For starting star trails photography, a good approach is an ISO between 800-1600; the widest lens aperture such as f/2.8; a shutter speed ranging from 30 seconds to 1 minute; and capturing between 100 to 500 images depending on preferred trail length.
These basics are only the beginning. However, to successfully photograph star trails, some additional considerations are important. For those familiar with photographing the Milky Way, some steps may sound recognizable, but others could be novel. Continue reading to transform these streaks of light into beautiful star trail images!
In this guide, you’ll learn how to photograph photos showing star trails extending across the night sky. We’ll also go over the best software for stacking star trail photos together, then we’ll cover how to plan your star trail images, and finally, I’ll share valuable lessons I’ve learned while capturing star trails over the years.
Are you ready? Let’s jump right in!
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- An explanation of star trails
- Guidance on photographic techniques for recording star trails – Prime camera settings for shooting star trails
- Creating Star Trails Using Photoshop
- How to do a star trail in StarStaX (Windows and Mac)
- Instructions for Creating Star Trails Using the Sequator Software on Windows
- Methods for planning star trail photographic compositions
- Preferred camera gear to shoot star trail photos
- Optimal night sky photography recommendations
Table of Contents
What are star trails? Star trails explained
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The highest quality astrophotographs representing star trails will necessitate capturing images over a duration of approximately 2 to 4 hours. The ultimate outcome will depend on the number of photographs taken and the intended appearance.
There are two primary forms of star tracks: star routes and star circles. Capturing one or the other will rely on the bearing in which you`re aimed your camera.
Star circles
Depending on the side of the planet you are located, direct your camera straight north or straight south at either of the celestial poles and you’ll see the stars moving in a round motion. These are the so-called star circles, better known as circumpolar star trails, and they are the most typical star-trail photography subjects. In the next section, we’ll examine how to capture this kind of star-trail photo.
I recommend saving these handy images to assist in finding the north and south celestial poles:
Star paths
Looking from the east or west sides instead of north provides straighter pathways for the stars to follow instead of circular motions. Shooting star paths can be easier than finding Polaris or the south celestial pole. Those near the equator are more likely to capture star path photos than star circles if imaging at night.
How to shoot star trails – Best camera settings for shooting Star Trails
fundamentally, these are the optimal procedures to photograph star trail images:
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- Opt for your photographic arrangement
- Configure your camera to manual setting (M)
- Employ an aperture of f/2.8 or the widest accessible by your lens
- Select an ISO between 800 and 1600
- Alter your shutter speed to a time between 30 seconds and 1 minute
- Employ manual white balance
- Focus manually on a bright star
- Conduct a test capture and validate your exposure and focus
- Adjust your shooting interval to 1 second longer than your shutter speed
- Program the camera to capture between 100 and 500 photos.
After this section, you’ll find a complete guide on how to plan your star trail images, and information on the best equipment,tips, and examples.
Let’s take a deeper look at each step for shooting star trails :
1. Choose your composition
In , properly arranging the skyscape and foreground is pivotal.
As I mentioned earlier, the angle at which you point your camera straight impacts how the streaks will look in your image. We’ll delve more into star-trails planning below, but for now, bear in mind that planning is key.
Additionally, the best star-trail photographs incorporate intriguing components in the foreground, so opt for a subject that will add depth to your composition.
2. Set your camera to manual mode
Configuring your camera to manual mode will grant you increased control over your settings, which will provide you the best outcomes.
When documenting star trails, the interconnection of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, referred to as the exposure triangle, necessitates staying consistent; thus the automated or semi-automated modes on the camera prove unhelpful in this scenario.
3. Use an aperture of f/2.8 or the widest in your lens
Generally, I suggest selecting the . This will help gather more light and reduce your ISO. In the next step, I’ll explain how the ISO impacts your star trail photographs .
4. Select an ISO between 800 and 1600
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In night photography, it’s normal to utilize high ISO qualities of somewhere in the range of ISO 3200 and 6400. This is a decent practice on the off chance that you are shooting the Milky Way; be that as it may, this setting clips your features, showing the smaller sized stars as pure white.
