Saguaro Star Trails

I've always been a fan of star trail images. You did a good job with stacking them and the noise is reasonable in the larger version. My only suggestion would have been to shoot lower and up at the saguaro. The brush sticking up from the bottom of the frame feels intrusive for my taste. Also, the cacti and foreground elements are just a tad soft, nothing that would detract from this scene. I know how difficult it is to focus in the dark. It looks like you were almost at the sweet spot for focus though.

Tonia,

Sure seems like an awful amount of work - how about a 2hr single exposure? Really though, this came out quite well. I can understand the softness of the brush at the bottom, that doesn't bother me; kind of expected with such a "long" exposure. I do think you have some leeway in contrast, color and saturation - meaning you could boost them all and still keep this within the realm of a normal star trail image. Nice saguaro and I like the condensed, narrow field of view for the stars.

thanks for posting and btw, this fits just fine here.

Lon

The saguaro and the trails make for a neat image. I like the warmth in the sky. This makes it a little different. While I know it's a star trail, I might be inclined to clone out that bright light in the saguaro's armpit.

Certainly worth all your hard work Tonia, the final image looks great.

Gary.

Thanks everyone for your ideas! These can be a lot of work, shooting on Velvia is so much more simple! I tried to leave just a small amount of the foreground bushes in to 'anchor' the image, but I realize they are not tack sharp. I find myself needing an ultra wide angle lens since the D5100 has the crop factor, but I will definately play around with some different comps in the future.