Star Trail Photography Tutorial | Landscape Photography | Isle of Man

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Star trail photography can seem like a daunting undertaking if you’ve never tried it before but it’s a lot easier than many people realise. In this vlog I provide a star trail photography tutorial showcasing my own techniques and approaches to taking these exciting landscape photography images. I head out to the Point of Ayre which is the most northerly tip of the Isle of Man to capture the moving stars over a small lighthouse. This is a shot I’ve been after for a while now so when the right conditions presented themselves I was straight out there. The Isle of Man is well known for it's dark skies granting fantastic astrophotography conditions for all budding night sky photographers.
What settings are best to use? What weather conditions are needed? Star Trail processing - how do you do it? I’ll do my best to answer all of these questions and more. This video is my tips / advice / explanation summary.
If you enjoy my content please subscribe. If you have any star trail tips and techniques of your own please feel free to add them into the comments below :-)
Shot - made up of 160 exposures each shot at 14mm, f2.8, 20 Seconds, ISO 2000.
Post processed using Adobe Lightroom and Star Stax (www.markus-enzweiler.de/StarS...)
Nikon D850
Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens
MeFOTO Globetrotter Tripod
Canon 200d (vlog footage)
Canon 18-55mm STM lens (vlog footage)
Takstar SGC-598 Shotgun Microphone (vlog footage)
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Music - courtesy of RU-vid Audio Library - Far The Days Come
Location: bit.ly/2GQdqbK

Опубликовано:

3 мар 2018

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Комментарии : 106

@patnewton8235 2 года назад

Well done James! I am going to give this a try fingers crossed!

@ChrisHunt4497 6 лет назад

Thanks very much. I’m sure I could have a go at this now I have seen your tutorial. Great to see post processing as well. Very informative and simple to follow. Excellent.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks very much Chris - really appreciate your comment and glad it's been useful for you :-)

@abdulahadshehab4435 3 года назад

This is the only video that helped me to understand the in built-in intervalometer. Thank you very much.

@RobertGraficznie Год назад

Beautiful James. I have to try it myself.🌓

@Grave187RIP13 Год назад

Great video! Very informative and not a lot of BS. Thank you very much! Your photo turned out great btw

@kieranhusbandsphotography4199 6 лет назад

thank you for that James. I have never done any star trails before but now i think i will give it ago cheers

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

No worries Kieran. Glad you found it useful :-)

@robertgeorge8166 6 лет назад

Great vlog James thank you. I am going to give this a try.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Cheers Robert! Definitely do and let me know how you get along with it :-)

@CraigPrentisPhoto 6 лет назад

Loved it, lots of helpful information. Great final image too.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks Craig - really appreciate it :-)

@alexarrowood3070 5 лет назад

First video Ive seen where they person actually shows how to post process the images. GREAT JOB. I will be trying this very very soon!

@JamesBrewphoto 5 лет назад

Thanks very much 😁

@shaunnightingale4976 4 года назад

Fantastic result James ..

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Thanks very much :-)

@tammymellert98 6 лет назад

Great video and gorgeous image!

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thank you Tammy!

@paultaylorphotography9499 6 лет назад

Great vid mate, gonna try starstax thanx for tip. Awesome image too.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thank you very much - yeah definitely give Starstax a go, awesome little program!

@jimhamilton8775 6 лет назад

Great tutorial James. Very informative.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks Jim :-)

@GTEngineer7 4 года назад

Thank you sir. I’m looking forward to my test shot. I appreciate your tutorial.

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Thanks George

@BosePhotography 6 лет назад

Great tutorial James, really enjoyed this. I really need to get myself a large aperture lens! Fantastic image too, glad you have the D850 back! S.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Cheers Sam - I'd highly recommend the Samyang 14mm 2.8, its brilliant and really affordable too

@jamesaphotography1286 6 лет назад

Good video and great image.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thank you James :-)

@jakeactraynor 6 лет назад

Mate what a perfect image, and awesome tutorial! It's definitely something I want to try myself!

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks very much Jake!