Stars have diverse shades other than white. By lowering your ISO, you will stop your stars from being overexposed and retain their natural colors. ISO 800 to 1600 is a decent starting point.
NOTE: By decreasing your ISO, you’ll also gain RAW documents with a higher dynamic variety, which will permit more flexibility during the modifying process .
5. Adjust your shutter speed to between 30 seconds and 1 minute
For this type of photography, the aim is to end up with a very long exposure image. Nonetheless, each individual shot shouldn’t have an excessively long exposure time.
If any issues arise during the process requiring deletion of an image due to movement, a 30-second gap would prove less noticeable than a 5-minute one. Furthermore, the stacking software would find it easier to fill a shorter gap than one of greater length.
Generally speaking, the longer the duration of the shutter opening, the greater the risk of failing to obtain a perfect series of star images (it’ll also heighten the ).
6. Use manual white balance
Adjust your color temperature setting manually. I suggest opting for a cooler color range ( 4000K or lower) to attain the most desirable results.
While white balance can easily be adjusted in editing if capturing in RAW, I do not advise utilizing automatic white balance. This could lead to images having numerous diverse white balance values, which produces it more difficult to achieve a consistent visual appearance. .
7. Focus manually on a bright star
Turn on the highlight magnifier and point your camera at a brilliant star located in the heart of the frame. Don’t worry if it’s located outside of your composition; you can rearrange after you’ve focused.
Gradually rotate the focus ring until the star appears small and sharp on the LCD screen or in the viewfinder. The larger the object is out of focus, the bigger the star will look. Remember that focusing in photography is key to acquiring a sharp image .
8. Take a test shot and verify your exposure and focus
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If your exposure is either too dim or too bright, adjust your shutter speed, ISO, or aperture, in that order of preference. Modifying your aperture will require refocusing your image.
9. Set your shooting interval to one second longer than your shutter speed
Using an intervalometer would be necessary to take star trail photos. If your camera doesn’t have an internal intervalometer, an external one could be utilized instead.
If your shutter speed is 30 seconds, your interval should be 31 seconds. This will nearly remove any time leftover in between shots. Leaving a long interval between shots will produce gaps in your image, which won’t look pleasing to the eye.
Adding one extra moment beyond the publicity time as an interval is a good exercise for photographing both superstar trails and time-lapse .
10. Program your camera to shoot between 100 and 500 photos
The greater photographs you record, the longer your trails will be, but you’ll also need more area to store those photographs. Generally, I shoot around 200 to 300 photographs.
Now that the most difficult part is complete, all you need to do is press the shutter button and begin shooting. Depending on your shutter speed and the number of photos you plan on taking, you might have to wait for a few hours.
Regarding your foreground, my suggestion is to capture a single shot with the optimum settings before starting photos of the star trails and later blending the foreground pic with your sky in post-production.
NOTE: These star trail camera settings apply to both DSLR and mirrorless cameras. For DSLRs use mirror lockup to reduce vibration. For mirrorless cameras, I recommend using the electronic shutter.
Star trails post-processing tutorial – best star trails stacking software
Stacking star trails has become a straightforward task thanks to the variety of software that helps automate the process. Gone are the days when photographers would take a single hour-long exposure to avoid stacking.
Shooting photos for shorter durations and then combining them computationally to create a single extended exposure possess advantages over capturing a single longer exposure when photographing star trails. Linking successive sky photographs enhances the image over time in significant ways..
How to do a star trail in Photoshop
Using Photoshop to combine your star trail photos is a straightforward process.
1. Load your images
Open the File menu, then hover over Scripts, and finally select Load Files into Stack.
In the new window, select the Browse option. Then, pinpoint and pick all your star trail pictures.
Do not select any of the options presented in the window.
After uploading your documents, press OK.
Your pictures will start importing into Photoshop as layers. The process might take a few minutes depending on the number of images you are importing and your computer’s processing capabilities.
