Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

Star Trails

Look up on a clear night and you can see that the

night sky is filled with thousands of points of light.

All those stars up in the night sky make for a great

photo, especially when you use a technique to cre-

ate star trails. Star trails are created by leaving the

shutter open long enough for the rotation of the

earth to create light trails from each star. The key

here is to have a nice clear night to capture the

stars, and something in the foreground to keep the

image grounded. In Figure 7-18, the stars’ light

trails are easily seen and the reflection of the sky

in the water and the big rocks in the background

help to keep the image grounded.

8. Select the movie type and options, including
   changing image size from the export menu.


9. Click save to have QuickTime render
   the movie.

I recommend working on smaller movies and
experimenting with the frame rates and other
settings before trying a very long movie where
you have a lot of time invested. You can see one
frame from the final sunset movie as it is playing
on my computer screen in Figure 7-17.

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

The Render Video dialog box in

Photoshop CS5.

7-16

You can see the actual

time-lapse movies at http://www.alanhess

photography.com.

note