By ANDY BENTLEY | 2024-08-16
Aurora stack merged with partial Star Trails from the same batch of images
On 08/12/2024 11:29 pm by John Scarrott| Jersey, Channel Islands
This is from my back window at Beaumont, Jersey, Channel Islands.
This location is at 49.14 degrees, close to France, so quite a powerful Aurora to have moving lights far down.
Canon R3
Canon RF15-35 2.8L
20 second exposure.
ISO1600
F2.8
24mm
Step one: Adjust the images. I took them at 3700k as this is said to be good for Aurora, but I found this too blue so adjusted up to 4400k. I then adjusted the brightness levels to how I liked it. I turned down orange and yellow as the roof tiles were too bright and distracting from the Aurora and sky.
Step two: The Aurora was moving around and also moving from left to right as a whole, so using Sequator I stacked enough Aurora frames to show the complete width of the display.
Step three I used the same batch of images to create partial Star Trails using a masked area in Sequator.
Step four: I merged the two images using Cyberlink PhotoDirector, such that both images combined (no fading of either image).