Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I had been hoping to shoot this interesting tree with stars in the sky but the two wide-angle lenses I had (now replaced) rendered stars with odd shapes in the corners. But when there was a calm clear night I decided to try star trails, where the distorted shapes are not a factor. I set up the camera and a timer delay to start it after dark and after the moon was up. An almost-full moon rose at 6:30. Sunset was at 7:30 and I started shooting at about 9 pm. I set 3 minute exposures and let it run until the battery died – 5.5 hours. In order to get round trails I had to aim the lens so the center of rotation of the sky (the north celestial pole) was centered in the lens. (You can see the short trail made by Polaris near the middle of the frame, which shows its offset from the NCP.)
Then I opened the exposures as layers in PS and put them in Lighten blend mode. That allowed the shadows from the moon to be softened as it changed frame to frame. There was enough air movement to blur the tree a little. Moonlight is reflected light from the sun and has the same spectrum, so it renders the same blue sky as sunlight.
Specific Feedback
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Details covered above. Not much done in LR. Slight crop for composition. Some airplane trails cloned out.