Theoretically can see the stars can be able to shoot star points, after a period of continuous shooting, I found that by the Earth's rotation brings out the relative displacement of the position of the stars, you can shoot the trajectory of the stars, i.e., star trails photos.


Shooting star trails on the location and time requirements are relatively high, the equipment requirements are moderate, you need a camera that can be shot at intervals can be. In addition, the choice of time needs to be in the cloudless, high atmospheric transparency of the weather, you can use Liking Weather and other apps to predict in advance, try to avoid the moonlight interference, too many light sources will weaken the number of star recognition, because of the weather, the environment and other uncontrollable factors, it is recommended to try more than a few times.



Shooting parameters: focal length 15mm, 152 pictures of the starry sky part: aperture F4, shutter 30s, sensitivity iso1600, 29 pictures of the ground scene focusing on the statue, aperture: F7.1, shutter 30s, sensitivity iso2500


The less light pollution the better, first find the north side, find a good foreground, use a solid tripod and a wide angle lens. This shot was taken in the center of the city, most of the lighting is off at midnight, but around the street lights are still always on, I lowered the tripod to try to avoid the lights on the road nearby.


In the center of the square stands a totem sculpture of "Justice", a symbol of righteousness and majesty. The North Star above and below the sculpture gesture echoed, shot out of the concentric star trails in the center of the picture, the picture is balanced left and right.




For this shoot, I used H&Y Filter 100x100mm Anti-pollution Night Filter. Using an Anti Light Hazard Filter upfront reduces light pollution and makes the image color purer and more natural by cutting down on the yellow-orange light source. Use defogging tape, lens RF15-35 F2.8, camera settings: turn off the camera's built-in noise reduction, use RAW format to leave more room for adjustments in post. Turn off the anti-shake, manual focus, zoom in to see the star point is in focus and rounded.


Star trails post-processing, in PS File -> Script -> Load files into the stack, it is recommended to use StarsTail Peninsula Snowman plug-in maximum stack, the software comes with blurring and fading functions, the resulting effect is more silky and nice.


In Camera Raw, use the white balance tool to absorb the sky part, can automatically correct the color temperature hue, restore the original neutral color of the night sky. In the same way, after loading the sequence of landscapes into the stack, in Layer->Smart Objects->Convert to Smart Objects->Stack Mode->Average, to reduce the noise of the landscapes. Select the statue, correct the selection, the starry sky and landscape mask synthesis, and finally according to the needs of the "Edit -> Perspective Deformation" in the correction of the building perspective distortion. Because it is impossible to see such a scene with the naked eye, so the picture is very magical and mysterious.

Using H&Y anti-light damage filter, defogging band, lens RF15-35 F2.8, shooting parameters: focal length 15mm, sky 353 pictures: aperture F4, shutter 30 seconds, sensitivity iso 2500, ground view focus on Guanyin's face 7 pictures: aperture F4, shutter 30s, sensitivity iso 2500 average value stack noise reduction.


Relative to the city, the less light pollution in the place, on the contrary, it is worse to control the exposure, the higher the sensitivity, the more stars, the denser the star trails. The choice of shooting parameters is more flexible, according to personal equipment and the actual situation can be adjusted exposure three elements. Interval time 1-3 seconds to shoot, should not be set too long, otherwise it will lead to obvious breakpoints in the star track, the track is not coherent.


Tight exposure parameters for star trails will leave the star points underexposed at the expense of taking a single shot, which will result in a star trail with nice color. For scenes with a clear foreground, you need to focus on the foreground and the stars are shot separately, for later depth of field synthesis. Do a test shot first, try a few more times to confirm that there is no error before turning on continuous interval shooting.



Also use H&Y Filter 100x100mm Anti-pollution Night Filter, the ground and the sky were shot separately, 4 ground scene small aperture shot, aperture F11, shutter 30 seconds, sensitivity IS01600, the starry sky part of the H&Y gradient mirror darkening the ground scene, and then stacked with the H&Y Filter 100x100mm MRC White Promist 1/2 Filter to increase the star point, use the demisting tape wrapped around the lens to make sure that the rechargeable battery is sufficiently charged

Set aperture F3.2, shutter 15 seconds, sensitivity IS02500, focal length 15mm, shooting about 3 hours total 655 pictures. Shooting star trails, usually shoot more than 1 hour, it is recommended to shoot for a longer period of time, so that the effect of the synthesized star trails will be more spectacular.


Of course, the star trails in the actual use of the map, not that the denser the better, such as to add text in the picture to use, sparse star trails will not interfere with the text layout. Post-synthesis processing and the same as the previous picture, there is a slight difference is that the original color of the ground scene is more cluttered, so the use of night scenes commonly used black and gold style toning, and the sky to form a contrast.


Nowadays, we should start from the starry sky vision, hope to improve the quality of the ecological environment, the rational use of lighting, avoid excessive lighting, energy saving and emission reduction, to promote the public to look up to the starry sky and cognition of the starry sky, and call on all walks of life to protect the dark night environment.

This content creation from: Photographer Yue Han