This article will cover the basics on Star Trail Photography. A technique which allows you to capture the effect that the rotation of the earth has on a long exposure photograph featuring the stars. I’ll expand on this at a later date.
Click the images to see them larger (in a new window)
Choose the right night
One of the key parts to taking a good star trail photo is choosing the right time to head out with your gear. To ensure a clean, clear and quality star trail you will want to wait for a night where there are no clouds in the sky and when the moon isn’t visible. When the moon is visible it illuminates haze that is almost always in the atmosphere which will cause your trails to appear a lot duller than they would if there was no moon.
Stay away from the city
A key part to star trails is stay away from any populated areas. After a few attempts at star trails you will probably see that even the smallest light on the ground can cause light pollution. If you aren’t aware of what light pollution is, It’s the glow in the sky you see when near cities or towns. This is much more evident when you are taking a long exposure photo. As a rule of thumb, it is best to head out into the country to get a good star trail.
Camera settings
A basic long exposure setup – Canon EOS 400D
I’m going to assume that you are using a DSLR/SLR camera as I’m unaware of any lower level camera that can handle long exposures (30 minutes or more). Aside from composition, it is very important that you set the camera up correctly, otherwise you will waste a lot of time.
As a basic rule of thumb, keep your aperture large (smaller number). This is important as the light from stars is weak at the best of times, and closing your aperture is just going to make the light weaker on your camera’s sensor. It is a common misconception that you should increase your f/stop to the highest number possible for star trail photography, this doesn’t work, and never will!
A common issue that people encounter when taking long exposures is sensor noise. This will usually be caused by the ISO speed being set too high, or simply a camera with bad noise handling. I tend to stick to the lowest ISO on my Canon EOS 400D, which is ISO 100. Don’t be scared to experiment away from there though. Two photos taken at different ISO speeds and the same settings (including shutter speed) will look a lot different. In some cases it will be the higher ISO shot.
Patience
If you are an impatient person, perhaps this isn’t for you. If you get really into it, you may spend anywhere over an hour on just a single photo. It’s a good idea to find something to do while you are exposing, otherwise you’ll get incredibly bored, very quickly and you’ll probably just end up shutting the camera off and moving on.
A deck chair and an iPod is a good combination, but always a good idea to keep all your senses fully aware when out at night, so maybe not the iPod bit 
.
That’s all for the basics! The next post will cover stacking, a more advanced way to create a star trail photograph.
Comments
Slight correction: you said shutter speed(30 minute or more)..I guess it should be 30 sec isn’t it?
Hi Chitrang,
That was what I intended to say, as generally star trails are only really long enough to make it worth it after that sort of time exposing. I’ve known some cameras to have BULB mode but with a limit on that.
Hi Adcruz,
Ok I got it, Actually in your next tutorial you says to set shutter speed to 30 sec ; thats why I asked;
So how many shots one shiuld take ,ideally, before putting up in software ?
Nice tutorial I must say,
Post some moon scape,snow scape photography if you experinced with it.
Yep, this is the later tutorial is a different technique. This is for the “traditional” way (star trails with just one exposure and no extra software). The later tutorial is about stacking multiple exposures to produce star trails.
Which one produce better reults? I haven’t tried yet probably I will try today or tommorow both ways
It depends really, I often find that the traditional method of single longer exposures are much easier. Mainly because everything is handled in camera which is my preference. Stacking is very good when you find that light pollution is too great to get star trails on a single exposure.
Leave your own comment...