Zoom makes the Big bang of the universe

The clean winter Sky provides the best conditions for star-rail filming, as the stars in the sky are brighter than at any other time of the year.

But if you're still thinking about using a traditional long exposure to catch a star track, then it's too out!

Now it's time to try some of the more challenging ways, like this stunning exploding star-rail photograph taken by Lincoln Harrison.

Of course, the process of this photo is also used in Photoshop, but the main effect still comes from the camera itself--that is, when the sky exposure, the lens zoom to do. Although our description here is simple, the fact that we have produced such amazing results is due to some of the techniques that are described below. "The final photo is made up of 4 to 5 images of exploding zoom, aiming at different parts of the sky (to get more tracks than a single shot) and then combining them with the ' brighten ' layer blending mode in Photoshop," says Lincoln. Then adjust the contrast to better mix the background layer with the foreground layer. ”

The "lighten" layer blending mode is the key to this step, and we can understand its effect by using the following illustration:

1 Create 2 new layers in PS and draw a circle on each layer respectively. In normal layer overlay mode, the following circle is not visible. It's like we put two stars in a photo file directly.

2 Select the layer blending mode to "brighten", you will find the following circle through, but the other parts of the screen did not change. Because of this layer blending mode, only the bright part in the top layer is superimposed.

Therefore, when more than one star photo of the layer superimposed, choose "Light" mode, you can keep the stars in the sky brightness, and into the track, and the Dark night sky does not affect the final picture.

But in the early stages, this kind of photo creates an appropriate zoom explosion that needs to be more precise than a normal one, and Lincoln tells us: "I set the shutter speed to 30 seconds, and then I left the lens slightly off before I could start the exposure." After about 5 seconds, I started to rotate the ring (from the long focal lengths to the wide angle), and I also tuned the lens to the clear focus. The previous slight defocus can make the star rail end appear larger, the entire picture of the star rail will also appear more dense. And this can give people the visual effects of stars coming out of the center of the photo. ”

"The biggest challenge in shooting is to keep the camera stable, I use the Czech 3 series (Gitzo 3) tripod, although it is very stable and reliable, but the actual shooting still has a great risk of failure." Getting the right focus and reasonable zoom speed is also a tricky problem. I usually repeat the same steps about 50 times, and finally get 4 or 5 successful results. ”

Shooting Tips

★ Ensure that the camera's battery is adequate, it is best to carry a sufficient backup battery; Cold temperatures and the constant use of a camera LCD screen will quickly deplete the battery.

★ Select the manual exposure mode and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds. Adjust the ISO and aperture to achieve brighter or darker effects.

★ If the zoom trajectory is not straight, it is likely that the tripod is not stable enough. Check to see if the tripod foot tube is fastened at the same time, avoid too much force when zooming.

In addition to this creative shooting, Lincoln Harrison is also adept at bringing the traditional star-rail photography to different places, let's enjoy the following:

Category:

• PS Getting Started Tutorial