Martley Tree Star Trail
My first attempt at a star trail photograph. Made from about 50 photographs, 30 second exposures. Manually stacked on Photoshop...
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My first attempt at a star trail photograph. Made from about 50 photographs, 30 second exposures. Manually stacked on Photoshop
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Mar, 2016Views
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Mcwalina
March 09, 2016
This is amazing! Please can you tell me the settings on your camera you used for this effect?
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in a field in Martley, Worcestershire. I drove past this tree a number of times and was interested to shoot it somehow, I decided to include it on my first ever go at star trail photography.Time
This image was made up from about 50 photographs blended together. I shot these photographs over 4 or 5 hours between 8pm and 1am in the freezing cold night of March 7th 2016.Lighting
The foreground of the photograph was taken around 7:30pm, while there was still a little bit of light hitting against the field rows. I decided to capture them at this time and blend them into the final image so that the foreground would not be complete darkness (which the rows were later on during the taking of the stars).Equipment
This was shot using a Canon 5D Mark 3, Canon EF 16-35mm lens which was held on my Manfrotto 055cxpro3 tripod.Inspiration
I really wanted to experiment with taking star trails, and I wanted to capture this tree in an interesting way too. I decided, why not combine both these things, so using the natural leading lines from the field, thats what I did!Editing
Yes, I took between 40-60 photographs to make this one final image. One for the foreground, and the rest to create the trails, I bulk edited them in Lightroom, then used masks to blend them together in Photoshop.In my camera bag
I always have my Canon 5D Mark 3, this is my trusty friend that I use in almost every shoot. I also always have my Canon EF 24-105 f/4 lens, I think this lens is a perfect all round lens that can be useful in most situations I come across and my Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 lens; this lens is my main landscape lens, or if my 24-105 lens isnt quite wide enough, this is always perfect as a substitute. I also have a Canon EF 50mm f1.4 lens and Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens. These two lenses aren't used as much, but I always pull out the 50mm prime when I shoot street or portrait photographs. I also always carry my filters and tripod (not technically in the bag, but this always comes attached to my bag), as a landscape photographer these are extremely important. Other accessories include spare batteries, memory cards (SD and CF), remote shutter and camera/lens cleaning kit.Feedback
As this was my first attempt, I am probably not the most qualified to give tips for this kind of photography. However, during my night out, I did learn a few things... You NEED a clear night, one cloud can ruin the whole photograph. Try and spot the North Star, all of the other stars circle this one, so you know how your stars will path out in your photograph before you take it. The tip I wish I would have thought of before I went out... WRAP UP WARM!!
