Meteor shower 2014 - How to take star trail photography

Once again guys thanks for visiting my ungky dugly random blog of a expat living in dubai. The time was passing by and the meteor shower of the decade came at last. We - I mean a group of like minded photographic enthusiast went on a Trip to Kalba desert for capturing the guest who are visiting once in a decade.

We set up our camera and kept clicking. finally around the midnight few meteors showed up but didn't meet our expectations. I kept my camera in time interval shooting mode after focusing it around the north pole. Expecting that the meteor shower may happen in that direction.

Unfortunately the meteor shower didn't caught up in ny shot of the camera. But I managed to make a star trail photography. Anyway that did payoff the efforts I guess. :) cheers.

How to do a star trail photography.

Step : 1 - Scout the area the day before.

You are probably going to take a star trail in the middle of night where there is no absolute no light around. The light pollution from the city scape building and street light create light pollution and you will not be able to take any good picture. The light from the surrounding will be scattered all over the atmosphere. You will not get any stars. So scout the area in a day time. understand the good position for you so that in the night you will not be taking much time to get settle down.

Before picking the day for the star trail, go through the weather reports. Sky should be cool with no clouds. There should not be moonlight because it will scatter all the sky and you will be able to spot a single star.
Less dust pollution and dry windy air are the best time to go.

Step : 2 - Gather your gears.

a) DSLR
b) Wide angle lens - 18 mm will do fine. Lesser the better area you can cover.
c) Tripod. - A good one. Without and loose ends.
d) Shutter release cable / remote
e) Additional battery - if needed.
f) A flashlight - small one will do fine

other things you can take along with you is
a) Picnic chair
b) Snaks & Drinks

Step : 3- Set up your camera

Make sure the tripod is fixed firmly on the ground. If it moves you entire night could get spoiled. Connect your camera and select the camera in manual mode. Put the focal length on the minimum and put the focus point at infinity/ near infinity. Please note that certain lens can go even beyond infinity also. Just make sure by taking some sample shot and zoom in to see the star and clear cut pixelated and not blurred.

Normal setting i do for star trail is

ISO : 800/1600
Shutter speed : 30 sec
Aperture : less than f4.5

Once you set the focus of the lens. Connect the shutter release cable if needed.

Step 4 : Start Clicking

If you have time interval shooting mode available. You can enable that mode. The you don't have to keep clicking all the time. The camera will take the picture and you can continue relaxing with your snacks or talk.

Step 5: Composing the images in photoshop

The ultimate aim is to get a series of continues images. Like 100 or 200 images without changing the position of the camera from the tripod. Once we collect all these pictures from your camera in your computer, we will have to do stacking procedures in photoshop.

Open photoshop. Click File - Scripts - load files into stack.

It will open a window named load layers. Click Browse and Select all the images and press OK
It will take some time to process all the images into layers.

Once it is loaded. you have goto the layers menu and convert each layer to lighten mode. as shown below. You have to convert each and every layers.

then you will see the image like a star trails. Once 'lighten' is done to all layers. right click the layers and click flatten image.

This will create a single image which shows all the trails together. 

Now you can adjust contrast, brightness, hue, saturation, curves etc. as you like. This will be our final image. 

And that s how we do post processing in star trails photography. 

Please add you comments. Share or suggest modifications. Thank you for your time. 

If you would like to have a look at my photography blog please go to http://shafisgraphics.blogspot.com 

Stove is hot and am gonna sit.

Indian national congress failed to understand the fact that the stove is hot. My understanding is that people of India gave a reply to the Congress govt that they don't need them anymore. Reason is very simple. They dared to put their hand in the kitchen. the price of LPG went 4 times higher with in 10 years, regardless the fact the profit share of these petroleum companies in india is sky high.

Its literally a shame. But in my state the minority supports the congress and because of this reason the congress still hold 12 seats of 20.

The policies of the BJP government is soo cool to hear. The reforms that they planning and the Modification they talking is awesome. I think even the Uncle sam and team even worried about the reforms which Mr. Narendra modi is going to make. I doubt the who is going to be the ultimate beneficiary. Definitely he is uneducated. Cant even face an interview unless it is pre planned and pre recorded. I wonder where in the world am I live in. Can this country afford an educated realistic people.

The media hipe created a wave and thus proven the media efficiency in India. Congress some how failed even there also. The man who against the both party, Mr Aravind Kejriwal is imprisoned with in one week after election ! This is getting real secular. This means what my dear fellow indian? Dont you dare open your mouth ever. Keep it shut.

The amount of money where BJP invested in online media is remarkable. The search queries were changed in few days. All the negative news were tumbled. The links which were popular and listed in the top before one months was like all the negative news against Modi. With is a fortnight the SEO optimisation and viral links proved that the algorithms which google used in the or search engines need to be reviewed.

My concern is about the foreign currency and exchange rate. Will that be effected?

According my opinion the market index which is going high for the past few weeks is just a speculation. The sail out is expected to happen once it reaches the 4 years highest point.

Does the new government impose income tax for foreign investments?
I guess and would like to give an No for this question. Why ? the reason is simple. Majority of the politicians and balck money are invested in foreign countries as real estate and mutual fund bonds. If they want to white money out of black money. the only option is foreign exchange Introducing taxation to these will bring problem for them and at the same time to compensate people will start smuggling. In other words again problem.

How the gold rate going to be affected ?
India is a gold consumer country. Definitely it will be maintained by the foreign market.

Will there be any reduction in the price of fuels?
Ambani brothers will have to make a call on this question.

Now i would like to show you one picture which our future prime minister sitting with number one fraud in India. I don't own this picture. But I can't resist sharing this. Guess what my dear friends ...start your pray. Because this is the future of India.

Graphics - A New initiative

Guys I would like to introduce you my new photoblog http://shafisgraphics.blogspot.ae/.  Its a new initiative started just out of curiosity and keen interest in the subject of Art, in the sense of photography.

This blog will be contributing some clicks to the blogger world. If you find anything useful let me know i will be glad to have a back link for the usage. If you are looking for something special creative ideas. You are welcome to share the Ideas.

Probably i will be sharing some cool tricks and tips of digital photography too.

And oh by default the learning of photography started with a basic entry level DSLR canon 1100 D and now I carry a Nikkon D5300. I have a 18-55 mm kit lense and a 70 - 200 zoom lense. three speedlights ad a remote trigger. A home made umbrella as a flash diffuser and a use the sun glare reflector of my car during the sunny days. And of course a cheap tripod and carry bags and extra batteries. A flash light too.