Star Trails Photo Editing (Start to Finish)
About This Edit
This star trail image was created from 65 RAW files, including 64 images captured in sequence for the star trails and a separate light-painted exposure for the barn and foreground. In this start-to-finish edit, I walk through my complete Lightroom and Photoshop workflow for turning those original RAW files into the finished image.
The process begins with basic RAW adjustments in Lightroom before the images are loaded into Photoshop and combined to create the star trails. From there, I select the tapered star trail direction that works best for the composition, use luminosity masking to isolate the stars, refine the color and contrast of the sky, and blend in the separate foreground exposure.
Once the sky and foreground are combined, I work through dodging and burning to balance exposure, midtone contrast adjustments, cropping, color refinement, cleanup, and other finishing touches. The final steps include preparing the image for web output, adding subtle glow and sharpening, and converting the finished image to the appropriate size and color space for online use.
Watch the Full Edit
Key Editing Takeaways
The star trails were created from 64 RAW images captured in sequence, with a separate light-painted RAW file used for the barn and foreground.
Lightroom was used for the initial RAW adjustments and lens corrections before the files were brought into Photoshop for the heavy lifting.
Different star trail outputs were created, including standard and tapered trails, allowing the direction of the trails to be chosen based on the composition.
Luminosity masking helped isolate the stars while reducing unwanted texture and banding in the surrounding sky.
A separate foreground exposure was blended into the image and refined with dodging and burning to balance the light painting.
Curves adjustments were used throughout the edit to refine contrast and color in both the sky and foreground.
Glow and output sharpening were added after resizing the finished image for the web.
Photoshop Actions Used
I used several of my custom Photoshop Actions throughout this edit to automate and simplify parts of the workflow, including creating the star trails, noise reduction, luminosity masks, auto curves, dodge and burn layers, glow, sharpening, and other adjustments.
The Star Trails actions can automatically create multiple star trail variations from a sequence of images, including standard trails, tapered trails in both directions, and a noise-reduced composite.
