15mm, 2.8, ISO 200, 52 minute exposure, no moon, converted to Black and White with Silver Efex Pro (blue filter), and sharpened. The color version has a funky yellow cast that has nothng to do with WB. It may have something to do with the yellow ground cover from the fallen aspen leaves. This one is my first take.
There's not a better place than Kebler Pass, to shoot towering aspen trees. When studying the shot from my site, I couldn't believe the north star was in the perfect place for a spinning star cycle that would bend from the top left corner of my lens to the top right corner. I lucked out.
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on October 4, 2010 at 7:07 PM
I like this a lot. Well done.
Posted by Erik Aagaard on October 4, 2010 at 7:11 PM
Wow, that is different. Nice!
Posted by Jody Grigg on October 4, 2010 at 7:19 PM
Sweet! I am jealous.
Posted by John Mumaw on October 4, 2010 at 7:23 PM
This really is cool! Totally works in b&w, too.
Did you use one 52 minute exposure or several combined exposures totaling 52 minutes?
If just one, was noise a problem? Thanks for the details!
John, one exposure, in Raw. I'll have a look at noise. I'll do a crop for you and post it. From what I saw, its a pretty clean image. I shot it iso 200.
John, here's the 100% crop of the bottom left corner of my 14-24 lens. I thought I would show off the corner sharpness of this lens too. This is likely the worst area of the overall image.
It appears I may have some hot pixel action going on.
I don't use in camera NR either. I can honestly say that I did zero post NR either. Quite honestly didn't even think about it. In fact, I added a Software layer from Nik, and still didn't increase the noise. I can't say this always happens. It's something Im used to with my camera, not much noise.
Wow, Kane this is awesome and not quite like anything I've seen before. I'd probably crop the really bright trail at the bottom edge. The one at top right is a little distracting too, since it's so much more prominent than the others, but that might be pretty much impossible to fix. Hardly a deal-breaker in a great shot like this!
Posted by John Mumaw on October 4, 2010 at 7:53 PM
Thank you, Kane. The lack of noise with that long of an exposure and the edge sharpness are both remarkable. And this after using a software filter that can be quite destructive! I'm greatly impressed!!
Posted by Dan Walters on October 4, 2010 at 8:35 PM
Awesome! The BW makes it look even more dramatic!
Posted by Kurt Budde on October 4, 2010 at 9:38 PM
It's the 14-24 John, sharpness wise. That lens is absolutely remarkable, to say the least. See Marc's thread in the Gear Review forum if you're interested. I'm ditching a significant amount of Canon gear to get one and the adapter.
Very nice idea Kane. I am shocked that you don't have more noise.. even in a cool night with such a low ISO, I would expect there to be more noise from the camera sensor heating up. I'll have to try one long exposure sometime with my 2.8 lens and see how it does.
Posted by Todd Caudle on October 4, 2010 at 10:58 PM
Quite possibly the coolest star trail photo I've ever seen. Well done, Kane!
Here is my new version. I like this one a lot better. I added highlights and more shadow in Curves. I also submitted this one bigger, just for this crowd. Bigger means better...at least for a day or so.. Hope you like it!
Discussion
25 repliesThere's not a better place than Kebler Pass, to shoot towering aspen trees. When studying the shot from my site, I couldn't believe the north star was in the perfect place for a spinning star cycle that would bend from the top left corner of my lens to the top right corner. I lucked out.
http://www.kaephotography.com/photo/zodiac-aspen/
Did you use one 52 minute exposure or several combined exposures totaling 52 minutes?
If just one, was noise a problem? Thanks for the details!
It appears I may have some hot pixel action going on.
I don't use in camera NR either. I can honestly say that I did zero post NR either. Quite honestly didn't even think about it. In fact, I added a Software layer from Nik, and still didn't increase the noise. I can't say this always happens. It's something Im used to with my camera, not much noise.
http://www.kaephotography.com/photo/100-crop/
http://www.kaephotography.com/photo/test/