On the weekend I tried out star trails for the first time (with some help from my lovely assistant Marty). Below is the result.
I'm certainly no expert but here is a quick how to guide if you want to give this a go yourself.
What do you need?
A DSLR with a remote and a tripod. You will also need a clear calm night, and an open location with no artificial light.
Oh, and you will also need some patience and something to do while you wait.
What do you do?
1. Find an open location with something interesting and still in the foreground and set your camera and tripod up.
2. Set your camera on auto and manual focus and fire off a test shot with the flash so you can get an idea of what's in frame.
3. When you are happy with your set up turn your camera to manual and remote mode, and set your aperture fairly wide, this was shot at f/4. Some cameras will probably work differently but with mine (a Nikon D90) I wind the shutter speed out as far as it will go, once it gets to 30 seconds the next is 'bulb' mode. This allows you to have complete control over the length of time your shutter is open for.
4. Open the shutter using the remote, set yourself some kind of timer on your watch or phone and walk away.
5. Unfortunately my camera automatically closes the shutter at 30 minutes so I don't need a timer, but if yours goes for longer, simply shut it off after half an hour using your remote. Then let the camera sit somewhere safe for another half an hour to process the image.
Have fun :)
