#STARTRAIL GIMP MOVIE#
#STARTRAIL GIMP SOFTWARE#

The Milky Way! There is nothing better when shooting a time lapse than to have the Milky Way making its nightly journey across the sky. They leave nasty streaks in the final images, but clouds can add a really nice extra element to time lapses.

Watch out for clouds if doing star trails. If shooting East or West then you can get the cool effect of having areas where the stars are going straight, curving up, and curving down. If you shoot towards the poles you will get the classic circular trails. Know which direction you are shooting, as it will help you figure out what the final result will look like. You are shooting the stars after all! Considerations about the sky itself: 1. While you need to make sure there are interesting objects in the foreground, make sure that there is plenty of sky visible. You could just shot straight up, but having an interesting foreground makes for a more powerful and compelling image. Make sure there are interesting aspects in the foreground. Just a few tips on General Composition: 1. Overall composition is important for all photography, but there is another aspect to night photography. You can have a technically perfect shot, but it won't be any good if the composition is not interesting. One of the most important things to consider is the composition of the shot.

You may ask 'What part of the sky do I want to shoot?', well the next step is for you. A program to make the time lapse - There are numerous, but Startrails does time lapse as well, so it is my one-stop-shop to make star trails and time lapse The setup for this is fairly simple - All you have to do is attach (or setup the in-camera) intervalometer, setup the tripod and camera, then point it at the part of the sky you want to shoot. This can also be done in Photoshop, but in my opinion, Startrails is easier. A program to stack the images - I like to use the Startrails application for making the images. Not necessarily needed if your camera has one built in, but I still prefer to have a remote. This is probably the one thing you don't have, but they can be found cheap on the web. A cable intervalometer - used to set the exposure length and interval of the images. It needs to be able to keep the camera perfectly still for long periods of time. There are just a few things you need to get started with shooting star trails and time lapse, most of which you probably have sitting around at home: A DSLR Camera A Stable Tripod for your camera to sit on.

#STARTRAIL GIMP MOVIE#

Instead of stacking the images one atop each other, as seen in the making of star trails, the images are displayed one after another to make a movie of the stars moving. This method is also the general idea behind the creation of astro time lapses.

#STARTRAIL GIMP SOFTWARE#

The best method with digital is the take a series of short (~20-30 seconds) exposures then stack them in specialized software to make the arcs. When the shutter is left open for a long time on digital cameras all kinds of thermal noise, exposure issues, etc. Back in the film ages the method for making these images was to open the shutter and let it go for hours, but that method doesn't work too well with digital cameras. Star trail images show the motion of the stars over a long period of time, making beautiful arcs. I've had a few people ask for a tutorial on how I do my star trail and time lapse, so here it is. Two of my favorite hobbies are photography and astronomy, and it only gets better when the two are combined.

Startrail gimp