Andrew* Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 With a perfectly clear night forcasted all night, I decided to capture some star trails at a lovely church ruin at a dark site near Aberdeen. The roofless church dates back to 1062, and when I first saw it 2 years ago I fell in love with it and knew I wanted to get married there. Sure enough, on 22nd August this year my fiance Eli and I will have our wedding ceremony here, come rain or shine. With all the planning for the wedding the church was on my mind and I felt it would be appropriate to get some nice night-time shots of it, with the bonus of putting them in for the summer competition!I set up the camera and kit lens on a tripod and used a dew strip for the lens and a timer remote. I set the timer to do 30 second shots every minute, and left it from 11.30 until the batteries ran out, then picked up the camera in the morning.I managed to get 3.5 hours of shots - 1.5gb in RAW format!With so much data processing has taken many many hours and there are so many things to do with the data, so there are 4 versions here. There is also a time lapse video I will try to upload.The images here only use the 145 (2.5 hours) frames during the darkest portion of the night. Aperture was set at f/4 (better quality images) and ISO 400. Camera used: Sony A-300 with 18-70mm kit lens.I used the excellent free program Startrails to get the initial image, and Photoshop CS3 to get the variations. No processing or filtering, digital or physical, was used on the sky - it's all in the location!I had to leave 30sec between shots to allow the chip to cool, but this meant gaps between the stars - quite an interesting effect. See a larger version for a better idea.But to get the classic star trails effect, I had to select just the sky, put it on a new layer and make a well-executed radial blur (with the centre on the NCP which isn't even on the frame!!) to get the desired effect - quite a processing nightmare!As the site is so dark, with no ambient light, the foreground was completely black, so I meant to use a torch to light up the church and trees, but the torch ran out of battery:mad:. So I went back to the RAWs and stretched out the detail. Amazing how much detail is in a RAW. Using a stack of 21 "pulled" images, I reduced the noise a bit. This had to then be blended in correctly with the stars - another processing nightmare!Half-size images can be seen here:Dotted stars with black foregroundBlurred stars with black foregroundDotted stars with bright foregroundBlurred stars with bright foregroundAnd finally an artsy crop:Hope you like!Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Andrew, they are superb.The radial blur is a fantastic idea - and with the NCP not even in the FOV I bet that was fun. I'm going to revist my images and try the radial blur.The third one with the lighter forground is by far my favorite.Can I be bold and mention "Summer competition". Ant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew* Posted May 13, 2009 Author Share Posted May 13, 2009 Thanks for your comments Ant!The radial blur is a fantastic idea - and with the NCP not even in the FOV I bet that was fun. Yes it did take a few attempts.....Can I be bold and mention "Summer competition". Of course, but not after me!With all the planning for the wedding the church was on my mind and I felt it would be appropriate to get some nice night-time shots of it, with the bonus of putting them in for the summer competition!I need to do a little more work on the processing and then I'll put them in for the comp. I just couldn't wait any more to get them on the forum.Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Opps sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barkis Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 How I like these Andrew. Unusual and simply splendid mate. Of course they should be entered in the competition.This session of work, and the results should go some way to alleviete the bad memory of the problems you had to put up with initially. Ron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drummerp Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Theft must be really low in Aberdeen if you can leave your camera out all night long not haveing to worry about it being stolen. Excellent images Andrew.Will be trying some startrails myself soon once I get a clear night after the failure attempts I had at SGL4.CheersNeil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brendant Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Beautiful images Andrew and well executed, 2nd one for me with the ruins in silhouette. Notice you took the images with the Sony, with the Canon you just use need to lock the cable release "ON", set the camera to 30 sec continuous drive mode and leave till the battery runs out (lens in manual), you will have no problems with amp glow.Brendan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew* Posted May 13, 2009 Author Share Posted May 13, 2009 Theft must be really low in Aberdeen if you can leave your camera out all night long not haveing to worry about it being stolen. Actually it's as bad as anywhere else, but it's such a remote place that I'm highly doubtful a thief would ever pass that way at night, let alone visit the church and least of all prowl the graveyard with a torch and notice my camera there!!!Beautiful images Andrew and well executed, 2nd one for me with the ruins in silhouette. Notice you took the images with the Sony, with the Canon you just use need to lock the cable release "ON", set the camera to 30 sec continuous drive mode and leave till the battery runs out (lens in manual), you will have no problems with amp glow.Hi Brendon and thanks. Yes, that sounds good, but I don't have my Canon as it's out for repair. BTW, I have the Canon remote now and will post it off to you tomorrow!How I like these Andrew. Unusual and simply splendid mate. Of course they should be entered in the competition.This session of work, and the results should go some way to alleviete the bad memory of the problems you had to put up with initially. Ron.Thank you Ron. Yes, they do make me feel good, but as I STILL don't have the Canon back from repair, I had to make do with Sony's amp glow....Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gman Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Cracking images there. Thanks for posting them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beyond_Vision Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Very nicely done Andrew that looks like a well spooky location RegardsKevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barkis Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Actually it's as bad as anywhere else, but it's such a remote place that I'm highly doubtful a thief would ever pass that way at night, let alone visit the church and least of all prowl the graveyard with a torch and notice my camera there!!!Hi Brendon and thanks. Yes, that sounds good, but I don't have my Canon as it's out for repair. BTW, I have the Canon remote now and will post it off to you tomorrow!Thank you Ron. Yes, they do make me feel good, but as I STILL don't have the Canon back from repair, I had to make do with Sony's amp glow....Andrew My apologies mate, I should have read you OP properly:o:oDopey Ron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerous-Dave Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Super shot, that's got to be a POW contender. I really like the second one with the radial blur - the gaps are big, but you've sorted them out nicely. The foreground looks a little pushed, I think the black silhouette works just as well if not better. Good work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outwestwa Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Fantastic job of imaging and processing. I’ll have to try the radial blur technique some time. I do like the darker one better Laurie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kai Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Very nice Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychobilly Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Very nicely done Andrew and thanks for taking the time to post the comments on the processing used to prodcue the variations The last "arty" crop prouces an otical illusion where the "horizontal" lines on the edge are bowed...Peter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Very dramatic Andrew. Star trails look perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew* Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 Thank you for all your kind comments!Here's a time-lapse video of all 3.5 hours until dawn approached and the camera ran out of battery:<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N42ygjXYox8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N42ygjXYox8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>In case that doesn't work, watch it on you-tube: Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew* Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 perhaps this is a good balance: a darker foreground...Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 That's very nicely composed Andrew. My favourite is with the ruins in silhouette.This is one of those times when a flash used in a long exposure might have worked really well, as discussed on that other thread, but I reall like the mystery surrounding the silhouette.CheersTim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew* Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 Thanks TJ.Seems to be split between the sillhouette and the "pulled" foreground.Hmm.... flash. Now why did I not think of that???Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.