2. Select all your layers
Once Photoshop has finished importing, you’ll see all your images as separate components.
Select the first layer, then while holding the Shift key select the last one as well.
3. Change blend mode to Lighten
It is at this stage where the key alterations occur. Alter the blend mode of the layers to Lighten.
After selecting the Lighten blend mode, you’ll instantly see your star trail image form before you.
Only exposing the brightest aspects of the image, in this situation the stars, keeps the lighten blend mode concealed the remainder.
4. Stack your images
To efficiently work with your image, stack all the layers together using the keyboard command listed below:
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- For Windows: Hold the Ctrl key down and press E (Ctrl + E)
- On Mac: Press and hold the Command key. Then press the E key while still holding Command
You should only see one layer:
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How to do a star trail in StarStaX (Windows and Mac)
StarStaX is an incredible star trail stacking software accessible for both Windows and Mac. If you are searching for outstanding outcomes, StarStaX will take you there. Generally, I opt for StarStaX over Photoshop because it functions faster, offers more options as standard, and can easily stack your imagery even on a less powerful computer.
StarStaX is an open-source software program which can be used free of charge. You are able to download it here.
How to do a star trail in Sequator (Windows)
Sequator represents another powerful astrophotography program, though support is limited to Windows systems. For Mac users, StarStaX offers the best solution.
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Download Sequator for free here.
How to plan your star trail photo
Multiple considerations must be weighed when arranging your star trails photographic composition. As with any nighttime image, thorough pre-shoot planning is paramount. Conditions such as weather, light pollution levels, lunar illumination, and location must be analyzed. Though this may seem daunting, the following guidance will have your star trails shotsstrategized efficiently.
1. Choose the best subject for your image
In star trails photography, generally the photographer will incorporate a subject in the foreground. This stationary subject can be anything from a building to a faraway mountain. Carefully selecting the subject is important because this decision will impact the types of streaks appearing in the ultimate image.
If your subject faces north or south, you’ll capture circular star trails across the sky; otherwise, you’ll see star paths.
2. Stay away from light pollution
Light contamination is the biggest enemy when it pertains to night photography and, realizing where the darkest skies are will make everything more convenient. There are a few applications you can utilize to find dim skies. I endorse using Light Pollution Map, which, as per my experience, is the most complete and intuitive website. It’s also updated annually.
3. Find a night with no moon
A full moon acts similarly to a significant source of light pollution overhead: it will cause most stars to completely vanish and make nearly impossible the capture of your star trail image.
Here I suggest using some form of lunar calendar. A good example is our Milky Way Calendar, also perfect for planning star trails.
I created Calendars for 20 different regions across the earth. They are very straightforward to use and you can download the Milky Way calendars for this year here :
4. Check the weather
Locating a clear night without atmospheric water particles is completely necessary. The slightest possibility of clouds could devastate your complete star trails photographic image. I suggest utilizing several different sources of data to cross-check the information because meteorological predictions are not always precise. I employ multiple apps to inspect and compare the weather. My favored ones are NOAA,Windy, and Clear Outside.
5. Arrive early at your location
I cannot emphasize sufficiently the importance of arriving early when it comes to night photography. Moving around in the dark, even with a headlamp, is challenging. Arriving early when there is still daylight will assist you scan the area and get acquainted with it. It’ll also make it simpler to find a composition.
6. Plan the length of your star trails
Yes, the length of star trails can be planned, and it is very straightforward. Rather than going out to shoot and trying to guess how long your star trails will be, their span can be envisioned and arranged beforehand. Once more, Photopills has an excellent tool to plan the length of star trails.
Best camera gear to shoot star trail photos
In star trail photography, there are a few items you need to bring along to make your session a success. The gear you’ll need to capture your star trails image is relatively inexpensive, and you might have most of these articles already.
Briefly, this camera equipment is well-suited for capturing star trails on your next astrophotography outing:
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Camera
The camera you`ll need must be capable of shooting in manual mode. In terms of basic requirements, if your camera has a built-in intervalometer, that`s a plus, but don`t worry if it doesn`t because you can use an external one.
