Startrails (everything's in it!)

[kevin99989]

Another attempt at startrails - same location as I tried before. This one is a vertical panorama, plus the star trails, incorporating reflections of the city lights as well as (almost, but not quite!) the north star.

[Iguanasan]

Lookin' cool, Kevin. I may have to try this some day.

D'oh! Just realized this is in the critique forum...

I really like most of it but the symmetry is ruined by the plane going across the bottom half of the arc. Also, the cityscape seems too bright. I still like it!

[Matt K.]

I like the reflection as well ... tricky to do, for sure. But what is the dotted line in the image? Can't figure that one out ....

[Lovin]

OMG, before visiting the forum again to check new posts, I was reading about star trails photography, because I want to give it a try tomorrow night, when my friends will camp at Alice Lake.

About the image, I like it too, but in my opinion the city lights doesn't match with this star trails photography. I mean the star trails should be "the star" of this image.
The star trails are very nice though.

[kevin99989]

Thanks for your feedback. I see it - there's that plane again going through the photo.

And I could probably prevent the city lights from being so overexposed if I used 186 15-second exposures instead of 93 30-second exposures. Also I wanted to try doing star trails against a cityscape - just to be different, as a lot of star trail images are shot away from city lights, making it somewhat easier to expose...

Thanks again!!!

[thoughton]

The stars themselves are fantastic, and I don't mind the plane trail at all.

I think what lets the photo down is the softness of the buildings, and that dark triangle of water in the bottom right. Shame the star trails don't get reflected! It might not be your thing, but personally I would be tempted to employ some digital trickery and put a slightly-blurry star trail reflection in