Star Trails

This winter will find Natchez photographer Keith Benoist spending hours of his time gazing up at the night sky. Close at hand: his camera, clicking merrily along.

Benoist is after star trails, those gloriously surreal frames of astral streaks spanning the night sky, and he’s not miserly about sharing tips of the trade. “No one’s ever going to take the same pictures that you’re going to take.”

A list of materials you’ll need before you embark: DSLR camera; wide-angle lens (though a 50 mm will work too); tripod or other stable platform; locking cable release; patience.

Benoist’s first and oft-repeated instruction is this: Do not move your camera. Pointing your lens up toward the sky (the more skyward, the better), your goal is to smoothly “catch a falling star,” as it were. That means no jostling the camera, no delay between shots, and no wiping down a befogged lens.

Once in position, Benoist snaps thirty-second exposures—hundreds of them, in fact—and uses photo editing software to stack them together into one resulting image. “With a longer exposure, you’ll get lots of light infiltration from any kind of groundlight. And a lot of noise too.”

The locking cable release allows Benoist’s camera to cycle through one hundred exposures at a time, keeping the images consistent and sequential. He configures his camera to operate as manually as possible, setting an ISO of 400 or 500 and an aperture of 2.8 or lower. He disables any noise reduction settings, claiming that they ultimately create more noise.

He recommends a wintry shoot for the cold, dry air—humidity and the lens don’t mix well—and longer nights. Lighting the shoot can be tricky too. “It’s all trial and error,” said Benoist, who typically uses reliable flashlights to illuminate objects in the foreground for three or four consecutive frames. Oft-prized natural light presents a challenge for astrophotographers. “The moon can be your friend,” explained Benoist. “Or it can be a real bugaboo. You can’t turn it off when you’re done using it.”

Here’s your best bet: Choose a brisk evening. Arrive early to your location to plant your camera and secure the tripod with rope or another stabilizing force. Tilt your camera skyward, a field soon to be dotted with stars, and manually focus on your chosen foreground object (jagged trees, historic bridges, dilapidated barns, and other countryside fixtures). Dial down your exposure and set up your cable release to lock the shutter open. Once the moon has shied away and the stars have come alive, start shooting.

And if it doesn’t work out this time? Not to worry, said Benoist, you’ll be itching to try again.