What's new
L-MOUNT Forum

Register a free account now!

If you are registered, you get access to the members only section, can participate in the buy & sell second hand forum and last but not least you can reserve your preferred username before someone else takes it.

Circumpolar star trails using Live View Composite

xaviergut

xaviergut

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2023
Messages
1,401
I took this photo right on the night after the eclipse on August 12th. It happened to coincide with the night of the shooting stars caused by the Perseids, and while I was looking up how to photograph shooting stars, I came across a tutorial on how to take a circumpolar (star trail) photo. At that moment, I realized there's a Stupa facing north, and its peak is almost perfectly aligned with the Polaris (the North Star).

_1012172B.jpg


Here you can see the Big Dipper on the left side of the photo, Cassiopeia on the right, and the North Star right in the middle. So, I started doing some tests with the Lumix S5IIX and the Lumix 14-28mm lens, which is the widest wide angle lens I have.

I wanted the Stupa to be in focus in the foreground as well as the stars, so I had to use manual focus and follow PhotoPills' recommendation for hyperfocal distance with a 14mm lens at f/4. The calculated distance was 1.66 meters, meaning that if I stood further than that from the Stupa, both it and the stars would be sharp. I verified this using focus peaking and screen magnification, and I even connected an Atomos Shinobi monitor via HDMI to double-check the focus more clearly.

The next challenge was getting the right exposure. According to PhotoPills, the ideal settings were a 25-second exposure at f/4 and ISO 3200, but I quickly realized the photo was going to be overexposed.

_1001390B.jpg



Those light trails are caused by my smartphone flashlight, since I had to light up the Stupa a bit for it to show up on Live View Composite.

_1001391B.jpg


(to be continued)
 
After that, I started my first serious attempt, and this was the result:

_1001392B.jpg


Well, it wasn't too bad, but I noticed that the wind picking up that night was going to cause problems. I had the camera mounted on a stable Manfrotto mini-tripod, but it was resting on a rather unstable metal garden table, which made the star trails come out uneven.

So I went to get a much sturdier tripod—a Manfrotto 055 Pro—set the camera to 15 seconds at ISO 1600, and let it take 240 15-second shots over the course of an hour. Here is the final result:

55481328232_60b0fb61b4_b.jpg
Circumpolar with Stupa by XAVIER GUTierrez, on Flickr

@ ƒ/4.0 - 14.0 mm - 15 seconds - ISO 1600

I think we Lumix users have a huge advantage over other camera brands (except OM System, I believe) thanks to the Live View Composite feature, simply because we don't have to stitch all the images together in post-production software. I don't want to bother Canon, Sony, Nikon, and Fujifilm users, but I think that they don't really have a direct equivalent for this. I really enjoyed using this feature and seeing how slowly but surely the image takes shape into a circumpolar photo. It is my first star trail photo and I did not know that the stars have so much color... :oops:

But I am happy, I must say. For example, besides the airplanes and satellites, note the beautiful Perseid meteor that appears on the right of the Stupa... I am already thinking about getting the Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero distorsion to make bigger photos of the night sky like this... Z04 Flucht
 
Well done! Nicely composed with the spire pointing up at the north star. And I agree, LVC is one of the benefits of the LUMIX lineup. Back when I had my S1R, I chose an S5 over and S1 for astro because of LVC.

It’s also great for lightning storms!
 
P1268538r.jpg
  • Panasonic DC-S5M2
  • ƒ/8
  • 16mm
  • 5/1s
  • ISO 2500

Monument to the Conquerors of Space (1964), Moscow
"And our efforts are rewarded by this,
That, having overcome injustice and darkness,
We forged fiery wings
For our country and our age!"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top