Star Trails

Composite Photo of more than 100 images

Today’s post is about a creative image you can create by combining images in post-processing. I always wanted to create an image of star trails which shows the rotation of the earth and gives the illusion that the stars are moving creating a trail of light.
 
This is one of the more complex images I’ve taken and needs some preparation in order to get the image correct.   You want to be somewhere away from the light pollution of a large city and the idea is that you take hundreds of pictures and then combine them in a tool like Photoshop. YouTube is full of tutorials on how to combine the images, or post a comment if you want details and I’ll be happy to share the entire process.  Essentially, each image will show the stars in a different location and when you combine them all together, it shows a “trail”.  
 
You need a tripod as well as a way to take multiple photos like a time-lapse function if your camera has it built in, or like I did, I had a cable intervalometer attached to the camera. 
 
It’s is important to make sure the camera is in manual focus because the night sky is so dark, if the camera’s autofocus cannot lock focus, the shutter may not fire. 
 
Camera: Fujifilm X-T2
Lens: Fuji XF18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS 
Camera Settings: 18mm. 27sec ISO 1600 f/11

4 thoughts on “Star Trails”

  1. I know you take beautiful pictures. Unfortunately, this picture does not show up well in my PC. If the sky did not have that certain amount of red at the horizon, I would only see a black picture.

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