One of last night's star trails taken when checking a site out. A wonderful location with plenty of potential for both night and daytime shoots. With this images I chose to take a slightly upwards view through the nave to try and capture both the tower and chancel arch whilst keeping the pole star at the top right corner.
It was a long night of nearly a 1000 images taken, taking advantage of the really clear night.
The above image was composed of 80 images at 45s f/2.8 ISO200 for the stars (camera on bulb and used an external intervalometer set to take 80 exposures, 46 seconds apart of 45 seconds duration, 1 second delay between each exposure shouldn't make the star trails too choppy) , the remaining 5 images of varying shutter speed and aperture for the light painting of different sections using a 5W LED penlight/torch.
The processing steps were as follows:
1. Using Photoshop CS3 Extended File/Scripts/Statistics browse for the 85 raw files, stack mode = maximum, not align images (the tripod was weighted and thus stable) and hit go. Beware this created a 14GB Photoshop temporary file.
2. 15 minutes later you end up with a smart image layer. Don't expanded the group or start editing unless you have a 64 bit machine with 8GB installed :-) just flatten the layer straight away.
3. At this point I saved the image as a 16-bit TIFF file with AdobeRGB colour profile to be edited in Nikon's Capture NX. If you choose to stay in Photoshop some final curves work would normally be required, then final output resizing and smart sharpening on the luminosity layer in LAB mode before converting the colour profile to sRGB and saving as JPG.
Black & White higher contrast version here.
More recently taken at a wider angle under full moon conditions.
Daves old pictures, paul (england), and 158 other people added this photo to their favorites.
View 20 more comments
sermatimati 50 months ago | reply
You deserve
another Star!
Seen in Polaris
fionaandneil 50 months ago | reply
Wow - is all I can say! Thanks for sharing the information etc.
--
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Steven Christenson 50 months ago | reply
Wow. I reconfigured my desktop monitor and I realize that there really aren't "jaggies" in here despite my earlier comment. There are slight gaps between the star trail segments but... again. Brilliant! Apparently I can't favorite this twice, though!
Little times! 50 months ago | reply
That's a great, great picture... Congratulations!!!
joxe@n 49 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called NOCHE-NIGHT, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Parkinson Sniper 49 months ago | reply
thanks for the long explanations :)) I printed it...you gave very important info for me there! thanks...
Steven Christenson 38 months ago | reply
Andrew, this is an example of a shot that belongs with other greats in the Best of Star Trails. Please consider adding it to that group.
(I can't favorite it a THIRD time, but I'll try!)
natwaterson 37 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for Astronomy Photographer of the Year, and we'd love to have this photo added to the group!
Andrew Stawarz 37 months ago | reply
Thanks for the request Nat. It's now added...
Leonardo Amaro Rodrigues 35 months ago | reply
amazing composition
Jersey JJ 35 months ago | reply
Amazing image, more amazing math. Congrats to you.
Matthew Stewart | Photographer 35 months ago | reply
Wow, this is just amazing dude, absolutely love it.
joseLPrieto 33 months ago | reply
es ... impresionante!! me encanta ésta foto, felicidades!
David Gimeno Redondo 30 months ago | reply
Impresionante ese encuadre! es un lujo!
Esta foto se ha visto en:
Luces en la Noche
Diana Michaels 29 months ago | reply
Very very good !!!!
Mac_NZ 27 months ago | reply
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing both the shot and the technique.
Jim Purcell 25 months ago | reply
FANTASTIC photo!
@l@in 21 months ago | reply
Génial !
martinphoto11 20 months ago | reply
Wow..............awesome shot
Jim Austin Jimages 9 months ago | reply
YOU'RE INVITED to the Slow Photography Group.
1. Post 1 picture to secure.flickr.com/groups/nohurry/
2. Invite 1 other photographer who practices Slow Photography.
3. What is Slow Photography? Read the discussion threads.
Thx! Jim Austin, Flickr Slow Photo Group.