Caribbean Night Photography : How to shoot Star Trails
12th February 2013
Caribbean Night Photography
How to shoot Star Trails
Star Trails are one of those areas of photography that always seemed a bit gimmicky and not too difficult to get a reasonable result, so this week, with the clear Caribbean skies above me, I decided to have a go and see how I got on.
Technique: The aim was to produce a star trail image, not a time lapse sequence, although this came out of the process. I already knew the basics of the two main techniques from past work, but the most popular and in my mind, the better technique, is to take a series of shots at 30 second intervals and then combine them in software in post processing, which I cover later.
The benefit of this technique is that you can easily take a test image, and if you understand the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Speed, then you wont even have to wait 30 seconds : simply up the ISO for the test shot. Also, by shooting for only 30 seconds rather than 30 minutes, you reduce the noise, can check on the images as they come in and you get less noise pollution.
As you are taking pictures of the sky, you will want to use a wide angle lens and I went for my Sigma 10-20mm lens @ 10mm - as wide as I can get. You will also want the lens reasonable wide open, to allow in lots of light, as even with a sky full of stars, the amount of light is not that great. I used F5.6 for this first series.
Composition is a very personal thing and although you can use all of the standard rules like 1/3rds, its entirely up to you what you have in the frame, but some foreground interest is a good idea.
Location is also key. Its best if you have a location with not too much light pollution, although this can be minimised in post production, its better if you capture the best shots you can upfront. My spot was on top of a ridge, overlooking the channel between Bequia and St Vincent and I was surprised at the amount of background light pollution coming from Kingstown, which had to be 'turned down' in post processing.
I use a Nikon D7000 which has a Intervalometer, allowing me to shoot a series of images automatically, in this case, 30second shots, at an interval of 5 seconds to allow the file to be written to the memory card.If your camera doesn't have this function, you can buy third party Intervalometers quite cheaply.
File format is again a big issue and whilst you can do this with JPEG, I would always recommend shooting in RAW. The amount of flexibility RAW files give you is so much more than a JPEG. Post processing in software like Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw or Photoshop gives you much more latitude when dealing with RAW files and in Lightroom, you can develop one image, then copy the settings to the remaining sequence, saving huge amounts of time.
So, to setup, I visited the location during the day, got my bearings and found out where North was, as I wanted to have the North Star in my frame, as all the stars rotate around it. It just so happened that it was easy to line up North behind the single tree on the ridge.
Once the tripod was set up sturdily, I focused the lens using hyperfocal focusing, turned it to Manual, F5.6, 30secs and then took a series of test shots at differing ISO's to see which was best. In this case ISO800 was needed to capture the stars well enough. ISO800 did give quite a lot of noise, but this again can be removed in post processing either with Lightroom or with third party products like Noiseware.
Setting up the Intervalometer to take 100 shots, 30seconds a frame with a 5 second interval and then off you go. The you wait..... On this occasion as the location was remote, exposed and windy, I went back to the car and read a book for the next hour, checking on the camera an periods during the shoot. You will need to keep yourself occupied while the camera does its thing, so take a book, kindle etc.
The tree in this shot was very dark and I had already decided to light it during the shots at the end of the sequence using a torch, to bring out some detail in its trunk and leaves. However, after about 45-50mins into the shoot, the heavens opened and the rain poured down - a typical Caribbean storm. I grabbed the camera and ran back to the car.
I will cover the Post processing in another blog post.
How to shoot Star Trails
Star Trails are one of those areas of photography that always seemed a bit gimmicky and not too difficult to get a reasonable result, so this week, with the clear Caribbean skies above me, I decided to have a go and see how I got on.
Technique: The aim was to produce a star trail image, not a time lapse sequence, although this came out of the process. I already knew the basics of the two main techniques from past work, but the most popular and in my mind, the better technique, is to take a series of shots at 30 second intervals and then combine them in software in post processing, which I cover later.
The benefit of this technique is that you can easily take a test image, and if you understand the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Speed, then you wont even have to wait 30 seconds : simply up the ISO for the test shot. Also, by shooting for only 30 seconds rather than 30 minutes, you reduce the noise, can check on the images as they come in and you get less noise pollution.
As you are taking pictures of the sky, you will want to use a wide angle lens and I went for my Sigma 10-20mm lens @ 10mm - as wide as I can get. You will also want the lens reasonable wide open, to allow in lots of light, as even with a sky full of stars, the amount of light is not that great. I used F5.6 for this first series.
Composition is a very personal thing and although you can use all of the standard rules like 1/3rds, its entirely up to you what you have in the frame, but some foreground interest is a good idea.
Location is also key. Its best if you have a location with not too much light pollution, although this can be minimised in post production, its better if you capture the best shots you can upfront. My spot was on top of a ridge, overlooking the channel between Bequia and St Vincent and I was surprised at the amount of background light pollution coming from Kingstown, which had to be 'turned down' in post processing.
I use a Nikon D7000 which has a Intervalometer, allowing me to shoot a series of images automatically, in this case, 30second shots, at an interval of 5 seconds to allow the file to be written to the memory card.If your camera doesn't have this function, you can buy third party Intervalometers quite cheaply.
File format is again a big issue and whilst you can do this with JPEG, I would always recommend shooting in RAW. The amount of flexibility RAW files give you is so much more than a JPEG. Post processing in software like Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw or Photoshop gives you much more latitude when dealing with RAW files and in Lightroom, you can develop one image, then copy the settings to the remaining sequence, saving huge amounts of time.
So, to setup, I visited the location during the day, got my bearings and found out where North was, as I wanted to have the North Star in my frame, as all the stars rotate around it. It just so happened that it was easy to line up North behind the single tree on the ridge.
Once the tripod was set up sturdily, I focused the lens using hyperfocal focusing, turned it to Manual, F5.6, 30secs and then took a series of test shots at differing ISO's to see which was best. In this case ISO800 was needed to capture the stars well enough. ISO800 did give quite a lot of noise, but this again can be removed in post processing either with Lightroom or with third party products like Noiseware.
Setting up the Intervalometer to take 100 shots, 30seconds a frame with a 5 second interval and then off you go. The you wait..... On this occasion as the location was remote, exposed and windy, I went back to the car and read a book for the next hour, checking on the camera an periods during the shoot. You will need to keep yourself occupied while the camera does its thing, so take a book, kindle etc.
The tree in this shot was very dark and I had already decided to light it during the shots at the end of the sequence using a torch, to bring out some detail in its trunk and leaves. However, after about 45-50mins into the shoot, the heavens opened and the rain poured down - a typical Caribbean storm. I grabbed the camera and ran back to the car.
I will cover the Post processing in another blog post.