Ed
I have to turn LENR on which unfortunately a shot as long as your exposure with every exposure) in Nikon, canon has the advantage of shorter dark shots.
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Optimum kit for star trail photography
- Thread starter Ed Hurst
- Start date
I have to turn LENR on which unfortunately a shot as long as your exposure with every exposure) in Nikon, canon has the advantage of shorter dark shots.
I have found that if you just want to leave the camera open for one long exposure, the Canon's are a better solution. With a single long exposure, you have to have long exposure noise reduction on, (not for noise, but for stuck pixels,) it has nothing to do with traditional digital noise. The longer the camera stays on, the more stuck pixels you will get. These may or may not be taken out by LR as it seems to be very dependent on the file/camera. For sure you have to be shooting a raw file if you shot as jpg the only way to get them out is to manually do a dark frame subtraction in photoshop and I have yet to find any of them that really get the stuck pixels out as they seem to leave a halo or shadow.
Canon will allow you to buffer even the long noise reduction dark frame. You can more than likely get 3 40 minute shots off back to back with Long noise exposure one, after the 3rd, you will be locked out for about 20 minutes, until some of the buffer is freed up. With Nikon if you have it on, you are locked out until the dark frame is finished.
Gaps,
You will get gaps even with a single exposure. I have read many reasons for this but on a single frame they are very faint. If you stack, you most definitely will get a faint gap. This effect can be again very faint and seems to be made less or worse with selected aperture. There are a few software tools to remove the gaps, and the one I use is call startracer. It's very inexpensive and works only on a windows platform. Takes a few tries to get a hand on it and it seems to be very selective on colorspace. I have had a few problems using it with anything else by sRGB images. But it for sure works.
Ed, nice shot, nothing wrong with that one.
Paul Caldwell
Canon will allow you to buffer even the long noise reduction dark frame. You can more than likely get 3 40 minute shots off back to back with Long noise exposure one, after the 3rd, you will be locked out for about 20 minutes, until some of the buffer is freed up. With Nikon if you have it on, you are locked out until the dark frame is finished.
Gaps,
You will get gaps even with a single exposure. I have read many reasons for this but on a single frame they are very faint. If you stack, you most definitely will get a faint gap. This effect can be again very faint and seems to be made less or worse with selected aperture. There are a few software tools to remove the gaps, and the one I use is call startracer. It's very inexpensive and works only on a windows platform. Takes a few tries to get a hand on it and it seems to be very selective on colorspace. I have had a few problems using it with anything else by sRGB images. But it for sure works.
Ed, nice shot, nothing wrong with that one.
Paul Caldwell
Shashin
Well-known member
You can get a telescope dew heater. One design is basically a velcro strip.
Search for in - Oceanside Photo & Telescope
Folks also have made dew heaters which are really low-power "heaters" using simple resisters.
I also have a padded camera coat that keeps the dew off the body. Any camera rain jacket will do/dew that.
Ed Hurst
Well-known member
There seems to be some slight difference in the advice/info. above with respect to whether or not Nikons can shoot a long sequence of shots of say a few minutes without shooting a dark frame after each shot... My hope would be to disable this function (if that is possible), shoot no dark frames within the sequence at all, take a long sequence of pictures (up to a few hours continuously - perhaps 2-3 mins exposures each), then shoot a single dark frame after those shots are all done - and use that to correct all of the main shots. Is that possible?
GrahamWelland
Subscriber & Workshop Member
Personally I have no problems with shooting multiple 4 min exposures for star trails with 1s intervalometer gaps (MC-36 - can't avoid it) without dark frames. I guess it depends on your preference regarding any background noise but it definitely works.
I ran this one for I think it was 2 hours - I need to go back and reprocess it to drop the background brightness as it's too "daylight" for my liking now (it was on my gallery so convenient!) but this is from the D800 taken in the summer. Noise isn't really the issue, particularly if you go darker too.
I ran this one for I think it was 2 hours - I need to go back and reprocess it to drop the background brightness as it's too "daylight" for my liking now (it was on my gallery so convenient!) but this is from the D800 taken in the summer. Noise isn't really the issue, particularly if you go darker too.
Here are two from a year or so ago, 1st is a 45 minute single exposure with a P45+, conditions this night were ideal for this shot as temps were around 40 degrees F. Moon was setting as you can see part of the bluff is in shade. The 2nd is about a 20 to 30 minute single shot from a Canon 1D MKiv. This shot was taken with a 15mm fisheye, and angled up to accentuate the effect. The bouncing lights were a group of hikers with head lights on. The moon had almost totally set, as can be seen by the darker blue in the color of the sky. Most of light was from the huge bonfire.
