How did I create this night photo in the Alabama Hills, near the foothills of the Eastern Sierra? It involved star trails, light painting, long exposure and more.
Creating those star trails in the night sky
I set a Pentax K-1 and a 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 on a Feisol tripod and focused on the rock. I then let the camera fire off three shots in a row. Each of the photos was three minutes in length, with an f-stop of f/8 and an ISO of 400. Three minutes for each photo gave me plenty of time to photograph the stars as long streaks in the sky.
And it gave me lots of time to do some light painting of the rock!
Light painting
“Light painting” is often used loosely to describe any addition of light to a night photograph. Really, though, light painting is a technique that uses a handheld light source to illuminate a scene during a long exposure. Your flashlight is your paint brush, and you are quite literally painting the scene with light. Similar to a film director, you control what you illuminate and what you keep in shadow using your handheld light. Night photographers have used this technique for many decades.
Let’s see how I went about light painting this image.
Lots of walking
I created this by illuminating the left and right side of this 12-foot tall pawn-shaped rock, located in Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, CA, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains looming large. I walked to the left side first. Then, holding the ProtoMachines LED2 in my hand, I used a warm white light and “painted” the light on the rock.
I then walked over the rocks to the right sise and did the same thing on that side.
You can use any LED flashlight with high CRI and a warm white light to achieve the same results. One such light is the Wurkkos FC11, reviewed here in Photofocus.
The light painting lifts the rock from the background and creates some interesting dimensionality. It also looks unusual. If you wish, you could light paint so that it looks more natural, as if the moon is creating most of the illumination. Light painting allows you to control what you wish to highlight, after all.
Stacking the photos to create the longer star trails
Back home, I used Photoshop CC to stack the three photos. This combined the star trails to create longer trails. This is a technique adapted from astronomers to reduce noise. If you do not have Photoshop, you can use StarStaX to create star trails. It’s an effective app that is easy to use, and is made for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Creating
Creating photos like this are conceptually easy. But like anything else that’s worthwhile, it takes a bit of practice. But you’re outside in a beautiful area, and you’re creating. That’s a great way to spend your time!
Star trails might also be enjoying a resurgence in popularity, as more of our night photography workshop participants have been asking about it lately.
