only and that can generally handle 500ish exposures on my 5D3 but to be honest before that I only had 8gb cards in my 450D and I never ran into the issue of running out of space...that said for the price of them its probably worth picking up a couple of 32gb cards, I'll probably be buying a couple myself soon as I need to buy a couple to replace a card I lost :bang: what are the file sizes like on your 5200? So long as your current cards can handle 240 photos that will see you with a two hour set of files, more than enough for a star trail

 

[inyourface]

tbh i dont know how to find out the file size lol
but its set to jpeg and raw and i usually fit about 150ish on a 8gb so if i set it to just raw i should get a few more ?

 

[MWHCVT]

tbh i dont know how to find out the file size lol
but its set to jpeg and raw and i usually fit about 150ish on a 8gb so if i set it to just raw i should get a few more ?

Just raw I would guess should get you around another 50% more photos I'd guess, based on my own experience...so I'd guesstimate that would put you at about 225ish which is more than enough for a star trail, personally I like to try and do at least a 30 minute set of exposures as my minimum as it gives you a decent amount of trails

 

[inyourface]

of to Devon next saturday so im hoping i can get a couple half good trails.
got alot of reading to do first though.

 

[MWHCVT]

of to Devon next saturday so im hoping i can get a couple half good trails.
got alot of reading to do first though.

Oh some cracking dark skies down that part of the world it should be really good..

 

[Ros]

First attempt! Lots of light pollution but still quite pleased with it. No processing apart from cropping. Will leave it for longer next time.



image by RosNapier, on Flickr

 

[MWHCVT]

First attempt! Lots of light pollution but still quite pleased with it. No processing apart from cropping. Will leave it for longer next time.



image by RosNapier, on Flickr

I think that you should be very pleased with it, that is clearly an urban/city environment which is about the hardest of locations to great stunning results from simply because of the levels of light pollution...I like you've captured here however would like to see slightly more of the city scape at the bottom of frame

 

[Ros]

I think that you should be very pleased with it, that is clearly an urban/city environment which is about the hardest of locations to great stunning results from simply because of the levels of light pollution...I like you've captured here however would like to see slightly more of the city scape at the bottom of frame

Thanks Matthew. I cropped the bottom because it was taken from my balcony in the middle of a large modern development and there's a few apartment blocks inconveniently in my way!

 

[MWHCVT]

Thanks Matthew. I cropped the bottom because it was taken from my balcony in the middle of a large modern development and there's a few apartment blocks inconveniently in my way!

Fair enough guessed it would likely be something along those