Making Star Trail Images During Winter
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Making Star Trail Images during Winter By Jeff Kowalke What I will be covering… u Preparation – Equipment, Scouting, Timing u What Camera Settings to Use u How to Focus u How to create compositions u Setup u Post Processing Remember, this is how I do it! u There are countless ways to do things. The items that we talk about today are just how I’ve figured out how to do them. u Most photographers, including myself , are always looking for better ways to accomplish tasks so, if after this presentation, you come up with a way to do something better, please share! That includes any aspect of my talk tonight! Equipment u Clothing – Dress for the weather! u Camera u Canon 70 D with Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5 – 5.6 IS STM u Differences between fast and slow lens u Great Guide for Astrophotography and Equipment u Lonely Speck – How to pick a Lens for Milky Way Photography - http://www.lonelyspeck.com/lenses-for-milky-way-photography./ u Slower lens = star trails u Battery Pack u Contains two batteries = more time out taking star trails, even with the cold u Extra batteries u Tripod u Appreciate my lighter tripod that I hike around with to find a good spot u Intervalometer – extra batteries u Storm Cover u Micro-fiber cloths Misc. Equipment u Tarp u Driving – Car + Mummy Bag or Chair + Tarp + Mummy Bag u Hiking – Tarp + Mummy Bag u Handwarmers – keeping lens and battery pack warm u iPad / Book u Bivvy Bag u Loupe Before you leave checklist u Bundled up? u All extra batteries for camera + intervalometer in pocket near your body – keeps them warm until they’re needed and will last longer u Camera Bag (Backpack for me) = Camera w/ lens to be used attached, Intervalometer, Handwarmers, Hairbands, Storm Cover, Pocket Knife u Tripod u Chair u Tarp u Mummy Bag u Rope u Bottle or two of water u Thermos of coffee or tea Scouting u Mother Nature u Clear Outside - http://clearoutside.com u Leave this tab open constantly and check it in the following schedule u 1 week à 3 days à 1 day à that evening u Constantly check to see if you’re going to have clear skies that night or you may make a drive that doesn’t yield clouds. Scouting u Dark skies! u Some light pollution adds a bit to your star trails in the coloring in the bottom u Little to none is best, but have to get 45 minutes to 1.5 hours away u Dark Sky Finder u http://www.darksitefinder.com u iOS Apps u Dark Sky Finder u Android App – Anyone know of a good one? u Couple Apps that contribute to Dark Sky Loss map -- From Dark Site Finder – www.darksitefinder.com Scouting u Google Earth & Google Maps u Google Earth – Where do we want to go? u Lake Waveland u Check location in Clear Outside u Check Dark Sky Website and App – Think about direction as well u How do we get there? u Google Maps u Find location on Google Maps u Print out Map and Route or Save it to your mobile device in case you lose signal u *Important* - Safety u Share link with friends / family when you arrive so someone knows where you are u Can go alone or with friends u The Photographer’s Transit – Sister app to TPE – Very cool! u Map based shot planning tool u https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-photographers-transit/id668449546? mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Scouting u Timing u Get to your location during the day if possible u Scout out composition ideas and then setup for star trails u Capture Sunset – Golden Hour shots u Blue Hour – broken down into several areas depending on the suns location Civil Twilight u Brightest phase of twilight u Lasts from when the sun dips below the horizon and lasts until the center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon u Lasts around 30 minutes u Golden to pink tones Nautical Twilight u Occurs when the center of the sun is between 6 and 12 degrees below the horizon in the evening u Lasts around 30 minutes u Deep blue tones with some orange and yellow hues Astronomical Twilight u Occurs when the center of the sun is 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon and degrades over a period of 30 minutes until night time begins u Also a good foreground time, but going to require longer exposures to capture the foreground u http://digital-photography-school.com/beyond-sunset-the- differen-phases-of-twilight/ Apps to Track this u Photo Sundial u https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rick-sammons-photo-sundial/ id689328812?mt=8 u Sun Surveyor u https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sun-surveyor/id525176875?mt=8 u The Photographers Ephemeris u http://photoephemeris.com/tpe-for-ios u Android and PC as well Camera Settings u Depend on the camera u For me, this is my balance for settings