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You Can Shoot Star Trails Under a Full Moon

Many photographers think of star photography as being something which must be done under a dark, moonless sky, but the brightest stars show up even on full moon nights, and with more moonlight you have the benefit of ample light on your foreground subjects.  Here's a write-up on my blog of how I processed this Yosemite Falls star trails photo for the October 2011 cover of Outdoor Photographer magazine:

How To Take Star Trails Photos
http://activesole.blogspot.com/search?q=star+trails

There are also a lot of theories circulating regarding the "best" exposure time to use… 30 seconds, 4 minutes, 8-10 minutes, or even simply leaving your shutter open for 60 to 120 minutes or longer.  Really long exposures work fine if you don't have an f/2.8 or faster lens or if you have a "crop sensor" camera without good high ISO performance, but long exposure noise and "hot pixels" from your sensor overheating can become an issue.  I like letting my sensor rest for one second every 30 seconds, and if the results are good enough for Outdoor Photographer and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (http://tinyurl.com/startrailsJS), that's good enough for me!

Anyone can announce a workshop, but are tehy actually a full time photographer? Ask for publishing credits.

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Jeff Sullivan

Jeff Sullivan leads landscape photography workshops in national parks and public lands throughout California and the American West.

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