If you currently own a camera for shooting the Milky Way or in general for night photography, that will work perfectly well.
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Wide-angle lens
The most stunning star trail images are captured with wide-angle lenses. You’ll need a lens of around 24mm or broader to be able to capture more of the scene and sky. Your aperture also needs to be broad enough. F/2.8 or broader is the best option.
Any of the optimal lenses for Milky Way will work, since these also apply for star-trails photography.
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Tripod
A sturdy tripod is essential for night photography. Your camera will be taking very lengthy exposures and it requires remaining still for prolonged periods. A stable tripod is crucial to achieving the best outcomes.
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Intervalometer
An device that fastens externally is fundamental if your camera doesn’t have a built-in one. This small item plugs into your camera and permits you to schedule your shutter velocity, the number of shots you desire, and the interval between each of those images.
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Extra batteries
You’ll be capturing hundreds of images for a few hours at minimum, and you need to make certain your camera doesn’t run out of power.
Having extra batteries to swap in and out will provide your camera the power required to last the entire session. An external power bank is even more beneficial, because you can plug it in before starting to shoot; it will prolong the battery life of your camera by a few additional hours without you needing to touch the camera.
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Memory card
Be certain to have adequate storage space on your memory card. To acquire the best outcomes, consistently make room for no less than 200 images. Digital storage is very inexpensive nowadays, so don’t skimp on that.
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Lens warmer
A lens warmer is optional, yet I highly suggest utilizing one in moist cold climate to stop your lens from fogging up. If you do not own a lens warmer, a little trick is to place your lens hood on. This will postpone any fogging, nevertheless it won`t completely avert it.
Best star trails photography tips
Now that you understand all the fundamentals of star trails photography, I wanted to share some of the top star trail photography tips that I’ve learned through trial and mistake over the years:
1. Take several shorter exposures vs. a super long single exposure
Two primary approaches exist for capturing star trails: a very long single exposure or numerous shorter exposures. I strongly advise utilizing shorter exposures. No real benefits result from shooting a sole very lengthy exposure.
Shorter exposures:
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- Your camera will overheat less.
- You will have many different photos to work with, this means that if one photo does not work out as intended, everything is not lost.
- You are able to transform your images into a gorgeous time-lapse.
- You have more freedom to edit in post-production. You decide how elongated the star trails appear.
One single exposure:
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- Storing only one photo per scene conserves limited data storage space.
- If anything goes awry, you lose all the work you conducted.
- Your camera sensor will overheat faster.
- You get less flexibility for post-processing.
2. Use the electronic shutter or mirror lockup
The mechanical shutter can induce vibrations into the captured image. To minimize this, employing the electronic shutter (silent mode) on a mirrorless camera or mirror lockup on a DSLR is advised. Not using the mechanical shutter will also extend its usable lifetime since continuously shooting that many shots with the mechanical shutter can wear down its durability.
3. Avoid touching the camera during the process
It’s important not to make contact with the camera for the duration of the process. Touching can not only introduce undesired movements to the image, but also displace the tripod and change the composition. This will render it impossible to align your images in post-production.
4. Make sure your tripod is very stable
Images compiled over long periods of star trails necessitate ensuring your camera and tripod remain as steady as possible throughout the duration. Correctly set up the tripod to minimize any vibrations. If windy, use the hook at the bottom to hang your backpack and add some weight for stabilization.
5. Capture your foreground shot before the star trails photos
Capture your foreground image initially. Generally, the best moment to do so is right after blue hour. At that point, you’ll get a natural transition between the foreground and the sky while still retaining enough detail without vastly increasing your ISO.
An additional benefit is that your camera`s sensor will be cooler, resulting in cleaner images with fewer hot pixels.
6. Lower your ISO to preserve the color in the stars
As mentioned previously, this is one of the better tips I`ve received for shooting streaming celestials. Using decreased ISO values to marginally underexpose your replica will assist safeguard the natural color of the stars and will supply vivid celestial trails that will fascinate anyone who sees them .
