the lemming Posted December 30, 2021 Share Posted December 30, 2021 I've had a couple of attempts at Star Trails and Timelapses with mixed results but I'm not exactly sure how to get the best results and what software to use in post production. I have a Panasonic GH5, 7.5mm lens (f2.0), sturdy tripod with a fluid head as I mainly do videoing stuff in daylight. I would appreciate advice on stuff like: If I should turn on or off Noise Reduction. How long I keep the shutter open. What ISO to use. My camera is practically ISO invariant but I never know where to keep the sweet spot. What software is novice proof with good enough results to keep me happy. This is my first and only attempt last year and I can't remember what I did, however I did use some software to stack the images. Doh! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy-kat Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 For star trails there's starstax. Timelapse I either use a quicktime pro or Windows 10 pro inbuilt video editor. Possibly seequator might also do star trails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaced Out Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 (edited) As mentioned above, I find starstax is good. For timelapse I use LR Timelapse but you also need adobe lightroom for that. I use a Canon DSLR and I don't use in camera NR, I find it can soften things, with long exposures and lowish ISO and stacking I don't think its that important + you can always do NR when processing the final image if required. Not sure about your camera tbh. Length of open shutter time, I go for as long as possible on my locked open intervalometer = 30secs for me, it doesn't matter if the stars start to trail in the individual images. Longer open shutter = lower ISO = less noise. For ISO I just take a couple of test shots and see. For my Canon 6D I find 30 secs at 500 ISO gives pleasing trails, less than that and they are a little sparse, more than that and the sky gets busy ! Depends on the effect you are looking for I guess. Easiest way to check all of these things is just to try a range of different settings for some short test runs and then stack them into a star trail to see what the result is. I did this and this is how I ended up with my go to settings for most star trails = 30 secs & 500-1000 ISO depending on the situation. I have a few star trails here along with the settings used for each one https://www.flickr.com/photos/132427272@N04/albums/72157655067298718/with/31468538285/ Good luck ! Edited December 31, 2021 by Spaced Out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the lemming Posted December 31, 2021 Author Share Posted December 31, 2021 3 hours ago, Spaced Out said: As mentioned above, I find starstax is good. For timelapse I use LR Timelapse but you also need adobe lightroom for that. I use a Canon DSLR and I don't use in camera NR, I find it can soften things, with long exposures and lowish ISO and stacking I don't think its that important + you can always do NR when processing the final image if required. Not sure about your camera tbh. Length of open shutter time, I go for as long as possible on my locked open intervalometer = 30secs for me, it doesn't matter if the stars start to trail in the individual images. Longer open shutter = lower ISO = less noise. For ISO I just take a couple of test shots and see. For my Canon 6D I find 30 secs at 500 ISO gives pleasing trails, less than that and they are a little sparse, more than that and the sky gets busy ! Depends on the effect you are looking for I guess. Easiest way to check all of these things is just to try a range of different settings for some short test runs and then stack them into a star trail to see what the result is. I did this and this is how I ended up with my go to settings for most star trails = 30 secs & 500-1000 ISO depending on the situation. I have a few star trails here along with the settings used for each one https://www.flickr.com/photos/132427272@N04/albums/72157655067298718/with/31468538285/ Good luck ! Some great advice there. Unfortunately my Panasonic GH5 got very noisy photographing the Milky Way this year when I turned off NR creating hot pixels. It spoiled all my images as I could not get rid of all the hot pixels. The shutter was open for 25 seconds. Maybe the ISO at 5000 was the problem. 😥 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the lemming Posted January 9, 2022 Author Share Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) I finally got out to play near Chorley and bagged this at Rivington Pike. I'm most pleased with my second ever attempt. Edited January 9, 2022 by the lemming 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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