Plan to shoot after 11:00PM to avoid airplanes, start at least 2 hours after sunset and finish 2 hours before sunrise. As temperatures can drop dramatically, especially in the early morning hours after midnight, be prepared for the worst. Make sure you dress appropriately for the nighttime conditions. The new moon phase is also not very conducive but is better than a full moon – it is easier to add light to your foreground than it is dealing with too much light. If it’s a full moon, you might want to wait a few days as the full moon provides too much illumination in most cases. This will be important for exposure (to be covered later). While checking this, also check sunrise and sunset times as well as moonrise and moonset times. Use your lens hood as an additional precaution.Ĭheck the weather forecast – you are looking for a totally clear night. Nothing can ruin a star trail image faster than light pollution, so this also means staying well away from any roadways or any other source of light. In general I recommend 150 miles from a major metropolitan area of 1 million plus, 125 miles from cities of 100,000 to 1,000,000, 75 miles from cities in the 50,000 range, 50 miles from a 25,000 person area, and 25 miles from a smaller town. High elevation areas will reveal more stars than low elevation areas. The location should also be away from artificial light. The best star trail shots have an interesting foreground element and a view of the sky from the east towards the north or west in the northern hemisphere and from the east towards the south or west in the southern hemisphere. Picking the spot for a star trail shot is best done during the day. Preparation can make the difference between a successful shot and a lot of wasted time and loss of sleep. Something to keep you occupied in the dark with absolutely no light.Hat/gloves except in summer – the temperature can drop as much as 20 degrees during a single exposure.A strong flashlight to illuminate foreground subject so that you can compose the shot and/or focus properly.Headlamp to see where you are going and help operate the camera.Other equipment you will need to simplify the process and keep yourself healthy is as follows: It then maps any pixels that aren’t black and subtracts those from the photo, thereby eliminating these falsely rendered pixels. Dark frame or long exposure noise reduction eliminates this by taking a second exposure where no light hits the sensor for the same amount of time. The more light the lens transmits to your eyes, the easier it is to set up the photo.ĭigital cameras can have stuck and false color pixels when exposed for such a long time. You may ask why is such a fast lens needed? It isn’t for the exposure itself since we will typically make those around f/4, but you need it to be able to see your subject and compose the shot. Most cameras will only allow up to a 30-second exposure without either holding down the shutter button or locking the shutter via a cable release. If your battery charger has a deep discharge cycle, use it prior to charging the battery. The battery should not be a battery that is old or nearing its service life (500 charge cycles). Freshly charged warm battery or an external power source – keep the battery in a warm pocket if the temperature is below 50 degrees Fahrenheit to maximize its power.Camera capable of bulb mode and long exposure noise correction (also called dark frame subtraction). The photographic equipment required includes the following: In order to take successful star trail photos, the photographer needs a few items besides the obvious. Tufa Star Trail – Mono Lake California, 45 minutes, f/4, ISO 200 (Polar aligned image – facing north) Equipment
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