To learn more about Star Trails, check out my new Star Trails Course on howtube:
https://www.howtube.com/series/JOx736sk

In this video I'll show you how to create a beautiful star trails timelapse video. You will need StarStaX for this workflow, which you can download using the link below.

https://markus-enzweiler.de/software/...

We'll start off editing the RAW photos in Adobe Bridge + Camera RAW. Be sure to fix the exposure, white balance, contrast, and saturation. Also, head to the Detail tab and lower the "Sharpening" slider to 0. You may also want to increase the "Noise Reduction" slider to around 10 -20.

After you've made your edits, save the RAWs as JPEGS in a new folder. Next, use StarStaX to create a demo star trails image. This will show off any problems with your edits. If the final star trails image doesn't look good, you can always go back and re-edit your RAW photos again. If the star trails image looks good though, besides the planes, you can continue on.

We'll head to Photoshop next and begin removing any planes or distracting lights from every single photo. This is optional, but highly recommended. Consider this - every light will be burned into the final video. Therefore, if a plane flies through the image within the first few photos, it will be there for the rest of the timelapse.

After all the plane trails have been removed from the individual JPEG photos, you can head back to StarStaX. Run through the processing again, this time using "Save After Each Step" option. We'll use these JPEGS to create the final video.

Finally, go back to Photoshop and click File - Open. Click on the first photo in the StarStaX folder, then click the "Open Image Sequence" button. Now click "Open" and Photoshop will take all of those photos and convert them to a video file. I recommend 24 FPS.

Feel free to add any Adjustment Layers you want to the video. I'd recommend a Curves, Vibrance, and a few Selective Colors.


00:00 - Intro
01:04 - Camera RAW Processing
08:04 - Test Photos for Problems
10:13 - Remove Planes and Lights
14:38 - Use StarStaX to Create Timelapse Photos
16:36 - Fix remaining problems
19:42 - Create Timelapse Video
25:58 - Outro