[Theme] Star Trail Backgrounds to Classic Scenes

[Seapy]

I have been practicing making star trails, http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,2546.0.html  partly for fun, partly to add another dimension to my photography, yet also with the intention to combine it with making photographs of well known (local) scenes and landmarks.  Making a nice star trail is OK but to me it's an interesting background for a picture, not a picture in it's own right.

There are so many images of Cartmel Priory, Ashness Bridge, Pillar (in the Langdale valley), Furness Abbey etc. to name but a few.  I would like to capture them at night and with a star trail sky.

Tomorrow is forecast a clear night sky, a full(ish) Moon ~86% at it's zenith above my chosen location by Coniston Water about 10pm.  I have used the photographers ephemeris to plot the angle of the moon in relation to my chosen subject, a wooden pier, with  mountains in the background, looking North to  get the star trail circle.  This is a much photographed location but I doubt I will have to jostle in a crowd to get my chosen spot tomorrow evening!

http://app.photoephemeris.com/?ll=54.321908,-3.080227&center=54.3208,-3.0784&z=16&spn=0.01,0.02&dt=20160120215000%2B0000

This is a photograph I took of the pier in February 2010.

Nikon D200, Nikkor 180mm f2.8 @ f8, 1/2500Sec, PP: Adobe Lr-CC

[Jakov Minić]

Robert, I am looking forward to the exact same shot as you posted but with star trails in the background. It sounds like a great idea.
The sea should smoothen up and the peer should add nice contrast and contours to the image.

[Seapy]

Thanks Jakov,  it will be taken from a slightly different place, only a few metres, this picture is looking North West, I plan to aim as close to North as possible, from a little further away, which will move the pier which lies East-West to crosswise in the photograph, I need to do that to get Polaris and the Old Man of Coniston in the frame.  Hopefully I can achieve that without wading into the lake!  OK in July, not in January... I just wish I was using a D3 instead of a D300s, then the Nikkor 20mm would be liberated. 

If the water smooths do I loose any reflections of the pier, I think  so.  I plan to arrive in daylight to get some exposures as night falls.  Maybe some blending, at least if I have the images on the card, I can do something with them if I need to.

[Jakov Minić]

Robert, do me a favor and make both, because I like your initial image so much and I see the star trails in the background. Not all star trail shots have to be shot with a wide angle of view

I have attached an example to illustrate my thoughts
This was shot with 70-200VR at around 130mm for about 4 minutes.
The advantage with a long lens is that you need shorter shutter speeds to achieve the same length star trails.

[Olivier]

It looks like a great place for star trails indeed.
Beware of dew!

[Seapy]

It's one of the 'poster' picture subjects of the Lake District.  The attempt is to do something different from the normal.

I will do my best Jakov, the forecast is not as good now, with mist and freezing fog, but I may get a small window to grab some pix.

Unfortunately my back went on Monday, I should really be tucked up in bed, not messing about in a freezing lake taking photographs!  But we don't get nice, moonlit,  clear nights too often so I guess I will just have to suffer!  I have a nice lamb curry bubbling away, for to warm me up when I get back.

[Seapy]

A rather eventful evening...

My first visit was to the pier on Coniston Water:



It seems I have a bonus...  There appears to be an Aurora display in progress, I didn't realise until I imported the images into the computer!

My second visit was to Lowick Church, the vestiges of the Aurora can just be detected here too.



And finally, for now, one of my favourite trees:

A spike from the Aurora can be seen above the tree, together with the green glow behind. 



These are just  single exposures of  three series I took this evening with quick and dirty processing, I will leave that until tomorrow.

The final drama was while I took the pictures of the tree, I left the cars lights on for about half an hour, when I returned, the car refused to start.  Need a new (bigger) battery.  I tried to stop 6 cars but none would stop, eventually one did, I was looking at sleeping in the car on a deserted country lane for the night.  The car which did stop was the farmer whose field I had taken the photographs from, LOL! He demanded to know what I had been doing in his field!  I explained I was a mad photographer who took photographs in the dark!  He kindly let me jump start my car from his.   

Finally, some sheep...

[Chip Chipowski]

Great shots, Robert.  I especially like the mood of the last one, with the sheep.  Sheep are so hot on NikonGear right now!

[Jakov Minić]

Robert, all of them are just dandy
The Aurora is a true bonus.
I cannot pick between them!

[Andy]

Alps




lake


sahara, truck stop


rgds,
Andy

[Fons Baerken]

Amazing scenes

[Seapy]

Indeed, some remarkable images, thanks for sharing. 

Finally I have finished the Coniston Pier image, the aurora is a bonus, it would have made good time lapse movie but not enough frames to do  anything meaningful, 3 second movies are a bit short. 



Made from about 50 exposures made at 34 second intervals.  I actually had about 75 images but two or three in the sequence are contaminated with light from a passing car, and one from my head torch shone red light on the branch above the camera.

[Erik Lund]

Very cool star trails in this last one, did you do something special to get the trace like that? Longer and longer exposure?

[Seapy]

Hi Eric, thank you, the StarTraX software has the option to create these tapered 'comet' type trails, just a matter of checking the box.  The trouble with StarTraX is that it's not a one stop shop, it only stacks the images.  StarTraX is supposed to have content aware gap filling but I can't get that to work.  During the capture of the individual exposures, occasional images are contaminated by the lights of a passing car, or in one case my head torch made the branches above the camera red.  When you exclude those images from the stack it leaves gaps which need to be filled, which is quite fiddly and time consuming.

I am considering using Photoshop to do the stacking so I can mask contaminated areas of images but I am not sure how to create the tapered comet type trails which I feel add quite a bit to the effect.

[Erik Lund]

I see, thanks!