What’s wrong with this picture of star trails?

Rohitn

New member
I tried shooting star trails but the results are not what I expected, Looking for feedback on what’s wrong. I took 160 shots of 20 second exposure at 2.8 and iso 400 with a 25 second intervalometer setting. I then post edited in Lightroom and then combined the images using Star Stax. I used a D850 with a Rokinon 14mm manual lens.
 

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Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

I have never tried star trails, but I would say you recorded a lot of airplane traffic during your exposure
 

Rohitn

New member
Yes, it was rush hour in the northern skies with the airplane traffic. Aside from that, it seems to me that the star trails should be more defined indicating a focusing issue. I’ve tried calibrating the lens focus but I get the same results.
 

STM

Senior Member
It was definitely a busy night for Air Traffic Control!

Star trails are a load of fun to shoot and Star Stax is a very easy to use program. I took this outside of Phoenix, AZ with the D700 and 18mm f/3.5 AIS. I think there were about 75 exposures total.

startrails 1500.jpg
 
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Rohitn

New member
That looks good! That’s the kind of results I’m looking for. You’ve given me another idea, I’m going to try switching to my Nikon 28-300mm lens and see if the results are any different.
 

STM

Senior Member
That looks good! That’s the kind of results I’m looking for. You’ve given me another idea, I’m going to try switching to my Nikon 28-300mm lens and see if the results are any different.

I really don't know why the star trails were so weak in yours. Perhaps you could try to bring them up in Lightroom and then re-stack them.
 

blackstar

Senior Member
It was definitely a busy night for Air Traffic Control!

Star trails are a load of fun to shoot and Star Stax is a very easy to use program. I took this outside of Phoenix, AZ with the D700 and 18mm f/3.5 AIS. I think there were about 75 exposures total.

View attachment 322068

Hi STM, Sorry for responding to your post late. I am new to star trails photo (actually new to everything in photography). Just started recently some experiments. Would like to learn more. So according to your post, the wonderful star trail photo you took was stacked with 75 images. Just wondering what are the exposure time and interval time you set for the 75 images you took? Thanks.
 

Hobbit

Senior Member
there is a program for star trails that can eliminate aircraft and such like to give just the trails, it also allows you to pick a foreground from your images
 

STM

Senior Member
Hi STM, Sorry for responding to your post late. I am new to star trails photo (actually new to everything in photography). Just started recently some experiments. Would like to learn more. So according to your post, the wonderful star trail photo you took was stacked with 75 images. Just wondering what are the exposure time and interval time you set for the 75 images you took? Thanks.

Sorry for responding late to your late response! :playful::playful:

The exposures were about 30 sec long, ISO 1250 and f/11. I used StarStax software (it is freeware) to stack them together.
 
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