Making 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 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 – 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 & 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 Mode - 30s exposures – Long 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 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 - 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.

u Clarity – 35 – 45

u Touch of Vibrance

u Touch of Saturation

u Tone Curve – click the small button and adjust as needed

u White – 78% or thereabouts

u Black – 22% or thereabouts

u Sharpening – 70 – 80

u Sharpening Mask – 70 – 80

u Luminence – depends on noise – 5 – 10

Post-Processing - Lightroom u Sync

u Once image is to your liking, select your first image and then go to the very last image, hit Shift and select it. This will highlight ALL of your images in the set

u Click the “Sync” button and watch as Lightroom copies all of the settings from the first image to all images

u Export

u File – Export your images to a temporary folder

u E:\Google Drive\Photos\Edits\Summit Lake State Park\ST_1_Edit

u Export as JPG - Quality: 100 – Color: sRGB is what I typically use

u Verify Image Sizing is at 300 PPI

u Export your “dark frame” to the same folder

u Go grab a sandwich as this is going to take a while to perform on ~300 images

Post-Processing - Photoshop u May not be needed, but still going to teach the process.

u Adaptive Wide Angle Filter

u Steps

u On the Actions pane, click the small folded piece of paper which will create a new Action (if you don’t see Actions on the History window, go to Window at the top and selection “Actions”. This will bring up the tab”

u Call it what you want: I typically use AWAF#

u Click Record or the small Red button on the Actions pane

u This will now record all actions that you perform in Photoshop to create an Action that can be repeated Post-Processing – Photoshop u Go to File-Open u Select the first image in your ST_1_Edit folder u Verify JPG is selected in the drop down menu at the bottom

u Click OK u Go to Filter – Adaptive Wide Angle Filter

u When the window appears, click on the left side about ¼ of the way up from the bottom and drag your curved line across the image to the right-side, ¼ of the way up from the bottom

u Watch as your image flattens itself out, but leaves some area missing in the corners u Adjust the small circle to where the horizon is level. It will give you degrees, but you can’t follow these too closely as only you can decide what is level for your horizon u Can adjust the Scale if you would like, but it’s going to require more information to “fill-in” the blank areas u Click OK and the filter will apply

Post-Processing - Photoshop u Select the Magic Wand click the “Add to Selection” box

u Select the four corners with no data in them

u Go to “Select” then “Modify” then “Expand” and type in 15

u This will expand your magic wand selection out 15 pixels from the selection

u Go to “Edit” then “Fill”

u Verify it’s on “Content-Aware” and watch as data is filled in the blank areas

u Select anywhere outside of the image to remove the selections in the image

u In the Layers panel, right-click your image and select “Flatten Image”

Post-Processing - Photoshop u Go to “File” then “Save-As”

u Create folder called “ST_1_Edited” using the “New Folder” button

u E:\Google Drive\Photos\Summit Lake State Park\ST_1_Edited

u Open the folder so it’s the location that the image will be saved in

u Select .JPG from the file format list at the bottom

u Click OK

u After clicking OK, the Quality window will appear. Select the highest or 12.

u Close the image

u Hit the “Stop” button on the Actions pane Post-Processing - Photoshop u Now repeat that entire process ~300 times.

u Go to “File” then “Automate” then “Batch”

u Select your “AWAF1” action

u Select your Source which will be the ST_1_Edited folder

u Verify that “Override Action “Open” Commands” is checked

u Click OK and watch as Photoshop opens each image, processes the changes, saves it to the folder and closes out the image on all images

u Go to sleep, catch some lunch, do some errands as depending on your computer speed, this is going to take a while

Post-Processing - Photoshop u You have ~ 300 images processed. Now what?

u Let’s talk about Airplanes / Jets / etc.

u Reasons for non-long exposures locally

Post-Processing - Photoshop u Airplane / Jet Trails - removal

u Look at each image and write down one that has something “bad” in it.

u Could be an airplane trail, headlights, some other anomaly that you don’t want in your final image

u Write down each image #

u In Photoshop, go to “File” then “Open” and individually select all images that have some anomaly in them

u For each anomaly, use the “Paintbrush” tool to paint a pure black line across the anomaly

u As the images are stacked, this black line will disappear into the stack of images

u Save your edited images

Post-Processing – The Stack u Many different ways to perform “The Stack”

u Photoshop Actions

u Photoshop – Manual Lighten

u StarStax

u Mac / PC - http://www.markus-enzweiler.de/software/software.html

u Options for Blending

u Gap Filling mode

u Click the “Open Images” button and select all of your edited images in “ST_1_Edited”

u Click the “Open Dark Frames” button and select your single dark frame image

u Click the “Start Processing” button and watch as your images come together in your star trails image

u Notice that there are corners that have issues. That is the stack of data that was missing in those corners, but fear not, there is data there!

Post-Processing – The Stack u Save your image as “something_before.jpg”

u Head back into Photoshop

u Select the “Spot Healing Brush” tool

u Make sure it’s on “Replace” and “Content-Aware”

u Increase the size of the brush to around 150 and paint over each corner, including some part of the main image. Watch as the area is filled in with data that mimics the lines coming up from the trails.

u Great time to do touch-ups as well with “Spot Healing Brush”

u Spot removals

u Lights you don’t want

u Noise Removals

u Filter – Noise – Remove Noise

u Filter – Noise – Dust and Speckles

Post-Processing – The Stack u More Photoshop

u Perform your image stack / work with your foreground long exposure images

u More Lightroom

u Sync your folder to bring in the new images

u Process any final edits to the image as needed

u This is where you can do some foreground work as well

u Done!

Questions / Me u Site: www.jeffkowalke.photography

u On Facebook, Flickr, 500PX