View single post by Robert
 Posted: Thu Jan 21st, 2016 09:53
Robert



Joined: Mon Apr 2nd, 2012
Location: South Lakeland, UK
Posts: 4066
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 After a few distractions, last night I managed to make some star trail pix, it seems for digital the long exposure isn't needed. Even for bodies which perform poorly in low light, by taking multiple exposures and stacking them, either in Ps, or some other software like pano or StarTraX, which is free, although as you may expect for free software it isn't free from foibles! However StarTraX does a pretty good job and has several interesting useful features, it's also pretty quick.

One thing I have learnt is that Nikon 30 second shutter speeds seem to be 32 seconds, not 30, which does make sense when you double numbers up from 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. It causes problems when you set the intervalometer to 31 seconds and the shutter to 30, which is actually 32 (ish). The answer is to set the intervalometer to 33 or 34 seconds.

This is the post processed image before the star trails were added in the stacking software, the image was then straightened and adjusted in Ps.



After stacking and adjustments in Ps. This is a straightened and adjusted star trail photograph of Lowick Church.



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Robert.