@DiegoMcCartney 6 лет назад

Congrats on getting the D850 back! A big relief I'm sure. Lot's more to star trail photography than I imagined. Great info. Will definitely use one day. I enjoyed also seeing the processing aspect. Cheers James. Thanks for sharing.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Yeah amazing to have it back! 4 weeks was way quicker than I anticipated too. Give star trails a go, it's great fun actually. Thanks Diego :-)

@RalphGoldsmith 6 лет назад

Great tutorial, and the final image was excellent. The sequence showing the software building the image was very cool

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks Ralph! Yeah I love that software sequence too. Brings it to life right before your eyes

@Higgins_Nature_Photographer 6 лет назад

Very nice image with that lighthouse James, I'm glad you got your D850 back, it did a great job.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks Richard! :-)

@fireislandmavic5939 4 года назад

well that came out very nice

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Thank you 👍

@SimonBurnCreative 6 лет назад

Really brilliant job James, you've upped your game with this one. I can appreciate all the effort to make this tutorial, so well done. Also, what great advice and tips for those of us who might want to give star trails a try.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks Simon! This took quite a long time to put together. It was extremely cold when I shot this as well so conditions were pretty challenging. I'm very pleased how it's come out though overall :-)

@brianreubelt 6 лет назад

Great video James, I was actually just about to order this lens for astrophotography and this video sold me. Keep up the great work.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Cheers Brian! Definitely order it. Its a brilliant astrophotography lens for sure. Keep In mind that infinity focus probably will be no where near the infinity mark though. So test it thoroughly before using it.

@pedrodini 4 года назад

Hey James! Just got here and loved your vids and the way you teach! Best regards from Brazil!

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Thanks Pedro, much appreciated 🙂

@MiguelACoronaDM 6 лет назад

Amazing James. I'll need to try this - I have the wide angle so only thing stopping is finding the right location. Thanks!

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Cheers Miguel. Give it a go. Will be interesting to see what you come up with. It's a really cool technique to play around with

@MiguelACoronaDM 6 лет назад

Yup will do. I remember reading somewhere there are apps/websites that provide "dark" areas maps (don't know the technical term) - do you use any?

@splosh2070 3 года назад

This video really helped me to get the hang of star trails, and this along with another of your videos has just made me buy a Samyang 14mm f2.8, but I could only afford a second hand one for £170

@kenny75photography2 6 лет назад

Really good tutorial, James, that Star program is really impressive in how it puts together the images.

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks Kenny! Yeah it's a pretty cool program! Amazing that it's free

@JamesBillingsPhotography 6 лет назад

Well explained! I use Starstax myself and I agree, it's a great tool :) The other downside of doing one long 60 min exposure (which I don't think you mentioned) is that you'd run the risk of blowing out your foreground (like the lighthouse here), whereas stacking stops that happening, so it's definitely the way to go!

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thank you James. Yes very good point, that's another valid downside too. I knew i'd miss something - so much to cover!

@scoellphotography 6 лет назад

Just wow James, stunning image at the end and what an epic tutorial on how to shoot star trails, I have done a fair bit of trails and milkyway shots but have always struggled vlogging them, but you hit the nail on the head :) Think I will give it another try now I have watched this...

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thank you! Night time vlogging is a total nightmare, this took about 3 times longer than my average vlog would take. However for this reason you don't see too many of them on RU-vid so I think it's something worth trying out. The key is powerful torches and loads of space batteries :-)

@scoellphotography 6 лет назад

James Brew Haha yeah that is what I found when I tried it last I used a tried a gas lantern and it just didn't work.. need one of those led spot lights I think or a massive diffuser..

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

This is the torch I use - www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01B5ES7OU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - awesome because it has a red light setting too which is great for maintaining your nightvision

@scoellphotography 6 лет назад

James Brew Thanks James will check that out.. :)

@marcdaigle7701 6 лет назад

Hi James...you are very knowledged in photography. GREAT VIDEO! Can I ask what setup you would use to photograph falling snowflakes so they are standing still?

