Never paid attention to star trails until I saw someone's 6-hour composite

I always thought star trail photos looked kinda boring, just circles of light. But then I saw a post where this guy stacked 360 frames from a single night in Yosemite, and the detail in the foreground trees against the curved stars was unreal. Made me want to try it myself, anyone else been surprised by a technique they dismissed before?

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the_zara4mo ago

And @margaret_nelson is totally right, the foreground blending is where the work really is.

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margaret_nelson4mo ago

Gotta disagree with you there. The first time I saw a well done star trail shot I was bored too, but then I tried stacking 200 frames with my entry level Nikon and realized how much work goes into making the foreground pop. Most people just slap a long exposure on a tripod and call it done, but the real magic is in the composition and blending of exposures. That's what separates a messy blur from something that actually looks intentional.

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