u 10mm or whatever I think is best for the composition, but I have a tendency to go wide u f/5.0 or as wide as my current lens will allow to capture as much light as possible without having to raise the ISO so high u ISO 1250 -1600 – on moonlit nights this can be lower u Bulb Mode - 30s exposures – Long Exposure on Intravalometer u Interval – 1s – use longer intervals for creating time lapses u All about experimentation! u Camera Settings u 10mm u f/5.0 u ISO 1600 u 30s exposures u 2s interval u Camera Settings u 10mm u f/5.0 u ISO 1600 u 30s exposures u 1s interval How to Focus - Day u First thing is turn off your Autofocus and work ONLY in manual focus. That’s going to prevent the camera from adjusting the focus when you have it locked in through the steps I’m going to show you u Turn off your anti-vibration features on your lens – that helps later as your camera is going to be on a tripod and it’s not needed u Open lens wide to maximum aperture u Focus on object in the distance – trees, light u Use Live View to fine focus and this will ensure your stars and foreground are in focus How to Focus - Night u Option 1 – Light on way to location (no moon) or on location u Distance from light to camera? The longer the better u Open lens to maximum aperture u Use ISO that is going to be used during star trails or higher if needed u Use Live View to focus in on light until it becomes a pinpoint of light u Lock down focus ring with tape and place camera back in bag u Requires Gaffers tape (tape that leaves no residue behind) u If have headlamp or torch, walk a great distance away and use it to perform your focus How to Focus – Night u Option 2 – Stars or Moon u Open lens to maximum aperture u ISO u Moon - ISO used during star trails u Stars - Highest ISO possible u Live View u Moon – zoom in and focus in on moon until it is a focused with no blurring u Stars - Zoom in on brightest star and focus until star is pinpoint of light or tiny speck with no blurring Compositions u Star Trails - Polaris or not? u Sky Guide - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sky-guide-view-stars-night/ id576588894?mt=8 Compositions u Up to your imagination u Google Earth u Find a location u Zoom in and look at what could create a good composition u Drive there u Verify or create something new u Long Exposure photography – foreground – Experiment! u Light Painting - foreground Setup u Tripod – Setup for composition u Figure out timing on how many images to capture u Winter Startrails – around 300 images or 2.5 hours u Staying Warm arrangements u Tarp / Bivvy Bag around Mummy Bag – use rope on tarp if needed u Gear at end of tarp, but covered (Camera bag, Tripod Bag) u Carhartts / Jacket at end of sleeping bag – but inside u Camera Settings u Intervalometer Settings u Setup handwarmers – hair bands (no stick like rubber bands and won’t freeze) – Lens and Battery Pack u Setup viewfinder cover – on camera strap u Setup Storm Cover – over camera, tripod, intervalometer Setup u If you’re Foreground work is done, take 1 30s exposure by hitting Start / Stop once on intervalometer u Zoom in or use Loupe to check for Composition, Focus, Stars, etc. Re-do as often as needed until you like what you see u Once ready, hit start on the intervalometer u Listen for multiple exposures or look for your back screen to light up for 1 second as the exposure finishes and starts anew u Mine will show the level in my camera for 1 second and then go to next exposure u Make occasional “Red Light Checks” to verify the camera is going u Snuggle in with iPad, book or catch some sleep u Set alarm for when your exposures will finish u Frost Check Setup u Finalize u Dark Frame u Final longer exposure shooting – no blue hour, but have star light and moon light if available for longer exposures u Head home or stick around for further compositions Software u Adobe Creative Cloud u $9.99 / month for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom u https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html?promoid=KLXLR Post-Processing - Lightroom u My Process – yours may be different! u Import the images into Lightroom u “Separate the wheat from the chaff” – frost checks, bad exposures, head lamp on foreground, headlights, etc u First image is where your Settings will be on – Remember, this is how you want the image to look u Enable Profile Corrections – check tab for lens – may fix all! u Remove Chromatic Aberations u Exposure – adjust as needed, typically up u Contrast – adjust as needed, typically down u Highlights – Hit J and move these down to correct as needed u Shadows – adjust as needed u Whites – Option / Alt key – Depends on image – move until dots appear u Blacks – Option / Alt key – Depends on image – move until dots appear Post-Processing - Lightroom u Settings cont.