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thanks Marc! I'd recommend a fast shutter speed for that. Slow shutter speeds will cause the flakes to become a bit of a blurry mess in the image. Exact speed you can achieve will depend on light conditions though

@Bigladderphotographer Год назад

Hi James, A great how to video! I'm going to give this a shot myself. Can I ask if there is a reason you shot jegs? can the software only process them and not RAWs? are raws too much for it?

@thechrismccormack1489 2 года назад

Hey James. How do we smoothen the star trails? The star trails in my creation are dotted. Yours at 14:16, are exceptionally smooth. Great shot.

@thechrismccormack1489 2 года назад

Figured it out. The exposure was too short, not allowing them to "trail" in the original photos. So, once I stack them, they'll be smooth. Thanks for your time James!

@richardsingleton697 4 года назад

Hi James. I've really enjoyed watching your astrophotography videos. Do you plan to make anymore this winter? I'm trying to capture the Milky Way but so far I've not had any success (I'm very much a novice). If you take requests for videos a tutorial on photographing the Milky Way would be very helpful.

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Thanks very much for the suggestion - I'll try and do another one soon :-)

@johnmonreal3639 5 лет назад

Just found your Chanel. Get video. I just got this lens. I live in NY and there are plenty of spots for some great star trails. Rookie question... the lighthouse and foreground is very light - is this because of the 20s exposure? Thanks and I look forward to new videos.

@JamesBrewphoto 5 лет назад

Cheers John. It's well exposed because I took this image on a moonlit night. Taking star trails with the moon out is a good idea for this reason 👍 best of luck with your star shooting

@gedheaton1415 4 года назад

James tnx for a great vid,I'm hoping to have my first crack at star trails next week,new moon,no cloud haha,we'll see about that eh, Just a quick one if I may and it is probably a bone question but in the final image at say 14-25 ish,there's shadow's cast by the lighthouse levels?, where does the light source come from?is it just ambient light,also and again bone do you need to light up the foreground,I know it's an option but is it a necessity and where and when would you sort of light paint ? Hope that makes sense and aginn thank you. Liked already subbed.

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Thanks for watching. In this image the ambient light is coming from the moon. I find star trails work great on moon lit nights for this reason. You can add artificial light painting too but I'm never a big fan of this personally as it's tends to look less natural. I'd definitely recommend shooting star trails with the moon out 🌙

@terryduff2270 5 лет назад

Great shots, just a thought what about taking multiple exposures I do this a lot & works well (D810) with Tamron 15-30 mm F2.8 any thoughts? But I will try your method I dont take the stars because we cant see the same as you from here down under dam.

@JamesBrewphoto 5 лет назад

Thanks Terry! Multiple exposures always beats a single exposure when it comes to star trail photography for me. Tamron 15-30mm should work well for it 👍

@blueman841 3 года назад

thanks for posting, this really helped. One question I have. I always thought that if you used a high ISO, it would add alot of noise to the photo. How do you get around this?

@JamesBrewphoto 3 года назад

Yes the higher the ISO the higher the noise generally speaking. One way to mitigate this is to stack your astro shots using software like sequator however for star trail images this doesn't work. The good thing for star trail shots is that for best results you don't actually want too many stars to expose as the image will become very busy. This therefore means you can use a lower ISO for star trails then you otherwise would do for other astro images

@nancyk9475 3 года назад

Great video! What ISO did you use? Thank you

@JamesBrewphoto 3 года назад

Thanks! Settings in description of video

@GingerPhotographer 6 лет назад

Excellent job, did you export the images from Lightroom to jpeg before importing to Star Stax or can Star Stax automate raw / nef files?

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Thank you! Yes I exported as jpegs before putting into star stax. 👍

@markmuller3086 4 года назад

Hi James, great video! Two questions: 1. Batteries. Did you have to replace a battery? If so, if I do it quickly it should be ok for the trails, but tricky to not move camera? 2. Foreground lighting: if the night is dark (not lit by the moon), do I need to do constant light painting for all 160 images (using your example)? If so, it’s got to be pretty low intensity lighting, right? Thank you!

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Hi Mark, thanks for watching. 1. Good batteries should last hours if fully charged and you're not shooting in live view. I've never needed to switch one over, so I wouldn't worry about this. 2. You would only need to light paint the foreground in one image, then in post processing you can combine your star trailed sky with your foreground painted image. Hope that makes sense. Thanks, James

@markmuller3086 4 года назад

James Brew , thanks!!