Paul Caldwell
Paul Caldwell
GrahamWelland
Subscriber & Workshop Member
Here's my one test shot from last night. The back was glazed with frozen dew after two hours at 25f. Some haze on the lens too due to condensation. The biggest issue I note is that colour moire is entering in to the trails with the P25+.
Alpa TC, SK 47/5.6 45min/f5.6 @ ISO 50.
Alpa TC, SK 47/5.6 45min/f5.6 @ ISO 50.
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This guy does a great job explaining how to do star-gazing photography.
Star Shooting Tutorial — LIGHTSHOP
Scroll about midway down the page for a great video.
Star Shooting Tutorial — LIGHTSHOP
Scroll about midway down the page for a great video.
GrahamWelland
Subscriber & Workshop Member
If you shoot with a P+ back out in the cold or for long exposures I can highly recommend the CH-910 external battery pack/charger. You can attach two batteries, including the much larger video camera ones, to the unit and put it in a small bag along with a couple of hand warmers and shoot for ages. Last night I was shooting for two hours and the unit basically was less than 50% used even in freezing conditions.
The other good thing is that you can use the same unit as your charger and so I tend just to take this on the road with me in the bag when I travel. (The cautious side of me also has me stash one of the dual chargers in my checked luggage just in case).
They only seem to be available used these days and so you have to be sure to get the battery pack cable. Most of the ones I see listed don't seem to have this and so it's just a dual charger without it. The battery plate attachment for the back is the Canon DC920 which you can find on Amazon.
The other good thing is that you can use the same unit as your charger and so I tend just to take this on the road with me in the bag when I travel. (The cautious side of me also has me stash one of the dual chargers in my checked luggage just in case).
They only seem to be available used these days and so you have to be sure to get the battery pack cable. Most of the ones I see listed don't seem to have this and so it's just a dual charger without it. The battery plate attachment for the back is the Canon DC920 which you can find on Amazon.
viablex1
Active member
Man this guys shots are really well done
All sizes | Circumpolar Stars over GTC | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
matto
All sizes | Circumpolar Stars over GTC | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
matto
Ed Hurst
Well-known member
After I received so much excellent advice and generously given help, thought you guys would like to see a couple of shots I took two nights ago. Not strictly relevant to this forum since they are shot with a 5Dii, but a neat follow-on to the discussion above...
[/url]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0091-165(plus168ForLightSceneAnd170DarkFrame)Step9CurvesSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0009-84(Plus0005ForLightScene)Step9sRGBSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0091-165(plus168ForLightSceneAnd170DarkFrame)Step9CurvesSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0009-84(Plus0005ForLightScene)Step9sRGBSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
Ed Hurst
Well-known member
STARTRAILFROMFILES_MG_0176-211(PLUS212FORSCENEAND218FORDARKFRAME)STEP12V2(STRAIGHTPERS)TidySmall by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
Ed Hurst
Well-known member
Sorry guys - tweaks I made on my Flickr page made the links not work... Here they are again:
[/url]
STARTRAILFROMFILES_MG_0176-211(PLUS212FORSCENEAND218FORDARKFRAME)STEP12V2(STRAIGHTPERS)TidySMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0091-165(plus168ForLightSceneAnd170DarkFrame)Step10SpotSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
[/url]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0009-84(Plus0005ForLightScene)Step9sRGBSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
STARTRAILFROMFILES_MG_0176-211(PLUS212FORSCENEAND218FORDARKFRAME)STEP12V2(STRAIGHTPERS)TidySMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0091-165(plus168ForLightSceneAnd170DarkFrame)Step10SpotSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
StarTrailFromFiles_MG_0009-84(Plus0005ForLightScene)Step9sRGBSMALL by eduardotunnel4, on Flickr[/IMG]
GrahamWelland
Subscriber & Workshop Member
I looked at the big files over at Flickr and these are stacks.
Nice job with the interesting foregrounds and blending those in.
Nice job with the interesting foregrounds and blending those in.
Ed Hurst
Well-known member
Thanks Graham!
The help you guys have given has been much appreciated.
Yes, these shots are all stacks. Depending on the picture in question, the individual exposures were between 15 and 90 seconds each.
As for how different trail colours are being rendered despite using a normal 5Dii, I can't answer that. I'm just pleased it happened!
Planning to try a D800E next weekend (weather permitting) for comparison.
The help you guys have given has been much appreciated.
Yes, these shots are all stacks. Depending on the picture in question, the individual exposures were between 15 and 90 seconds each.
As for how different trail colours are being rendered despite using a normal 5Dii, I can't answer that. I'm just pleased it happened!
Planning to try a D800E next weekend (weather permitting) for comparison.