Star trails photography examples – Best photos of star trails
Star trails photography might seem somewhat demanding for a newcomer, yet it’s so rewarding when you start seeing the results. To provide inspiration, I’ve included some of the best photos of star trails. This section is intended to demonstrate some diversity in style and techniques.
Circumpolar star trails
Capturing star trails is a common technique in night sky photography. To photograph this style of image, one needs to locate the celestial pole based on the hemisphere. Earlier in the article, we explained how to find the celestial pole.
Don’t forget to save the image at the beginning of the article to help you locate the north and south celestial poles.
Star paths
Star trails are not only about getting star circles. Pointing your camera east or west will also provide beautiful images. Trying experiments with your compositions can provide different patterns in your trails.
You can also photograph a Milky Way panoramic mixed with star trails like the example below. This will require more advanced methods but it’ll allow you to capture both circumpolar and star paths.
Comet star trails
This is a preferred artistic practice for comet star trails photography. Comet star trails will contribute movement and depth to your image. They are complicated to produce manually, but thankfully, both StarStaX and Sequator allow you to do them with just one click. To accomplish this in Photoshop, you’ll need an extension, such as OrionX or AstroPanel.
Vortex Star trails
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Star Trails FAQ
When capturing images of stars moving across the night sky, some inquiries may arise. I`ve selected some of the most typical questions asked regarding star trail photography in this section providing answers. If you have additional queries, please leave them in the comment area below and I`ll be pleased to respond.
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The time star trails require?
Capturing a full star trails photo demands 2 to 4 hours of exposure time. The longer the exposure, the more elongated the trails will be.
The number of exposures required for star trails depends on location, focal length, and camera settings.
Capturing star trails necessitates acquiring between 200 and 500 individual exposures to achieve elongated streaks with more flexibility in post-editing.
What length should revelations be for star tracks?
Each individual exposure for your star trail image should be between 30 and 60 seconds. Capturing images within this time frame is the best approach because if a single photo is unsatisfactory, it can be excluded without impacting the overall outcome.
Why star trails form circles?
As the earth spins, stars seem to follow circular paths across the sky. However, the courses taken are only rings when looking directly to the north or south depending on the hemisphere. If glancing east or west, the routes appear straighter rather than circular.
How to process images of star trails
To process your star trail photographs, software like Photoshop, Sequator or StarStaX can be used to combine all the images into one composite. Sequator and StarStaX are free and straightforward to utilize. Once the images have been stacked together, they can be edited like any other nighttime photograph.
What steps produce colorful star trails in photography?
Lower your ISO to values between 1600 and 3200. This will preclude the light in your stars from cutting off and they will retain most of their natural color.
Where is the focal point of star trail formations?
In the Northern Hemisphere Polaris is seen as the point around which everything appears to revolve. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the south celestial pole.
Conclusion
Star trails photography is intriguing, and I propose attempting it at some point. Unlike Milky Way photography, one can take star trail pictures at any time of the year. It’s a style of photo that requires some patience because photographers will be shooting for a few hours, but the consequences are worthwhile.
Hopefully, after reviewing this article, you’ve come to comprehend the differences involving star circles (circumpolar) and star paths as well as how to identify the north and south celestial poles.
When it comes to focusing on camera settings for star trail photography, these are the core ideas you need to remember:
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- Capture numerous individual photos instead of one extraordinarily long exposure shot.
- Use a 30-second to 1-minute exposure time.
- Maintaining your ISO between 800 and 1600 allows for capturing the stars in their most natural colors.
Additionally, remember that you’ll need equipment that provides a wide field of vision, either integrated or external devices that trigger the camera at set intervals, extra power sources or a portable charger, a support to steady the camera, and adequate memory storage.
Finally, when you are back home, use Photoshop, StarStaX, or Sequator to stack your star trail images. The process is quick and simpler than you think.
This brings our star trail photography guide to a close. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments below!
