post your best photo ideas

[btaylor]

Star trails are always an interesting subject. Maybe we can have a few new shots from folks around here.


There's a couple of different methods and they really depend on your gear. Stacking using an application like photoshop or the startrails app is a good way of keeping noise down and reducing your in-camera processing time. It also means you get a few chances to get the shot you want and is more versatile for controlling ambient light filtering into the shot.


The other way is to take one very long exposure. I find it gets a better result with the 5D2 than stacking, there's something smooth about the transition of light across the sky. The problem here I suppose is if you take a 2 hr exposure it will generally take another 2 hours to process the photo in-camera so a battery grip or ac power is a must. That also limits the number of attempts you get to take the shot you want.


Here'sa coupleof mine from a while back to kick it off. I'll try to get out over the weekend for another but it's been very cloudy here of late so the sky's not exactly visible. It's been a while since I've had a go at a good night shot so it might be nice to get back out in the middle of the night and see what I can get.


As a side note - light painting can always be incorporated into a star trail shot.


Canon 40D, Canon 10-22mm @ f/3.5 and 11mm, ISO 250, 426 x 10sec exposures stacked in startrails. Foreground lit up using a mag lite.



Boulia Star trails by Ben__Taylor, on Flickr


Canon 5D2, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L @ f/4.0 and 24mm, ISO 200, roughly 2 hr single exposure



Busy night by Ben__Taylor, on Flickr

[nvitalephotography]

nice shots, I may have to try the stacking images method. I never tried doing it that way. Feel like it would be a lot better for getting a correctly lit foreground.

[Sean Setters]

You know my passion is outdoor portraiture. However, especially during the winter, opportunities are slim to enjoy comfortable outdoor portrait sessions. So, I asked myself the very same question above--what to do when I

[andnowimbroke]

It'll take more than Kenko tubes to see that diamond Congrats on the digs and the wife


ps the canon macro is pretty sweet. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[erno james]

We had some rain showers yesterday, so during the brief dry periods, I made an attempt of some abstracts of my backyard. I think this is my Crepe Myrtle tree. Image was taken for 0.3 sec with intentional vertical motion blur, post in Aperture 3.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernogy/


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[nvitalephotography]

yeah seems like macro is the thing to do when stuck inside without any subjects to photograph. I got my extension tubes out a couple of days ago and shot some still life, just as an exercise to practice macro. It was actually more fun than I thought still life would be.