Star Trails With Black & White Film
Photographing star trails is something I have long wanted to get into but for whatever reason I have never found the time. I suppose a global pandemic is really good at motivating a person to do the things they always said they would do, especially when such things involve social distancing and being on your own.
So what we have here is my very first attempt at photographing star trails. Honestly I think it is just ok and I know I can do better with some very simple fixes. First, I’m not sure Ilford HP5 is the best film choice for this. It obviously worked, and the exposure latitude of Ilford HP5 is of course a plus when it comes to long exposures, but I don’t like the obvious visible grain here. I think for my next attempt I’m going to pick up some Fuji Across as I know that particular film is great with long exposures and has a much finer grain structure.
Second, I want to do much longer exposures. This image was exposed for only one hour. I had intended to go much longer but while I was sitting out in an empty field in total darkness I heard some coyotes very close by and I got a little freaked out and left. In retrospect I feel a little dumb for that, but at the time I managed to psych myself out, packed up the camera, and high tailed it home. In the future I just need to stick it out for several hours.
To expose this image I put the Hasselblad 500cm on a tripod, set the focus to infinity and the f/stop to 8. Shutter was on the bulb setting of course and I used a basic cable release to open up the camera and let it expose the film. One hour was clearly enough to get an exposure but the negative is a bit on the thin side and the star trail effect not quite as epic as I want in the future.
Camera: Hasselblad 500c/m with 50mm f/4 lens.
Film: Ilford HP5 in medium format. Developed in Rodinal at 1:100 stand developed for one hour.
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