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| Changed the white balance |
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| Removed the camera shadow |
Star Trails are a lot easier than you think. Five things you must have:
1. Camera with bulb or time mode.
2. A shutter release or a wireless remote.
3. A good steady tripod.
4. A way to find celestial North or South. I use Google's sky map app on my smart phone.
5. Time. These are good to do with a partner.
To start, you obviously need a place that has little to no traffic. Car headlights can ruin a photograph in a hurry. If possible, find an interesting for ground. I used a camping area for the photographs above. Next, place your camera on the tripod at your desired location. Then use whatever tool you have to find celestial north/south and line up your camera. This might take a few minutes, and do not worry if you are not exactly lined up. As you can see in the photos above, my camera is offset from celestial north.
Now that you are lined up, set your remote. Set your lens to manual focus and put it on infinity.
At this point, you can run some test shots. Leave your shutter open say 1-2 minutes. You will get short trails, but you will see how your alignment is set and you can adjust to your liking.
Once you are ready, there are two ways to accomplish star trails.
1. You can take a bunch of 2-5 minute shots and combine them in Photoshop. Start your ISO at 400-800, and your F Stop at F/5.3. Make your adjustments accordingly. Your goal is to get the sensitivity just right. Every camera shoots just a little different from the other. More importantly, the lens you are using will dictate many of your settings. With option 1, fighting noise is not bad and you would not need a remote as long as you have a time-lapse option
2. You can take a 30min to several hour single exposures. If you plan to shoot a single exposure, start your ISO at 50-100 and your F-stop to F/11. Using that set up for 1-2 minutes will not show a lot, but it should show enough to know where you need to place your camera, if it needs adjustment. Using option 2, you will have to fight noise in post process. However, there are some great programs to eliminate noise from your photo. An example would be Topaz Labs DeNoise. This is one of my favorite plugins for Photoshop.
I wish I could tell you the exact settings for your camera, but it truly is trial and error. Moreover, that takes some of the fun out of it. This will help you learn your camera. Once you get comfortable shooting star trails, you might mix in some light painting or change your white balance. Little things like that can change an ordinary photograph into a stunning piece of art.