@DaBigBootyHop69 4 года назад

Hi James, can you explain how you copy all of the image adjustments in lightroom to the remaining imported images? Also I am shooting a Rebel T6i, do you think the sensor on this camera is capable of capturing with enough detail? How much improvement would I get from upgrading to a fullframe camera? and if so, do you have a canon that you would recommend?

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Hi, in lightroom you can copy settings and paste them to other images. Simply select all the images - I think holding down control is a shortcut for doing that and then paste to all selected images. The camera you have looks perfectly capable of getting these kind of images. A full frame camera is better in low light conditions but I wouldn't bother upgrading solely for this purpose. If your happy with your camera, stick with it, you can certainly shoot star trails with it. Hope that helps. Cheers, James

@rohitnaval5589 4 года назад

I have the D850 and a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 manual focus. I assume the Samyang lens you used is the same product. Is the infinity focus setting on these lenses accurate or did you have to adjust it? I just set it to the furthest point on the infinity setting and it seems to be fine but wanted to get your take on this.

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Yeah same lens I think. The infinity marker is not accurate at all. I would recommend conducting tests to find sharpest position on yours 👍

@rohitnaval5589 4 года назад

Would you have a look at my shot? The results I’m getting on my first star trail photo is quite different from yours, how can I forward you a copy?

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

@@rohitnaval5589 Easiest way would be for you to upload it somewhere then send me a link to it 🙂

@tobyjugg6202 4 года назад

Hi, quick question in the hope you see this - as a beginner to lightroom, I am not sure how to copy changes made to the first image to all the others before exporting them into another program. I have used Equator, but will have a go with the one you recommend. Any help gratefully received. I live on Anglesey, so the lighthouse I use faces the IOM !! :) Would be ironic if we are all kind of facing each other over some distance taking similar images on similar nights.

@JamesBrewphoto 4 года назад

Hi Toby, select the image where changes have been made in the develop module in lightroom. Hit copy in bottom left, then select the image or images you want to paste to, and hit paste. Thanks for watching and good luck with your shooting 👍

@tobyjugg6202 4 года назад

@@JamesBrewphoto Thanks for that James, much appreciated. Once these damn clouds clear from Anglesey I will be out at Puffin Island giving it a go :)

@farzinhedayat4614 4 года назад

Hej i love your videos and teaching, in this video you used a program to make star trail, wich progran did you used, what is the name of this program,? i use lightroom /lightroom clacic , can i instal that program? and how ? sory for my bad language :-) thanks alot

@JamesBrewphoto 3 года назад

Thanks! I used Star Stax for startrails - it is free software. Give it a try 👍

@farzinhedayat4614 3 года назад

@@JamesBrewphoto thanks a lot

@victorbloom8286 3 года назад

In the Southern Hemisphere use the Southern Cross

@thomas6895 2 года назад

Hi James, thanks for the video. How do you go about removing aircraft from the scene? Thanks!

@JamesBrewphoto 2 года назад

Thanks Thomas - content aware fill in photoshop :-)

@thomas6895 2 года назад

@@JamesBrewphoto Thank you! Is that on the individual exposures or the final StarStax image?

@JamesBrewphoto 2 года назад

@@thomas6895 either, probably best to do on individual images prior to stacking though

@thomas6895 2 года назад

@@JamesBrewphoto Okay great, thanks for your help!

@thomas6895 2 года назад

@@JamesBrewphoto Hi again James, another question, how do you expose to well for the foreground subjects? Are these taken in blue hour? Thanks!

@grahamcrook1559 6 лет назад

Hi James. Interesting video. How do you recommend focussing when you want to do a star trail. Was your focus on the lighthouse or the stars? And do you use live view to focus?

@JamesBrewphoto 6 лет назад

Graham Crook thanks! For this I was focused at infinity. The lighthouse was sufficiently far from me that it was sharp. Any closer and I would have needed to take two images at different focus points. I know exactly where infinity is on the lens thankfully