#Startrail software software

So you need an interval timer or intervalometer. You can do each exposure manually with a remote release allowing a few seconds between each shot but realistically given the cool evenings this might not be practical or comfortable. On the right, 360 exposures merged into one, thanks to Star trails freeware.Ī tripod is essential, so too is a torch to help you set up. On the left, a single 30 second exposure. You can appreciate that this took over three hours, so the first thing is to find a spot where you are prepared to babysit the camera so it does not get nicked, or use your garden. The final shot here is made up of 360 individual exposures each lasting 30 seconds with a four second gap between each one.

#Startrail software software

The Startrails software took about an hour to process my shots. It is possible to do make a composite manually, using Layer Blend modes (Lighten) but it is obviously time-consuming.

A very short tutorial on this software is featured at the bottom of this page. The software I used is freeware and downloadable from and is Windows only. This technique means just shooting at relatively short exposures but shooting lots of them and then using software, effectively, to join up the dots, ie the stars. The problem with the technique is that a very long exposure gives issues with light pollution, stuck pixels and noise. That particular technique meant keeping the camera shutter open on B (Bulb) for a very long period, so that stars would register as lines of light. We discussed photographing star trails last month.