Shoot a star trail

Dan Mold shows you how to take amazing astro images

- Dan Mold

Astro photography is a fantastic way of taking photographs that are well and truly, out of this world!

Excuse the terrible pun, but star pictures have the ability to instil a sense of awe and wonder in your viewers, and this month we’re going to look at how to create amazing star trails, where the moving stars appear to spin through the sky with a pin-sharp foreground.

The secret is to set up on a tripod and take multiple shots, each 30 seconds long, this will record the rotation of the earth, therefore blurring the stars into long lines. You’ll then stack all of your pictures together in software to create an even longer trail, accentuating the effect.

We left our Canon EOS Ra running for 45 minutes, taking 87 exposures, each 30 seconds long, and stacked them in Photoshop to create our final image here. Read on to see the kit you need, how to set up and edit it together.

GET SET UP TO CAPTURE STAR TRAILS

Make the most of photography essentials to take striking astro images

01 CAMERA & LENS

Any Canon DSLR, or mirrorless camera, will work for this technique. What’s more important is using a wide-angle lens to fit in some foreground and the stars above – go for a wide maximum aperture, like f/2.8, to let more light into the sensor.

02 SHUTTER RELEASE CABLE

This essential photography accessory costs just a few pounds, so everyone should own one. They allow you to fire the shutter remotely, removing any chance of camera shake when pressing the shutter button while shooting long exposures.