star trails over Mad River, NH

This weekend I took my geology students to the White Mountains. For

many of them it was the first time they truly saw the Milky way, and I

found myself giving advice on how to photograph it. We spent about 2

hours outside looking at the stars and taking pictures while trying

not to fall into the river. During that time I had my camera take 250

star images that were later stitched in Photoshop. Processing was

minimal. I darkened the blacks and brightened the highlights a bit in

DxO. That ruins some of the color in the stars, but I like the B/W

aspect of the final image. Cropped to a square after everything was

stacked and flattened in PS. Thank you for looking!

love this (and how you did it)!! reminds me of van Gogh's starry night

Thank you Amelia. I am glad you like it! Yes, I noticed that my camera does better with hundreds of short exposures than one long one. Takes a while to process, though.

It's so beautiful! Good job!

Thank you Stefano.

Christoph

So nice!

Oh! Amazing technique, and amazing result! I wonder if one could get something similar with a few hours long exposure, if needed with a ND filter. But I really have no experience concerning star photography.

Best regards,

Alain

Alain, I think you should be able to. That's how I did it many years ago with film cameras. Somehow, though, digital noise seems to be better if I stitch a hundred short exposures together. In this case it also has the advantage that - should I run out of battery halfway through the exposure I still have half my shots. I started the technique with an external interval timer, but my Olympus has the timer built in, so it is rather convenient. My kids love the added benefit: the camera turns it all into a time-lapse movie, and I showed them how the entire Milky Way is rotating across the sky over a period of several hours.

Christoph

Christophe: thanks for the explanation. Beautiful and didactic! Your students are lucky.

Best regards,

Alain